Portland Permaculture Institute

A local PDX-based certifying body for the Internationally-recognized PDC

While not essential or required for recognition in the global permaculture designer community, taking courses by reputable instructors and institutions with traceable lineages of accredited teaching helps assure that the Permaculture Design Course (PDC) provides a life-changing experience, that it holds true to its founding design, and that employers and clients alike take stock of this credential when seeking design services.

Toby Hemenway (1952-2016), renowned permaculture teacher and author of Gaia's Garden, first took his permaculture design course with Bill Mollison, permaculture's senior co-founder, and Scott Pitman, Bill's primary co-instructor in the United States. Upon moving to Portland from southern Oregon in 2004, Toby began teaching permaculture courses more extensively, and he used the Portland Permaculture Institute name to issue certificates through his college-credit courses at Portland State University.

Matt Bibeau (founder of PDX Permaculture) took his PDC from Toby in 2006 at PSU in pursuit of a Masters in Sustainability Education, and in 2008, he completed a Permaculture Teacher Training with Jude Hobbs and Hazel Ward, also teachers of Toby, through the Cascadia Permaculture Institute. From 2009-2011, Matt co-coordinated Toby's twice-annual Portland-area PDC's. By this time, Toby's courses were being certified by Scott Pittman's Permaculture Institute USA of Santa Fe, New Mexico for which Toby had become a Field Director.

From 2014-2021, Matt co-taught annual PDC's through the Portland-based Planet Repair Institute and City Repair Project, and also offered Permaculture Teacher Trainings for Youth Educators through the now-dissolved Institute of Permaculture Education for Children. In 2022, Matt was hired to teach Portland Community College's for-credit PDC. Previously led by Marisha Auerbach, this course had used her position with the Cascadia Permaculture Institute for its certification. Being an institute of higher education, the college placed significant importance in there being a permaculture institute to credential the certificates from their course as part of their Landscape Technology degree program.

When Marisha moved from Portland and vacated the position, the course was in need of a new professional affiliation.With the blessing of Pam Leitch, co-founder of the Portland Permaculture Institute, Matt opted to revive this name that Toby once used in order to credential the PSU course as one continuing to be taught with a traceable and reputable lineage of instruction. This revival also held the intention of regrowing the Institute into an active community of permaculture professionals in the Portland area.

In 2024, Matt additionally received his Professional Diploma in Permaculture Design & Education from the Permaculture Institute of North America, a more Pacific Northwest-influenced sister org of the Southwest-based Permaculture Institute USA. This concluded a multi-year effort to obtain one of the most rigorous and distinguished permaculture design instructor credentials in North America. Beginning in 2025, courses taught by Matt will offer the endorsement of both certifying bodies, as these courses will meet the highest content and instructor standards of PINA while being taught in a format and flavor that is a true representation of Portland culture and the Pacific Northwest.