News

WSD's Work Featured in Fast Company Magazine

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:04:00 -0500

Is mainstream business waking up to the benefits of truly valuable land use and integrated design? Well, maybe not completely, but they seem to be catching on slowly. Here's one angle on our work from that end of the spectrum. Note, the last line (quote) should read "imagination" instead of "information". (The world's got plenty of info.)

Ben Falk to Present at Creating Regenerative Schools

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:14:00 -0500

Design for Climate Change workshop to be part of this event in Boston... "In practical ways this workshop will examine how schools can create campuses that look beyond sustainability towards schools that are resilient and regenerative in the face of complex and rapidly changing ecological, social and economic conditions..." Click here for more information.

WSD to Develop Site and Organization to Pursue Rural Land Use Best Practices

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:47:00 -0600

WSD has been contracted to develop a regenerative and working land use model and organization in the Mad River Valley, VT. The future site will be planned over the coming months for development into a permaculture farm system. The organizational design and development process will model replicable steps that others can utilize to develop similar profitable, regenerative farming and community land use systems in their own location. Much more on this project to come...

Teal Farm Featured in Regeneration TV Show

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:41:00 -0600

WSD's long term master planning, site design and site development project, the Teal Farm, was recently featured on a television series. Click here to see the video clip.

Master Planning with the Cape Eleuthera Island School and Institute, Bahamas

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:06:00 -0500

The Cape Eleuthera Foundation, sponsor of the renowned Island School Semester Program and the newer Cape Eleuthera Institute, has engaged Whole Systems Design in master planning, site design and project communications. The Cape projects, located in the rural Bahamian archipelago, have become known over the past decade for pushing the envelope of sub-tropical sustainable development. WSD is working with the Foundation to communicate the project's past accomplishments, plan the immediate and long-term developments of its dual-campus facility and communicate future endeavors of this sustainable development model. Visit www.islandschool.org and www.ceibahamas.org for more information on the project. View Gallery

New Whole Systems Design Studio Underway

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:47:00 -0500

To meet rapidly growing business needs WSD is building a new studio and workshop at the Moretown, Vermont proving ground site. The dual purpose design-build space will model the best in sustainable ecological design and construction. The structure been timber-framed entirely from lumber that has been horse-logged from the property's 4 acres of woodlot. Posts and beams of maple, ash, cherry, beech, hemlock and pine have been felled, hauled and milled on site. The building combines super insulated Larson Truss walls and roof, passive solar heating, and daylit interiors of hardwood and clay plaster finishes. The structure's pond-side setting maximizes its climate integration with the site helping to lower heating needs, promote interior light across the seasons and extend the seasons of use for outdoor living and growing spaces near the building. View Gallery

Design for Climate Change Course Launched

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:10:00 -0500

Whole Systems Design to offer this course at the Yestermorrow Design-Build School in Warren, VT. The pioneering course will be possibly the first in the country dedicated wholly to this topic. Visit Yestermorrow for more information.

Middlebury College Turns to WSD for Organic Farm Development

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:47:00 -0500

View Gallery or View Business Week Article
Middlebury College continues to be a national leader of sustainable development in higher education and they have turned to WSD for site design and development. WSD will be providing a preliminary master plan and planting of edible perennials to protect and enhance the productivity and uses of the College’s organic farm. Whole Systems Design will also be facilitating a planting workshop weekend in early May where students, faculty, and alumni will be planting the site’s windbreaks and edible trees and shrubs. This project marks the beginning of a perennial permaculture system at Middlebury and will heighten the campus’ role as a learning landscape where students positively apply their studies in the real world. This site offers students the unique opportunity to become leaders in shaping the sustainable food systems of our future

Burlington, VT newspaper highlights WSD's culinary earth work

Sun, 20 May 2007 16:32:00 -0500

"One exciting way to expand the number of local species is to fashion microclimates in which the prevailing temperature is different from that of surrounding areas. Creating windbreaks of nut-bearing trees and using passive solar landscape design — where water and rocks capture the sun's rays and pass the warmth to the ground — are two options. "It can be 70 degrees [in one small area] when it's 40 degrees elsewhere,"......

Read the article

Neshobe Farm residential development contracts WSD

Fri, 11 May 2007 16:41:00 -0500

A forward-thinking sustainable agriculture housing development taps into WSD for master planning and establishment of edible landscape components for future house sites and public spaces within the property.

Visit Neshobe Farm

WSD Featured TV Show Regeneration: The Art of Sustainable Living

Wed, 02 May 2007 16:33:00 -0500

New television show, Regeneration: The Art of Sustainable Living features the work of Whole Systems Design.
Read the interview transcript.
Watch a clip

Whole Systems Design to plant 4,000 multifunctional trees and shrubs this spring.

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:31:00 -0500

The intentional ecosystems into which these plants are integrated will remove roughly 8 - 20 million pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere within a human lifetime. WSD is formulating a comprehensive land-use response to challenges posed by rapid changes in both the local and global climate. Projects this season include over 300 species and varieties of fruits, nuts, berries, nectary and soil-building plants. Cultivating abundant ecologies that will be resilient in the face of climate change requires buffering the local climate of the site and enhancing the species diversity on site. Landscapes with high biodiversity and elements that are arranged to protect and enhance the local (micro) climates of the site are most adaptive to increased climatic challenges.

University of Vermont Permaculture Course in August

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 16:29:00 -0500

A 3 Credit Environmental Studies and Plant/Soil Science sponsored course in regenerative land-use and temperate climate settlement strategies.

University of Vermont Permaculture Course in August (PDF):

Visit UVM's summer course website for registration.

Island School Permaculture Design course offered

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:25:00 -0600

Whole Systems Design and the Island School teach sustainable site development on degraded lands.

View PDF or View Gallery

Whole Systems Design to plant one of the most extensive and biodiverse agricultural ecosystems on the planet at Teal Farm.

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:23:00 -0600

Master planning and site design began September 2005 with installation commencing summer 2006, and orchard planting continuing into 2007.

View Gallery

The Lawrenceville School Honored for Campus Sustainability

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:27:00 -0600

Whole Systems Design's outdoor classroom and food garden design a highlight in the school's innovative approach to experiential and sustainability education.

Lawrenceville School Honored for Campus Sustainability or View Gallery