Sustainable Infrastructure
Self-Paced Class
Learn the fundamentals of farmstead and small property energy, waste management and natural building systems. This class will provide the technical know-how so you can more effectively manage your property 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 you with practical answers on balancing complex and sometimes competing needs.
Sustainable Infrastructure is a practical class on regenerative approaches to homestead, farm, and ranch management.
WHAT TO EXPECT
This class combines design theory with practical, hands-on instruction for anyone living on or planning to live on land. Through presentations, exercises, and activities, students will learn:
- Which renewable energy systems are best for their situation.
- A range of off-grid technologies for heating, cooling, water movement, and energy generation.
- Manage nutrients from vegetable, human, and animal waste streams as a resource.
- Basic plumbing
- How to design innovative low energy heating and cooling systems.
- Road and pathway design and construction
- Fencing for livestock and wildlife
This course includes 10 standalone modules that can be taken in any order. Each module explores a distinct topic related to stewarding your land. Inside each module, you will find recorded lectures, followed by readings and various supporting resources. Throughout the class, there are many practical exercises to help you engage with the topic.
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: Self-Paced
- Taught by Charles Williams, program director and lead instructor for Earth Activist Training
- 10 content modules including recorded lectures, videos, exercises, and supporting resources.
PAYMENT
We are dedicated to making our courses as accessible as possible by offering:
- Full certificate tuition: $150 – $200
- Five part payment plans: $30 at registration with 4 monthly payments of $30
- Live Fall Session (optional): +$100
- Sept-Oct 2026 6-8pm PST
- Helpful Tool: Time Zone Converter
- All amounts are in US dollars.
SCHOLARSHIPS & DISCOUNTS
- Diversity and Govt. Worker Scholarships available? Yes!
- Keep reading below.
QUESTIONS?
We are here for you. Reach us at: support@earthactivisttraining.org
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 pay-what-you-can with the recommended value of 50% of standard tuition, but 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.
Join our announcement list
Want to be notified of EAT course updates and new program information? Sign up to join our list.