September 2009
Financial Permaculture Summit-Where Environment Meets Economy

This year's Financial Permaculture Summit , subtitled "Greening a Rural American Community" will be held in Hohenwald, Tennessee from September 22nd to 26th.  For those who are not quite sure what Financial Permaculture encompasses, Jennifer English, one of the founders of the Financial Permaculture Institute (FPI), has a lot to say. “Financial Permaculture is mainly about creating localized economies,” she explains.  “It’s about finding ways of bringing all the stakeholders in a community together to share information and resources to face the economic and environmental challenges of today.”
    

The Financial Permaculture Summit creates a forum where people from business backgrounds can share their training in “economic literacy,” with people more literate in environmental issues, and vice versa. The three main themes of the summit are Permaculture, Finance, and Business.  In a time where many are worrying about the environment or the economy, it is absolutely essential to find ways of bringing these concerns together in order to create sustainable human systems.  You can register for the conference here .

    The FPI is also in the midst of developing a certification program in financial permaculture, to be launched this year.

One of the aims of this year's Financial Permaculture Summit is to facilitate exchanges that will “create resilience within communities so that they can ensure the sustainable use of local resources.”  Currently most of the money made within communities across the United States goes towards supporting the top 16% of the world.  Part of the focus of Financial Permaculture is on educating people as to where and how money is flowing and to increase the amount that can flow within communities themselves.      

Emphasis is put on shifting from economies based on exportation (of goods, labour,resources, finances) to importation and creating “cradle to cradle” economies. Gaia University founder and permaculture designer Andy Langford will be a featured speaker at the summit,among others ranging from investment advisors to attorneys.
-Please note that the Complementary Currency course that was going to be held in conjunction has unfortunately been cancelled.

    The Financial Permaculture Summit was born in 2008 from grassroots discussions to decide the “next step” after several years of successful green business initiatives within the community of Hohenwald.  Since then the group has been holding bi-monthly organizational meetings.  All of the meetings are open to the public and, as such, the summit has become a real community driven event.  Founder Jennifer English mentioned that since the initiation of the Financial Permaculture summit in 2008, there have been two to three times more people implementing green business strategies locally.

    The continued success of the Financial Permaculture Institute's efforts to bring business and environmental concerns together is also clearly reflected by the fact that Hohenwald has recently become the 25th Transition Town in the United States.  Not only that, but it is the first Transition Town to get all their local government bodies, including the chamber of commerce, to sign on to the initiative!

    One of the projects the FPI folks are working on right now is mapping out the financial ecosystems in their area.  Other local level initiatives include training in financial literacy as well as creating local green businesses and attracting green businesses to the community.  All of these will be major topics at this years summit.

    They are also developing a certified one year training in financial permaculture. They aim to launch a test run of this program this year.  The goal is for people to be able to come out of the program and become trainers and consultants themselves.  The framework will be similar to a conensed version of a Gaia University Associate program, with emphasis on implementing designs for social change locally.
The FPI also offers full BSc, MSc and post-masters graduate diplomas in Green Business.

-To find out more about these programs, follow this link .

-For more information on registration for the Summit, click here .