Geoff Lawton
Geoff Lawton is a British-born Australian permaculture consultant, designer, teacher and speaker. Born on December 10, 1954, he has worked since the mid-1980s in more than 30 countries, helping individuals, communities and organizations plan sustainable food and water systems.
Since 1995, Lawton has focused on permaculture education, design, implementation and community development. He aims to create self-replicating demonstration sites that teach people practical skills for sustainable living. He has trained over 15,000 students in courses covering soil, water, plants, animals, energy, buildings and related economic and legal aspects.
His “master plan” is to replicate aid projects quickly to address growing food and water crises. In 1996 he received the Permaculture Community Services Award. A year later, Bill Mollison asked him to establish and lead a new Permaculture Research Institute on Tagari Farm. The institute later moved to Zaytuna Farm, and Lawton now leads The Permaculture Research Institute Australia and The Permaculture Research Institute USA as not-for-profit organizations.
Lawton works to set up sustainable aid projects that also function as education centers around the world, with permaculture institutes in Jordan, Afghanistan, Spain, Malaysia, Vietnam, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Thailand, and China, among others. He has collaborated with Mollison on many courses and appears in Mollison’s teaching DVD set.
He is friends with documentary filmmaker John D. Liu and appears in Liu’s film Hope in a Changing Climate. Notable projects include a successful permaculture ecosystem in Wadi Rum, southern Jordan, and the Al Baydha Project in western Saudi Arabia. He spoke at a TEDx Ajman event on March 31, 2012.
In 2019, Lawton opened enrollment for his online Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) 2.0, a 28-week course that began on January 30. More information is available at geofflawtononline.com.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 10:05 (CET).