Early bird Discount $20 Off Until April 28th
Sustainable Infrastructure
May 22nd to June 26th 2025
Learn the fundamentals of homestead and farm scale energy, waste management and natural building systems. This class will provide the technical know-how so you can more effectively manage your space for better resilience and long term sustainability.
About this Course?
Managing land ecologically is a resource-intense activity which requires finding a balance between consumption, ecological impact, and financial solvency. This course will provide practical answers on balancing these often complex and sometimes competing needs.
Students will gain tools and strategies for designing and managing the inputs and waste streams for their specific locations and situations.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Through presentations, exercises, and activities, students will learn to:
- Evaluate the needs and yields of a property
- Loop waste streams back into feedstocks
- Incorporate recyclable products
- Minimize the use of non-reusable materials
By the end of the course, students will know how to:
- Identify appropriate renewable energy systems for their specific situations
- Manage waste streams as a resource
- Design infrastructure with reduced waste and more significant reuse potential
All are welcome. There are no prerequisites to this course.
Class Schedule
Pre-Class: Approaching Sustainability
We all impact the world around us. Before class, students will be asked to reflect on their current ecological impact and to consider their goals and values related to these impacts. We will use tools such as ecological footprint and carbon calculators.
Session 1: Material Evaluation and Building Design
How to evaluate the ecological impact of the building and design materials, including passive house design, natural building, and green building. How to design efficiently and decrease waste. We will evaluate our buildings and systems through the lens of life cycle analysis (LCA), embodied energy, embodied carbon, and ecological footprint.
Session 2: Site Analysis and Energy Audit
Deep dive into the three most common alternative energy systems: solar, wind, and micro hydro. Students will learn how to conduct an energy audit and evaluate a site for potential energy generation, including performing cost-benefit analyses for alternative power generation. Class will include how to set up both on- and off-grid electric systems.
Session 3: Alternative Energy Systems and How They Work
Going beyond solar, wind, and hydro, we will look at a wide range of lesser known technologies and how to adapt them to home and community scale projects. Understanding the basics of pumping water, generating electricity, heating, cooling and cooking using mechanical motion, pressurized air, methane digesters, biochar, and other off-grid technologies.
Session 4: Plumbing and Wiring
Moving from theory to practice, Session 4 will be a hands-on class focused on basic plumbing and electrical. Students will learn the basic skills through the construction of simple plumbing/electrical projects.
Session 5: Animal and Human Waste
Safe management and use of manure, urines, carcasses, and biosolids. Students will learn techniques for managing biological waste, and how to safely cycle nutrients back onto the landscape. Together, we will take a closer look at compost, vermiculture (composting with worms), bio-digesters, hot pack beds, and manure spreading under the overall theme of systems design.
Session 6: Heating and Cooling on a Household and Community Scale
Students will learn passive and active strategies for heating and cooling, how to evaluate a site and determine which systems are appropriate, and how to link systems for efficiency and redundancy. Focus on solid waste management.
Class Resources:
Each session will include a curated online resources component for those wanting to go deeper into each topic. This will include videos, articles and research papers. Along with the topics covered, there will be a resources section for information not covered explicitly in class such as: Road/trail installation and management, fencing and gates, solid waste management and site safety.
Questions?
We are here for you. Please reach out at: support@earthactivisttraining.org
YOUR LEARNING JOURNEY
Sustainable Infrastructure is a required course for the Regenerative Land Management diploma.
MEET YOUR TEACHER
Charles Williams, Lead Instructor
As Earth Activist Training’s program director and senior instructor, Charles has spent the past twenty five years teaching and implementing permaculture. Charles comes to Earth Activist Training through a love of the wild, faith that healthy communities can solve complex problems, and a belief that working with one’s hands is sacred work.
Over the past two decades, he has stewarded many pieces of land throughout the United States, including Diana’s Grove in Missouri, Farm & Wilderness summer camp in Vermont, and Starhawk’s Golden Rabbit Ranch in California. His approach simultaneously promotes the preservation of wild spaces, and conservation of the domestic.
His deep respect for and relationship with the divine in nature informs all he does, integrating spiritual practices with land management. Charles also understands the need for healthy community and knows that skilled human implementation is an essential part of any design. In these challenging times, he finds hope for the future through the interlocking, symbiotic relationship of spirit, community, and action.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
COURSE INFORMATION
- Location: Virtual
- Dates: May 22th to June 26th, 2025 (6 weeks)
- Timing: Thursday 6:00-7:00 pm PST
- Helpful Tool: Time Zone Converter
- Taught by Charles Williams, program director and lead instructor for Earth Activist Training
- Each week has 1 hour of live and 1 hour of recorded instruction.
- All live sessions are recorded and closed captioned.
- Access to resources, documentation and recorded class content for one year after course finishes.
PAYMENT
We are dedicated to making our courses as accessible as possible by offering:
- Earlybird tuition: $280!
- Full certificate tuition: $300-$350
- Four part payment plans: $75 at registration with 3 monthly payments of $75
- Alumni tuition: $100 to retake this course
- Diversity scholarships available: See below.
- Group Discounts: See below.
- All amounts are in US dollars.
- See below for details.
SCHOLARSHIPS & DISCOUNTS
- Group discounts and Diversity Scholarships available? Yes!
- Keep reading below.
QUESTIONS?
We are here for you. Reach us at: support@earthactivisttraining.org
FUNDING YOUR EDUCATION
Payment options
Sliding Scale Tuition
- Early Bird Tuition: $280
- Standard Tuition: $300
- Abundant Tuition: $350
- Every Abundant Tuition helps support a Diversity Scholarship
Alumni Price
- Alumni Tuition $100
- For those who want a refresher, you need to have taken this course with us before.
*All amounts in US dollars.
PAYMENT PLAN
- Payment of $75 when you register.
- Three monthly installments of $75 ($300 total).
- Our Student Support Team will assist you in setting this up.
GROUP DISCOUNTS
- Groups of 2-5 people – Discount of $50 off each ($250 for each person)
- Organizations of 6+ people – Contact support@eat-activist.org for special group rates.
- You must indicate who is in your group at registration.
Diversity Scholarships
DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS
- Earth Activist Training is committed to increasing the diversity of global permaculture and regenerative land movements.
- We recognize the history of this land called the United States and Canada, and seek to do what we can to rectify the deep injustices and systems of inequity that formed and continue to shape society today.
- Diversity Scholarships are available for Indigenous Peoples and People of Color working in or wanting to work in environmental or social justice.
- These scholarships are 50% off standard tuition ($150) and a pay-what-you-can above this. Any amount will be accepted and appreciated.
- To apply select “Diversity Scholarship” in the payment section on the registration form below.
- Earth Activist Training’s Diversity Scholarship fund is supported by donations. Visit our Diversity Fund page if you wish to support our Scholarship program.
If you have any questions, we are always here to help: support@earthactivisttraining.org
REGISTRATION
Click here to Register
What Comes Next?
Are you ready for the next step of your learning journey?
Your Learning Journey
Regenerative Land Management (RLM) is a multi-year, advanced permaculture diploma program designed to further your permaculture practice and provide a deep comprehensive training needed to apply regenerative skills in your life!
Go beyond a basic PDC with our Advanced Permaculture course. This year-long course, taught in four modules, covers key design topics:
Other classes with Charles Williams 2025
- Permaculture Design Certificate – In-Person (Jan. 11 – 25)
- Five-Fold Path Facilitator Training – (Feb 12 – March 12)
- Introduction to GIS Mapping – (March 19 – April 23)
- Permaculture For Climate Activists – (Evergreen)
- Advanced Permaculture – (Feb 6 – Oct 16)
- Water Management (Feb. 6 –Mar. 13) Site Planning (Mar. 20 – April 3)
- Soil & Animals (Apr. 10 –May 15)
- Food Forests & Forest Ecology (Sept. 11 – Oct. 16)
- Sustainable Infrastructure – (May. 22 – June 26)
- Introduction to Permaculture – (Sept. 17 – Oct. 1) Virtual
- Permaculture Design Certificate – (Sept. 17 – Dec. 17) Virtual
- Regenerative Land Management -Two-year Advanced Permaculture Diploma Program
OUR NETWORK
A core component of this course – and every Earth Activist Training course – is our private forum: Earth Activist Training Online network. This platform is where you will find course resources, your homework, and a network to connect with classmates and other Earth Activist students.
Recordings of each class will be available to you as a resource. You will have access to the course for a year after the course ends should you want to deepen your understanding of the material.
Have a question?
calendar
Check out the full schedule to find out when our programs and events are taking place.
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