Cultivating Abundance: Penny Livingston on Designing with Nature
What if the measure of real estate success wasn’t square footage or ROI—but how well a place supports life?
Penny Livingston has spent decades answering that question—not just in theory, but on the ground. As one of the most respected permaculture designers and educators in the world, Penny’s work has touched landscapes from the rugged coast of Northern California to the high Andes of Peru. Her message is simple but profound: design matters.
In this conversation, Penny reflects on her journey from conventional landscaping to whole-systems design. We hear how an early experience in community healing led her to a life of service, and how studying under permaculture co-founder Bill Mollison fundamentally reshaped her worldview.
But this episode is more than a biography. It’s a deep exploration of the shifts we must make—in our homes, in our neighborhoods, in our culture—to move from extraction to regeneration. Penny’s vision is as radical as it is rooted: one where human beings become a keystone species for good.
Highlights from the Conversation:
The Hidden Costs of Conventional Design: From stormwater systems to monocultures, Penny unpacks how mainstream development overlooks ecological intelligence—and why full-cost accounting is essential for the future of real estate.
From Scarcity to Surplus: Why permaculture isn’t about sacrifice, but overflow—and how even a small suburban garden can become a hotbed of life.
Bringing Beauty Back: Penny shares how she's worked to transform the aesthetic of permaculture, making regenerative landscapes not just functional, but beautiful and desirable.
Stories from the Andes: In a moving anecdote, Penny describes working with Quechua farmers in Peru who, through permaculture education, rediscovered the immense wealth in their traditional practices.
Redefining Wealth: With chronic illness and environmental degradation on the rise, what does it mean to live well? Penny calls for a new definition of prosperity—one that prioritizes biodiversity, beauty, and community.
A Call for Integrated Design: Penny makes the case for bringing permaculturalists to the table early in the development process—and how doing so saves both ecological and economic capital.
Whether you're an architect, developer, landowner, or simply someone who dreams of a better way to live, Penny’s perspective is both challenging and deeply hopeful.
Because in her world, regeneration isn’t a buzzword. It’s a way of being.
