Press release:
No Grid, No Problem for Sustainability Education
School of Integrated Living offers only community-based, off-grid permaculture immersion program in Eastern US
Black Mountain, NC (1/11/17) — From June 10 to Aug. 11, SOIL (School of Integrated Living) is offering the only community-based, off-grid residential permaculture program in the Eastern U.S. through its Permaculture and Ecovillage Immersion. Based out of Earthaven Ecovillage near Black Mountain, NC, this residency will challenge participants not only to develop self-reliance, but also to work with others in the construction of more resilient and ecologically conscious communities.
SOIL’s unique partnership with Earthaven provides firsthand experience with integrated sustainability practices. Immersion participants will become enmeshed in the life of the 23-year-old community as they work, learn, and live off-grid. Students will explore a curriculum that includes ecological farming, natural building, and renewable energy systems, all under the skilled mentorship of SOIL instructors and Earthaven members. By joining the web of the community themselves, participants will also examine the social dimensions of sustainability through Earthaven’s consensus-based self-governance process and alternative economics.
“This work cannot be taught as a soundbite or as an online course—it must be lived with the whole self,” says SOIL co-founder Lee Walker Warren. “At Earthaven, we are one of the few groups on Earth consciously practicing the rebuilding of sustainable human habitat. Graduates of the Permaculture and Ecovillage Immersion gain whole-life skills that deepen into embodied knowledge, which is acquired not through books and lectures but through daily experience with others who are actively living this life.”
At the end of the immersion, students will receive a Permaculture Design Certificate that matches and exceeds the standard curriculum content laid out by the Permaculture Institute of North America. Tuition for the two-month program is $6,800 and includes food, camping at Earthaven, certification fees, and all course materials. Students who register before Feb. 10 are eligible for a $400 discount.
More information about the Permaculture and Ecovillage Immersion is available at schoolofintegratedliving.org/programs/permaculture-and-ecovillage-immersion/ or from SOIL Director NikiAnne Feinberg at nikianne@schoolofintegratedliving.org.
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