Forget sustainability. For those who want to save the planet and all who inhabit it, things have gone too far to be sustained. Instead, attention should be given to regeneration through permaculture.

Permaculture, as a concept, sprouted in 1979 in Australia when Bill Mollison and David Homgren founded The Permaculture Research Institute around the idea of the conscious design and maintenance of naturally productive ecosystems that are diverse, stable and resilient.

In turn, these ecosystems provide humans ongoing food, energy, shelter and other material goods. The word itself comes from combining the two words ‘permanent’ and ‘culture’ to form permaculture. The philosophy behind it is based on working with your ecosystem, instead of trying to modify it or taking steps to artificially adapt it to suit your needs or wants.

In practice, according to Jesse Watson, principal designer at Midcoast Permaculture in Maine, it’s a landscaping or agricultural system that uses nature as its model.