The Director of the college, John Thuillier, immediately saw the potential of such an innovative project and in the year 2000 the Practical Sustainability Course was established.

The Practical Sustainability Course aims to give students experience in a range of practical life-skills including organic horticulture, forest gardening- the use of tree crops and perennial plants for food production- building with natural materials, woodland management and crafts, and renewable energy.

When Australian ecologists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren first devised the Permaculture concept in the mid-1970s they did so knowing that the world would need to adopt a radically different mode of operation once the peak of fossil fuel extraction would be reached two or three decades from then. In the future communities will have to rely on local skills and resources much more as the global economy will become increasingly unable to fulfil our needs.

Permaculture has now spread around the world and into many areas of design including buildings, energy, and community structures. The college course allows students to explore many of these areas, with hands-on practical experience of organic horticulture, forest gardening, and natural building, as well as many field trips to sites demonstrating sustainable solutions around the planting of trees, making a yurt, building a terraced garden to the front of the college, grafting fruit trees, making charcoal and practising green-woodworking skills.

There are many other courses on offer at the college. The Permaculture students have collaborated with other classes too, most notably in the completion last year of the cordwood amphitheatre. This was made with natural materials of logs, clay and straw. The drama students then put on a performance of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” last May, which was attended by over 200 people.

Energy Descent Planning
At the end of the 2004/5 academic year, Rob Hopkins and his Permaculture students produced “Kinsale 2021: An Energy Descent Action Plan”. This document covers areas such as food, energy, transport, housing and waste, and outlines year-by-year steps to reduce the town’s dependency on fossil fuels and develop local resources for self-reliance.

The Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan has received international recognition as one of the first attempts to outline a strategic powerdown plan for a whole town. The college was recognised for this project in the prestigious Cork Environmental Forum’s Roll of Honour.

The town council has now backed the implementation of some of the recommendations of the Energy Descent Plan and the college will continue to be involved with developments such as the community garden and composting scheme.

For further information and course brochures please contact:
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Graham Strouts is co-ordinator of the Practical Sustainability Course in Kinsale Further Education College

Kinsale 2021- An Energy Descent Action Plan can be downloaded as a pdf from www.fuellingthefuture.org