Permaculture Business Quotes

“The economy is always changing. So your business should always be changing. Managing a business includes adapting to change, evolving with change and sometimes pioneering those changes and evolutions.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“To be successful in business, you need to understand what you’re selling and you need to understand the people who are buying. And the more holistic your understanding, the more success the business will experience.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“For the first time in architectural history, we're approaching the resolution and complexity of the natural world by creating new technologies that will ultimately enable us to design a beam as if it were a branch or an HVAC and waste removal system as if it were a photosynthetic GI tract engineered to convert carbon into biofuel.”
― Neri Oxman

“In our design of business and economic systems, there's a lot to learn from mycorrhizae and fungi.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“When we look at supply chains and distribution in nature, we see that natural systems include an abundance of nodes in a network. Distribution is widely spread - enough to include the maximum nodes feasible yet not enough to add unnecessary time or cost to the path a thing takes from source to destination.

This maximizes efficiency, and minimizes the risk of congestion and bottle-necks.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“Businesses are at all times and in different ways accountable to employees, suppliers, customers and community.”
― Hendrith Smith

“If you run a business, it’s essential that you love whatever the business is selling. What you have with the business is similar to what you have with any other relationship - it will experience more success when love and passion is poured in.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“When the principles of permaculture are applied to business on a global scale, business will be a producer of profit for individuals and for the whole earth.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“When we're able to communicate in nature's language; when we're able to transcend the view that nature is a boundless entity; even transcending the building as the kernel of the architectural project; when we invite scientific inquiry and technological innovation, fusing atoms with bits and bits with genes - only then will the art of building enable new forms of interaction between humans and their environment.”
― Neri Oxman

“Businesses want to plug into the Mayflower-Plymouth ecosystem because in this ecosystem, good businesses become better.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“Permaculture is an even higher standard than ESG. Whereas ESG is a compartmentalized approach to evaluating businesses, permaculture is a holistic approach to evaluating businesses.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“Because of the subjectivity of needs and the subjectivity of value, bartering can be just as good as cash in business transactions.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“In nature, waste does not exist. There is only production and consumption; there is only creation and utilization. We need to model nature in how we manage our businesses.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“Through life and programmed decomposition - shelter becomes organism, and organism becomes shelter as it holds the potential to promote the health of natural resource cycles by such means as promoting soil micro-organisms and providing nutrients for growing buildings.”
― Neri Oxman

“Employees need to feel trusted and respected at work. Everyone at the company should feel that trust and that respect.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“When permaculture design principles are applied to business, business becomes a powerful platform for making the world a better place.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“For centuries architects have been taught to sketch, model and build in three static dimensions - x, y and z. But the natural world offers contexts that are much more dimensionally complex and dynamic.”
― Neri Oxman

“To speak in nature's language, we must prioritize bio-based structural materials; biopolymers. Biopolymers are natural polymers produced by the cells of living organisms. We're already utilizing them in products, pharma, and even in fashion. But to deploy them on the architectural scale, we need to invest in design and construction technologies that emulate their heirarchical properties by engineering real time chemical formation.”
― Neri Oxman

“When we apply the principles of permaculture to business operations - we end up with more profitable businesses, more resilient businesses, and businesses that holistically add value to all stakeholders.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth, Business Essentials

“If you want to better understand business and economics - go meditate in a forest.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“Logistics is not an end unto itself, it's a means to an end. Logistics should be in service of something greater. In a permaculture system, logistics exists in service to people and families and businesses. Not the other way around.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“In terms of permaculture design in business, ethics are really important. In this design approach, we design for sustainability and efficiency and growth. And we also design for equity and wellbeing. Everything matters. It's a holistic approach.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“When we apply IP licensing at scale in an exclusive system and in alignment with permaculture principles, we give businesses in the network a strategic advantage while helping the world transition to a better state of being.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“The main thing is identifying a group of people or groups of people in society or in a marketplace - then identifying what problems they may have, what needs they may have and what desires they may have - and then formulating products or services or both that can solve those problems, meet those needs and fulfill those desires.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“We all live and work in a dynamic and ever-changing economy. The businesses that are able to adapt, pivot and restructure as needed are the businesses that are most positioned to thrive through the changes.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“As long as people are alive and breathing, they will have needs that need fulfilling. And therefore there will always be business opportunities there.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“Greenwashing is a problem. That's why the practice of just sticking a label like ESG on a company or a project isn't good enough. We need to have a systemic approach. We have to approach it from the ground up with systems design, not from the top down with labels.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“Business is really an altruistic kind of process.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“When you have a business and people in a business that are feeling fulfilled because they're adding value to other peoples lives and they're making money because of that- you've got a win win win win win win situation - everybody's winning. Customers and clients are winning because their lives are improving with the services or products that the business provides them. Business managers owners and employees are winning because they're receiving compensation and a sense of fulfillment for the value they add. And because these two groups of people are winning, society as a whole is winning.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth