Penny Livingston-Stark – Regenerative Design Institute
Penny Livingston-Stark is internationally recognized as a prominent permaculture teacher, designer, and speaker. She holds a MS in Eco-Social Regeneration and a Diploma in Permaculture Design. Penny has been studying the Hermetic Tradition of alchemy and herbal medicine making in Europe and the United States for 4 years.
Penny is co-founder and director of Regenerative Design Institute http://www.regenerativedesign.org and has been teaching permaculture and community resiliency internationally as well as working professionally in the land management, regenerative design, and permaculture development field for 30 years. She has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound design and construction as well as the use of natural non-toxic building materials. Penny specializes in design and installation of perennial agroforestry systems, biological water purification systems, site planning and the design of resource-rich landscapes integrating, rainwater collection, edible and medicinal planting, spring development, pond and water systems, habitat development and watershed restoration for homes, co-housing communities, businesses, and diverse yield perennial farms.
With her husband James Stark, and in collaboration with Commonweal — a cancer health research and retreat center — Penny co-managed and developed the beautiful Commonweal Garden, a 17-acre organic and certified salmon-safe farm in Bolinas, California for 14 years.
Penny co-created the Ecological Design Program and its curriculum at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, co-created the Permaculture Program at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center with Brock Dolman, Earth Activist Training with Starhawk and she co-founded the West Marin Grower’s Group, the West Marin Farmer’s Market, and the Community Land Trust Association of Marin. Penny has also worked with the Marin County Community Development Agency and Planning Department to develop recommendations on sustainability for updating the Community Plan.
Penny is a founding member of the Natural Building Colloquium, a national consortium of professional natural builders, creating innovations in straw bale, cob, timberframe, light clay, natural non-toxic interior finishes and other methods using natural and bio-regionally appropriate materials for construction. She served 4 years on the Marin County Building Appeals Board after being unanimously approved by the Marin County Supervisors. This has resulted in alternative construction methods like earthen construction including cob and light straw clay becoming permitable in Marin County.
She is currently launching an online 5 part Regenerative Agroforestry course.
She has been featured in the following films: Symphony of the Soil by Lily Films and Deborah Koons Garcia, 2012: A Time for Change by Joao Amorim and Daniel Pinchbeck and Permaculture: The Growing Edge by Belili Films and Starhawk.
Washington State
USA
Website: http://www.regenerativedesign.org/
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/RDIpermaculture/
https://www.facebook.com/penny.livingston.967
Workshop(s)
Workshop 1: Regenerative Agroforestry: The Power of Perpetual Perennials
In this era of unchecked global warming,deforestation and destructive industrial agricultural practices, we need to act quickly in order to regenerate ecosystem processes and ecologically feed a growing populace. Regenerative Agroforestry is a multi-faceted holistic ecosystem approach which provides fully integrated practical solutions to restoring our environment while simultaneously providing for the needs of people, wildlife, domestic animals, fungi, bacteria as well as cleaning the air, soil, water and sequestering Co2.
Workshop 2: Integrated Adaptation: A Wholistic Approach to Restoration and Resiliency
While there are many experts who specialize in specific skills and approaches to repairing the earth, restoring ecosystems and many provide important big picture, theoretical ideas that help inspire and connect us to what needs to happen in the near future, in this presentation, Penny Livingston will provide how all of these approaches are linked together and influence each other. One cannot speak about water without speaking about soil. One cannot speak about soil without speaking about animals and plant systems. One cannot speak about animals and plant systems without speaking about economy and equity. One cannot speak about economy and equity without speaking about culture, values and world view etc. All of us need to understand the wholistic impacts of our decisions regarding our practices and activities.
