Values and Philosophy
While contributors to climate change and human disconnect with nature are many and can be complex, at Greenbridge we work towards solutions, which are often quite simple. A regenerative approach works to repair the damage done to both people and our environment by aligning holistic decisions and design with the land and the energy flows of natural systems, whole ecologies and communities.
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Regenerative practice and principles heal the land, built environments and communities. Through increasing biodiversity, enriching soil, restoring watersheds, enhancing ecosystem services, and by using human-centred design and non-toxic materials. Sustainability has been described as doing less bad, while regenerative practice is described as doing good. It’s not enough to just sustain the world’s damaged ecosystems, it’s time to regenerate them together!
Permaculture (permanent-agriculture) is a design system of agricultural and social principles, centred around simulating or directly utilising the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems.
The term permaculture was coined by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, in 1978. There are twelve guiding principles and three ethics, all of which underpin Greenbridge’s work. We teach and sponsor regular PDCs (Permaculture Design Certificates) and two of our designers also hold diplomas in permaculture.
Having a net-zero carbon footprint or carbon neutrality, refers to achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by balancing carbon emissions with carbon removal (often through carbon offsetting) or simply eliminating carbon emissions altogether. Greenbridge is committed to achieving net zero carbon sinks in its business, designs and implementation.
It’s important to us, that the design services and build solutions we offer are affordable to you. One way we do this is to offer a range of services to meet a range of budgets, from DIY workshops and free downloads and to simple sketch services, through to full design and implementation.
We offer one scholarship per workshop, to make sustainable information available for those who need it. For aligned community projects, we offer free designers’ time, workshops and talks and sponsorship. We get excited by our client’s projects and endeavour to offer the highest value service for your budget at all times.
Our experience shows that the challenge with regenerative solutions, is not that they aren’t available, or that they are necessarily more expensive, but that few bring them together in an integrated way across the scope of property development.
By integrating multi-disciplines, such as permaculture, organics, terraquaculture and holistic decision making (HDM), we can help you choose quality solutions, achieve project timeframes, costs and a beautiful home, landscape or community project. We have purposefully built a team from multiple disciplines, in order to address social and environmental problems in creative and unique ways.
Healthy options are important to our clients and to us – healthy non-toxic homes, healthy bodies through eating nutrient-dense, organic food and healthy communities, through positive social interaction and supportive environments. Without our health, our quality of life suffers (and often the environment too).
When selecting materials, choosing strategies for land management, or considering community outcomes, your health, tradies health, the planet and for our own peace of mind, we prioritise healthy solutions.
Impact enterprises provide a means to improve social wellbeing, environmental sustainability, and economic performance in Aotearoa New Zealand. Greenbridge’s big picture as an impact enterprise is purpose-driven to trade and to deliver positive social and environmental impact, in particular, we use design, installation and education to help solve environmental problems, co-design with community groups to improve local resiliency and charitable giving to community, through free design and sponsorship.
We çhoose to collaborate, rather compete and empower rather than be the keeper of information. Greenbridge offers free info downloads and DIY workshops, to make this important information available to all. Our design process with you is very interactive and actively seeks your participation.
We have learnt that working with a range of business partners, ensures greater diversity and gets better results. Your Greenbridge designer remains involved to ensure that the integrity of your project flows through to completion. For community projects, we use co-design tools to facilitate best results – the synergy of group design, while sometimes messy, always comes out stronger and richer!
Our co-design process with you is interactive and actively seeks your participation in the designing of your home or landscape. Community-supported design is important for projects like papakainga, co-housing, pocket neighborhoods and community landscapes, whereby ‘pattern languages’* are used to enhance people’s experience of spaces, both built and landscape, to encourage natural community interaction (by using interventions such as bump and tapioca spaces), and to support people’s health and wellbeing.
These designs are often more resilient to climate change, changing use and more beautiful, as they respond to the patterns of the land and human use and are therefore highly functioning. In both co-design and community-supported design, the end users participation in the design process is integral to the success of the project.
* A term first coined by Christopher Alexander to describe good design practices or patterns of useful organisation within a field of expertise.
A home or landscape has to function well, if it doesn’t we won’t build it, and if we’re going to build it, it may as well be beautiful! What does a well-functioning home, landscape or community project look like?
It’s durable, efficient and responds to the patterns in the landscape and human habitation. Often this results in a vernacular language, meaning local materials, traditions and techniques are used, which results in a distinctive regional aesthetic.
Humans are sensory beings and whether we realise it or not, we’re affected by our environment. Nature is beautiful and offers bountiful inspiration – as designers we ask and act on ‘why not make it beautiful too?’ Beauty isn’t an add-on, it’s intrinsic and more often than not, doesn’t cost extra – just a bit of care.
Wherever possible we employ local tradies, up-skill local people and use local materials; from plant nurseries, to professionals, to manufacturing. This guiding principle hums away in the background when we make decisions about what to use for the best outcomes for you and your project. When we can’t use local, we choose with you, the best possible option that aligns with your and our regenerative values.
Holistic decision making (HDM) is a process we use regularly at Greenbridge for our own strategy work, to help us get clear about what we most want to be true of our business and lives and helping us to make decisions to align with this reality. Alan Savory founded this approach with his holistic management framework, for making environmentally, socially, and economically sound decisions. We also find the HDM framework is valuable for guiding larger community projects.
Design doesn’t stop on paper… it continues where the ‘pencil hits the dirt’. We find it invaluable to learn from the experience that come with installing. We confidently offer this service for both homes and landscapes. Project managing the process from start to finish ensures a seamless point of contact, accountability, practical solutions and quality work.
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