Por Penny Livingston y James Stark (Español)

Gaia University Associates Penny Livingston and James Stark are the founders of the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) in Bolinas, California. RDI has hosted a Gaia U orientation for the last two years and is currently in development to become an autonomous Regional Center in October of 2010.

In the mere five years that it’s been running, RDI is has become a powerful hub of advanced Permaculture and leadership training. RDI offers hands-on experience with permaculture design, food production, animal husbandry, beekeeping, and wildcrafting, and much more. One of their main focuses is the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness (RDNA) program led by James Stark and Jon Young, which places a strong emphasis on regenerative design, cultural mentoring, community building and nature connection. RDNA will soon become a degree pathway for Gaia U Associates interested in focusing their work in these areas. Stay tuned for more information on this in the coming months.

James is also co-creator and teacher, along with Christopher Kuntzsch, of the Ecology of Leadership (EOL) training program.

“EOL is a leadership training model that looks at how people can lead from the inside out,” says James. “It involves identifying patterns that no longer serve us and doing ‘inner tracking’ work on what’s at the root of these patterns. It’s about creating an intentional design process for every aspect of our lives – our relationship to our bodies, the land, family, health, spiritual practices, etc.”

The RDI team recently received a grant from the Kalliopeia Foundation to use EOL as the basis of a nature-based peacemaking council for Bay Area urban youth. It has long been Penny’s vision to help create opportunities for urban youth to connect with the natural world as an experiential platform from which they can foster peace within their own communities. Participants will spend three days in retreat at RDI followed by five months of Ecology of Leadership training. Over fifteen organizations will be working with RDI to create this Peacemakers Council.

This past year RDI has also begun expanding its vision for sustainability and regeneration across the globe. Penny traveled to Turkey and offered a series of Permaculture workshops that were met with great enthusiasm. “People were so excited about the simple things they can do in their daily lives to soften their ecological footprint, like installing grey-water systems and bucket gardening…And what was really exciting for us was that the people who came to the trainings weren’t all from alternative communities, the way it usually is at Permaculture courses in the U.S. It was mostly people from professional backgrounds, including 6 engineers and 2 university professors.” Several local sustainability projects have formed as a result of Penny’s work and she will be returning to Turkey next year to follow up with the various communities involved.

Penny has also been collaborating in the development of Permaculture trainings in Hawaii with the Sunrise Center and the community at Hale Akua Garden Farm in Haiku, Hawai’i. Currently 95% of Hawaii’s food and energy are imported from California, despite the natural abundance of both of these resources. The RDI team hopes to work with the local Hawaiian Permaculture movement to create local food sovereignty in the coming years. They will be running a 2-week Permaculture Certification Course on the island of Maui in January that includes a special component on Hawaiian culture and agriculture.

Closer to home, RDI has been heading up an initiative for better land management and broad-acre farming methods for agricultural producers in the Salinas Valley in California. This project began after an RDI workshop on keyline design for ranchers, which drew over ninety participants from the local farming community. “A 1.6% buildup in hummus (topsoil) could bring the earths CO2 levels back down to pre-industrial levels…It’s essential that we get large-scale producers on board with practicing regenerative earth-care techniques,” says Penny.

For more information on upcoming events and trainings at RDI, visit regenerativedesign.org