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1 | D i p l o m a i n A p p l i e d P e r m a c u l t u r e D e s i g n - C a t h r i n e D o l l e r i s - 2 0 1 4

Public Relation elements design

Cathrine Dolleris

Geoliv.dk

November 2014

Diploma in Applied Permaculture

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Content Aim of the project: Long term goal ................................................................................................................................................................... 3

The Problem .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

The Solution..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

How I did the design ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Ideas: PR in a permaculture perspective .......................................................................................................................................................... 4

Ethics, principles and design for writing an article or a video .......................................................................................................... 4

Ethics .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Principles of permaculture applied through writing articles ........................................................................................................ 4

Input – output analysis of writing an article ........................................................................................................................................... 6

Zoning the PR strategy ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Design of communication elements ............................................................................................................................................................. 8

Implementation.......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Examples of articles ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Examples of videos .......................................................................................................................................................................................13

Evaluation .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Monitoring ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Improvements ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 14

Reflections on the Public Relations design .................................................................................................................................................... 14

Diploma Criteria ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Photos of articles ................................................................................................................................................................................................17


Public Relation elements design

Aim of the project: Long term goal To be an effective agent in expanding and disseminating knowledge of permaculture as a means to make

regeneration of the resources of the Earth possible.

The public relations project especially supports the aims of the LAND project.

The Problem

I was using my limited savings on studying permaculture without a return.

Not enough information about permaculture in Denmark.

The Solution

To use my activities within permaculture for multiple purposes including disseminating knowledge of

permaculture while refining my knowledge and skills, as well as earning an income.

to increase my resilience by having multiple outcomes for activities

How I did the design I have been writing articles and using my photographic skills for some years. I wanted to be better at writing

good messages so I did a journalism course (September 2012) and a course on communication strategy

(September 2013).

The elements I wanted to work with within permaculture were: articles, photos and videos. Some of these

elements fit into a communication strategy for the LAND project, outlined in the design “Setting up a LAND

project in Denmark” or PR projects that I have done.

This design is about analysing how to apply permaculture ethics, principles and tools in the design of an

element of public relation, e.g. an article. I will show some of the results and reflect upon the usefulness of

using permaculture in public relations.

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual

or an organization and the public. Public relations may include an organization

or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that

do not require direct payment. The aim of public relations is to persuade the public, prospective

customers, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of

view about it, its leadership, products, or of political decisions. Common activities include working

with the press and supplying written content for news and feature articles together with arranging

interviews with expert spokespeople, speaking at conferences, winning industry awards and

internal/employee communication.

Source: wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_public

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicity


Ideas: PR in a permaculture perspective

Ethics, principles and design for writing an article or a video

Ethics

Information is obtained from work, study, travelling or other input. The information has a message of

reflecting permaculture in action, sustainable livelihoods, new technologies or something else of general

interest. Sharing this knowledge will increase fair shares. Sharing it also increases opportunity for people to

get inspired to apply permaculture and thereby care for the Earth and themselves. All practices that I write

about or make video about are screened through the ethics, i.e. will they increase earth care by reducing

energy consumption and regenerate natural resources; will they increase people care by giving people more

satisfying lives, cleaner and healthier environment to live in and comfort; will they increase fare shares by

enabling people to carry out the design of the elements themselves.

Principles of permaculture applied through writing articles

Part of permaculture is about finding sustainable solutions for needs and problems we have in our society

today. This is a theme I use often in articles “how we creatively use and respond to change”. This is for

example through writing about strawbale houses to minimise our carbon footprint. Working with nature is

also a common theme in articles about for example cultivation or composting. In fact, writing about

permaculture designs and component or people working with permaculture touches naturally upon all of

the principles depending on the story. I wouldn’t want to write the article of it didn’t contain recognition of

the principles and ethics.

Integrating functions into same activity rather than to segregate functions is part of the design of an article,

which is done by connecting activities and elements to create more resilience of the writer. In this case by

using my skills to observe, document and communicate about great permaculture activities, while learning

new ones from the projects and at the same time helping out by wwoofing and adding to the local economy

with my working there or buying a local product.

Different yields were obtained from the articles, for example:

Reflecting upon observations and experiences and drawing out patterns and details from the study

visits increased my understanding of permaculture in practice. Writing about something is a way to

highlight the learning from it and in that sense catching and storing the energy of the knowledge

embedded in the learning.

Documenting and disseminating knowledge about sustainable solutions and livelihoods for others

to get inspired by is a way to increase fair share. It is also about using the edges of knowledge, e.i.

promoting knowledge that is often regarded as marginal to the mainstream knowledge.

Creating an economic yield enabling me to cover some of the travel costs.

Getting feedback on an article serves to check my knowledge and writing skills and in turn will help

me to better self-regulate how to write and set up an article.


Each element performs multiple functions

A permaculture activity has several functions, e.g. learning about the activity, connecting with others,

providing footage for an article and cooperating around writing an article or creating a video. An article

about an activity also has different functions like being a media to disseminate knowledge about the

specific activity, raise awareness about permaculture in general, about the association, and about the

people who perform the activity. It helps to connect interested people through the media and create a

community.

Each function is supported by multiple elements

Articles are one way of communicating appealing to people who are happy to read. Photographs also tell

their story and often compliment the words. Graphs, images, drawings and mindmaps all have their

different ways of communicating. Usually illustrations in general are more readily understood than text or

they can have the function of catching the eye, making the reader curious enough to read the article.

Video is another media appealing to visual and auditory senses and can be very effective in communicating

messages. It appeals to both visual and auditory learners and in combination works stronger than

stimulating the senses separately.

The combination of different elements (articles,

photos, video) into a communication strategy for

public relations is about letting the function of

communicating a message be support by multiple

elements. Merely showing a logo can sometimes

be enough to get a message across if people know

the logo already. Sometimes a photo will do and

sometimes an article or a video explaining the

topic will be appropriate.

As an example, public relations around the LAND

project will be designed to fulfil different functions

that are part of the LAND concept: Recognition of

the LAND logo as an international brand;

recognition of quality of permaculture

demonstration; signalling learning from the land; connecting people in the LAND network; connecting

people around sustainability and a vision for the future.

Elements support each other: an article is supported by a logo or a photo and the text supports the story

told by the photo. In a communication strategy, the elements will support each other and must be carefully

designed to give a professional look, communicating the right message and be recognised by people.

Some elements are publicised digitally on the internet, the association homepage, youtube or facebook,

while other elements are printed on paper to perform different functions.

Limitations to abundance are lack of creativity

Figur 1 A good photograph can tell a story in a way no words can. Here the building team at a strawbale house building workshop at Birkegårdens Haver in Denmark.


Whilst travelling or being interested in a topic, I identify opportunities to share the knowledge obtained. I

start be asking myself how this could be interesting for others, what would they like to know about it. My

“default audience” are people with little knowledge about permaculture, but openness towards organic

growing or green building. Some articles are written to a more specific audience. The art of writing about

permaculture is about bridging worlds i.e. finding something within the permaculture practice that non-

permaculturists can relate to and expand from there.

How to get the maximum yield for minimum effort? While keeping all the relevant principles in mind as well as all three ethics, what should be the outcome of the efforts: An awesome interesting article that people will want to read and get inspiration from. Words and illustrations can be powerful conveyors of messages when delivered in the right way. Therefore, I have trained myself to find several interesting angles to a project or a study tour, using journalist skills. Some of these include:

When travelling and visiting permaculture sites, use observation skills, both sensory and

methodological.

Interact with people or nature there – give something back somehow.

Take photos and write notes to increase learning retention and memory.

Take photos to tell the story to the public.

Document facts – get numbers and names right.

Paper and printing

Often what I write about is green building and thus promoting the principle of using & valuing renewable

resources and services and using small and slow solutions.

However, it is also important that the paper and printing uses renewable resources and are as green as

possible. When choosing a printshop, I always look for certification of green practices. In Denmark we have

several and on EU and global level there are others like the CFC certification of sustainable forest

management. I also take the opportunity to visit the printshop and talk with the people who work there

about the different option of paper, print and delivery.

I have now found a good printshop with several certifications. The paper I use for brochures is “Cyclus

Offset” which is 100% recycled paper and not bleached.

Produce no waste

I have made a deal with the printshop that I recycle some of their cardboard as mulch in my garden. This is a

win-win and I am happy to pick up PR materials and getting cardboard and thereby fulfilling two functions

in one action.

Input – output analysis of writing an article

Inputs Outputs Outcomes

Activity: Dissemination of knowledge

Changing attitudes in target group towards more ethical decisions


Study tour

Project

experience

Education

Communication

strategy

Documentation of project/process/product

Supporting Long term goal 2: To be an effective agent

in expanding and disseminating education in and

knowledge of permaculture as a means to make

regeneration of the resources of the Earth possible.

Money Supporting Long term goal 3: To provide options for

increasing happiness and contentment of people and

myself within the limits of our biological resources.

On-site work Improved local economy at project

Supporting Long term goal 3

Honing old skills and improving them with permaculture thinking

Added value to article and project

Supporting Long term goal 1: To incorporate

permaculture ethics and principles into all aspects of

my life and continually refine them and integrate

them into my decision making process.

Learning new skills in relation to an activity

Obtaining a yield Supporting Long term goal 1

Zoning the PR strategy Zones: What are the zones of writing an article? Zoning by interest for permaculture:

Zone 00: My-self – benefits are that I gain more knowledge and maybe skills

Zone 0: People in my house and close family and friends – maybe into permaculture maybe not – sharing information with them benefits them in terms of knowledge and skills

Zone 1: Friends and family and people in the permaculture network – these are people who are already convinced that permaculture is great.

Zone 2: People on the edge of the permaculture network – more information will make them curious about permaculture. These people are “the lowest hanging fruits”.

Zone 3: People who have never heard of permaculture – an article or other piece of information will make a first impression. They may be part of a green organisation.

Zone 4: People who have not heard about permaculture and who are not likely to enjoy reading about something green.

Zone 5: People directly opposing anything green. Zoning by proximity:

Zone 00: My-self

Zone 0: People in my house and close family and friends – I have contact with them every day.

Zone 1: People in the community and village

Zone 2: People in the region

Zone 3: People in Denmark

Zone 4: People in Europe

Zone 5: People on Planet Earth Zoning potential readers makes it clear that writing for other permaculturalists is good and will strengthen their knowledge. These can be reached through the Permaculture Magazine and/or newsletter. However,


reaching out further, to people who are in zones 2 and 3 is a way of increasing the amount of people who knows about permaculture. The people in zone 2 can be reached through other green magazines, on green fairs and markets, in the eco-community network, on Facebook, and maybe most importantly through people who are already into permaculture. Zones 3 and 4 are a little more difficult, but could be approached through newspapers, social media and zone 5 is most difficult. Increasing zones 1 and 2 – i.e. increasing the number of people in these zones will create and accumulated effect.

“Don’t go mainstream – reach the masses!”

Design of communication elements Designing an article is done from a general pattern or template while the details make up the story itself.

The above principles and analysis make up a framework I use when I consider writing an article or doing a video. They are also used to set up a communication project with addition of an analysis of the organisational context where the communication project is going to be implemented. Important questions to answer before writing an article, filming a video or setting up a project are:

1. What is our target? What do we want to achieve through the communication?

2. Terms of the communication and stakeholders?

3. Who do we want to communicate with – target groups?

4. What do we want to communicate?

5. When do we want to communicate about it?

6. What kinds of communication do we want to use?

7. What resources do we have and do we want to use?

8. What are the success parameters? 9. Evaluation – did we reach the target? Each of the articles and videos I have created have been through the process of answering these questions.

Implementation

Having described the framework of the design of the articles and videos it was easier to get the essence of

my observations onto paper. The timing of articles is sometimes instantly: for news it is important to get

them online as soon as possible, i.e. the same day. I did this for news about the Nordic Permaculture

Festival.

Other articles and videos need more time, a lot of observation, interviews with experts, finding facts and

writing up, getting the article edited and finally printed. This could sometimes take up to a year.


Examples of articles

A number of articles have been written for different magazines in Danish. More photos of the articles are

shown at the end of this document.

”Montenegro – den økologiske stat I Europa” – Montenegro – the organic state in Europe – about the little

country’s dreams and work to become all organic. September 2011, Praktisk Økologi.

I travelled to Montenegro to visit a couple that was working with assisting the Ministry of Agriculture to

develop and implement and organic growing program for the country. Finding this story interesting and

having the chance to do an interview with the program coordinator around her vision I decided to write up

the story and have it published. I contacted the editor of Praktisk Økologi (Practical Ecology magazine) and

she wanted to use the story.

Two articles about “Montenegro as an organic state” and “Ecologist on mission in Montenegro”.

“Selvforsyning af lyst og nød” – Selfsufficency out please and need – about Ukraine and how they use their

dachas (summerhomes) to increase food security. November 2011, Praktisk Økologi.


I was teaching a PDC in Ukraine with George Sobol and wanted to write about the agricultural system in

Ukraine and how permaculture people were engaged in food production. Having a group of permaculturists

on the course it was obvious that I could write a good article. I also travelled around Ukraine and got more

inspiration from farms and museums.

Ukraine – an article about self-sufficiency, permaculture and agriculture in Ukraine.

“Permakultur fra Cornwall til Friland” – Permaculture from Cornwall to Friland – about five permaculture

sites in Cornwall and Devon. June 2012, Grøn Hverdag.

I was woofing at Keveral Farm, a LAND centre in Cornwall, and had the chance to visit four other LAND

centres or permaculture places including Landmatters, Pentiddy Farm, Trevecca LAND centre, Martin

Crawford’s forest garden and test site, and Schumacher College. The article is about permaculture practices

at the places and also talks about the inspiring places that we have in Denmark.


Permaculture from Cornwall to Friland about permaculture demonstration sites in UK and demonstraton

sites coming up in Denmark.

“Den modern saltdyrker” – The modern salat grower – about the production of microsalats and the harvest

of seasonal wild vegetables and herbs at Keveral Farm in Cornwall. November 2012, Praktisk Økologi.

The modern salat grower is a piece about filling a niche in permaculture production and making a living

from growing the organic way (some cycles should be better closed to be real permaculture and they were

working on it). It also about how easy it is to pick your own wild herbs and grow your own baby greens.

The modern salad grower article about Keveral Farm’s production of baby greens, mushrooms and more.

“Terra Preta” – Terra Preta – about how to improve decomposition of humanure with a Terra Preta mix.

Permakultur Tidsskrift, December 2012.

Inspired by the EuPC compost toilet system, I wrote this piece about how to get fertile soil and carbon

sequestration from humanure.


“LAND – Permakultur-projekter til demonstration og læring” – LAND – permaculture projects for

demonstration and learning. October 2013, Permakultur Tidsskrift.

An account of LAND centres in northern England. I was an intern at the Permaculture Association for almost

four weeks at got the chance to visit Offshoots, Edible Cities, Incredible Farm and interview the LAND

coordinator Alan Thornton. I wrote the piece to familiarize Danish permaculturists to the LAND project and

prepare the ground for a Danish LAND project.

Writing about the LAND project in UK, mentioning Offshoots, Edible Cities, Incredible Farm and the LAND

coordinator to promote LAND to permaculturists in Denmark.

“Halmhuse revisited” – Strawbale houses revisited – about the development of strawbale houses in

Denmark. July 2013, Praktisk Økologi.

I was inspired by organic builders and worked closely with Steen Møller on building a strawbale house at

work. This gave me the insights to write an article about strawbale houses in Denmark, how they have

developed, techniques used, facts to be aware of and innovative initiatives within strawbale building.


Strawbale houses revisited reporting on original style strawbale houses, hybrid houses, and facts about

strawbale houses.

Examples of videos

I ran a project around “Information @ Friland”. Friland is an eco-village in Denmark with emphasis on no

waste green building. I lived there for some time and discovered that there was a need for spreading of

their knowledge. I wanted to document some of the innovative green building techniques and make them

public. This led to the production of four videos:

Rocket stove with smoke washer (Danish with English subtitles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfw2Ec1gKYw

Green house with sewerage treatment system (Danish with English subtitles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IX-wZI6gPA

Tiny house for 2½ (Danish with English subtitles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmCt8Un7kXE

Small wooden zero energy house (in Danish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MngpoFJHu_I

Other videos are from the Permculture Educators’ Course with Andy Goldring:

PEC 2013 (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM6rzJsr64Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfw2Ec1gKYw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IX-wZI6gPA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmCt8Un7kXE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MngpoFJHu_I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM6rzJsr64Q


One from a LAND centre and urban community garden (Byhaven 2200) in Copenhagen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUelW-RogQE

And some from permaculture events:

Cuba IPC 2013 (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdIf1_dcgc

Cuba IPC 2013 (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXIEAXqLIyA

EPT Bulagria (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Gh2shMb_U

Evaluation The design has been effective for me and has enabled me to produce a fair amount of PR materials.

Especially the habit of using any opportunity for writing an article or doing a video is great to have. It’s like

seeing the world in a slightly different light, where things become more interesting, because the perception

changes from just me observing, to observing with a view to make others understand as well.

Monitoring

I can monitor how many people watch the videos online on youtube and Friland community’s homepage.

The Friland videos have been seen by between 400 and 1100 people. Also, I got a few followers (21 last I

checked) on youtube liking my videos. More importantly, a national TV station had seen the video about

Thomas’ and Thea’s Tiny House and it made them interested in filming it professionally and thereby

spreading the idea to a wider audience in Denmark.

I can’t monitor how many people read the different articles, but I know the number of members that the

magazines I write for go out to. One of them, Praktisk Økologi, has more than 3000 members, so that’s a

relatively good exposure for permaculture, where the association has 100 members.

Improvements

Subtitling all the videos in English would greatly improve the availability of the knowledge and will be done

as soon as time permits. Most of them have been subtitled already.

The first videos were shaken and not good quality. Over time I have improved my filming and editing skills

and they can improve much more.

Reflections on the Public Relations design The design of an article or a project starts with the ethics. It has been easy to assess the communication

elements from a permaculture angle whether they live up to the ethics or not. Using different principles

was a way to recognise several yields and starting to think a bit differently about journalism and how it can

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUelW-RogQE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdIf1_dcgc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXIEAXqLIyA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Gh2shMb_U


be used within permaculture. Public Relations can be controversial, but it is one of those tools of modern

marketing that can be used in an ethical way to promote our positive stories.

I didn’t have a specific timeframe on the overall Public Relation design because I will continue to write

articles and do videos whenever it’s convenient for me to do. Neither did I have a specific number of articles

or videos to make, for the same reasons. I know that I am productive and that the tasks will arise that I want

to take on. Therefore, it was more interesting for me to work with the general design around how to do an

article or a communication project the permaculture way than a specific Public Relations design.

Possibly this design could be cut down to describing the design around just one article, but as I’m working

towards creating a communication strategy for permaculture in Denmark, it was interesting for me to

explore how to use ethics and principles around several communication elements and their functions and

impact on my livelihood.

I feel well prepared to do a whole communication strategy knowing that I have a good grasp about the

ethics and principles around creating an article or a video. I have also carried out smaller communication

project around the eco-village Friland and the LAND project, where this design and lessons learned have

been useful.

I realise that my long term goals in life guide the work I do on this diploma and also within the association,

for example when it comes to defining the public relations and communication strategy. My goals are

basically the same as the association goals. I have partly made them like this, because I am in a position to

define the strategic goals in collaboration with the board. This made me think about why I quit my well paid

job and started working with permaculture: My own goals have to be in accordance with the goals of my

work place or else I will not feel content and I will not be able to do my job properly. I have basically defined

my own job according to my own ethics and principles – which are in accordance with permaculture. I was

searching for the purpose of my life for some time before choosing permaculture as the path I wanted to go

down. Integration of the permaculture lifestyle will be a result and doing the diploma is a strong support on

the way.

Diploma Criteria Demonstrating Design Skills

Applying permaculture in my own life

- Input-output analysis - Zoning - SADIM - Communication design

I can safely say that I have increased my knowledge about permaculture through the attention I have invested in the articles, videos and designs. This is knowledge mostly useful to me, that I can use when designing my own house for example. The PR project has also encouraged me to increase my network to the people I wanted to learn from and write about. Having a purpose for a meeting helps me overcome the initial


barriers of contacting people. Most people appreciate sharing their knowledge and being able to contribute to a body of work for a better world. In terms of improving finances there is a long way to go still. I did get paid for some of the articles and funding for the Information at Friland project helped as well. Working in a normal paid job with minimum wage would still pay more. However, as a part time occupation it adds a bit of yield on activities I enjoy doing anyway.

Learning from and developing your permaculture practice

Applying permaculture to my work and projects

I feel competent in writing, finding good permaculture stories and topics, but applying permaculture to the way I find and write stories has been helpful in getting a good angle on the stories. I have experimented with making video, which is new to me and an interesting media to work with, although very time consuming. The potential to reach more people is probably worth the effort. Video as a media appeals to most people and in the digital age is easy to spread. The input-output analysis was interesting to use on a communication design as I’m more familiar with it on more tangible elements. Using SADIM for this project worked alright, but another project management design tool adapted more to communication designs might have worked better. Communication design questions are a good reminder of the consideration of making a good piece of information. Using ethics and principles on communication design was a new way exploring permaculture in a more abstract way. It useful to bear the principles in mind because elements in communication also fulfils different functions and have different yields etc. Using zones as an extension of the “target

Using Holmgren’s domains this project is clearly

within Culture and Education, while in the 12

categories the Art, Media, Culture and

Communications category would apply.


group” analysis makes sense. Sectors might be related to the stakeholder analysis, but that was stretching the abstraction a little too far, in my opinion.

Photos of articles The photos serve as documentation of the examples of work I have done within the Public Relations

project. It would be beyond the scope of this diploma design presentation to translate the articles.

A story about the Permaculture Educators’ Course at Friland Denmark with Andy Goldring to the left and a

small piece about the EuPC in Germany 2012.

Writing about the diploma guild in Denmark.


Permaculture sets new shoots and engages in new activites – For the magazine Green Living (Grøn

Hverdag).

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