The GoCEAPER Framework
The GoCEAPER Framework represents a major evolution in permaculture design thinking, offering a comprehensive, reflective, and adaptive process that responds to the complexity of real-world systems. Emerging from the foundational CEAP model (Collect, Evaluate, Apply, Plan), GoCEAPER expands the design horizon by adding three powerful elements: Goals, Evaluation (Phase Two), and Reflection. These additions transform what was once a linear planning tool into a cyclical, spiral-based framework ideal for regenerative and ethical design practices.
At its core, GoCEAPER aligns tightly with permaculture’s ethics: Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. The process begins with clear intention-setting in the Goals stage, ensuring that every action flows from a place of ethical grounding and long-term vision. From there, it moves through collecting localised data, evaluating it in context, and applying that knowledge through practical tools like zoning, guild design, and resource mapping. The Planning stage brings order and structure, while the second Evaluation phase ensures that designs remain adaptable, relevant, and responsive after implementation.
What truly sets GoCEAPER apart is its final stage: Reflection. This phase acknowledges that every design journey is also a journey of the self. It invites practitioners to examine their own learning, assumptions, and growth, making GoCEAPER not just a systems tool but a personal development process.
Inspired by the image of a prism, the framework encourages us to take complex, interconnected challenges and refract them into clear, focused pathways for change. Just as a prism breaks light into its component colours, GoCEAPER dissects design challenges into manageable, insightful phases that bring clarity without sacrificing complexity.
GoCEAPER is remarkably flexible and can be applied to a wide range of permaculture applications:
The framework’s structure supports both practical application and transformative learning, making it ideal for designers, educators, community organisers, and regenerative farmers alike. Whether designing a homestead, a neighbourhood project, or your own learning journey, GoCEAPER offers a map that is both grounded and visionary.
With its cyclical, ethics-based structure and capacity for both precision and adaptability, the GoCEAPER Prism Framework stands as one of the most holistic tools available for today’s permaculture designers, balancing clarity, complexity, and care in equal measure.