PERMA-SADIMET Framework – Empowering Regeneration
The PERMA-SADIMET Framework is a regenerative design tool that places permaculture ethics and principles at the heart of every design decision. Evolved from the widely-used SADIMET process—Survey, Analyse, Design, Implement, Maintain, Evaluate, Tweak—this enhanced framework does not simply apply permaculture after the fact; it weaves it into every stage of the design process.
SADIMET has long served as a trusted guide in sustainable planning, yet often lacks an integrated ethical foundation. PERMA-SADIMET addresses this gap by rooting each phase of the framework in the three core ethics of permaculture: Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. As a result, every design begins with observation and evolves through action, feedback, and adaptation—mirroring the natural cycles it seeks to support.
This framework is particularly suited to practitioners, educators, land designers, and community organisers who want a structured but flexible tool to guide ecological restoration, sustainable development, and participatory systems design. Whether you are designing a food forest, a school garden, a social enterprise, or a village ecosystem, PERMA-SADIMET adapts to your scale and context while keeping regeneration at the centre.
Each stage of the PERMA-SADIMET cycle serves a regenerative purpose:
Survey initiates with deep observation of the land and its social context.
Analyse brings understanding of natural flows and systemic relationships.
Design crafts plans guided by permaculture’s ethical compass.
Implement translates design into practical, place-based action.
Maintain sustains and strengthens the living system.
Evaluate checks for alignment with both ecological and human goals.
Tweak introduces responsive, iterative change based on real feedback.
What sets this framework apart is its clear alignment with the principles of permaculture. Key ideas like “Use Small and Slow Solutions,” “Apply Self-Regulation,” and “Use and Value Diversity” are not abstract—they are directly embedded in how decisions are made and systems evolve. PERMA-SADIMET not only reflects permaculture in spirit but embodies it in structure.
Validated against the ten core properties of a permaculture framework, PERMA-SADIMET excels. It offers a strong ethical foundation, promotes systems thinking, prioritises observation, and integrates closed-loop resource cycles, biodiversity, community participation, and climate-sensitive design. It is more than a method—it is a regenerative philosophy in motion.
Whether you're restoring a degraded ecosystem, building community resilience, or teaching the next generation of designers, PERMA-SADIMET provides a grounded, adaptable path forward—helping us move from sustainability to true regeneration.