The Permaculture Design Certificate Course (PDC) material was originally developed by Bill Mollison, co-founder of permaculture, to teach the principles and foundations of sustainable design. All PDC courses offered throughout the world must follow the same format to assure that the integrity of the certification process is upheld.

 

At a minimum, any certificate course shall meet the following criteria:

- The lead instructor is an established permaculture teacher with a Diploma in Education (beginning in 2015) or equal credentials . Lead instructor is present throughout the entire course and course certificate bears his/her signature.

- The course provides a minimum of 72 hours of direct contact with instructor(s), in addition to group design time, homework assignments, self-study time, hands-on projects, visits to demonstration sites and other learning activities. Courses shorter than 12 contact-days are generally not offering sufficient time for learning and should be evaluated by potential students for their validity.

- Course material is inclusive of, but not limited to, all subjects listed in the PDC Outline.

- Course includes at least one design project exercise or multiple design vignettes.