Principles orientation · 2 of 4

Ethics, Principles, Frameworks, Tools and Practices

By Mark D’Cruz

Distinguish five connected parts of permaculture design so that values, guidance, process, methods and repeated action remain clear.

Collection: Principles
Reading time: 9 minutes
Last updated: 20 August 2026

Provenance and acknowledgement

Where this material comes from

Origin or tradition: A Library taxonomy settled for the Mă-Kè Permaculture Academy after comparison of the master register and existing approved content.
Principal source or contributor: Mark D’Cruz’s explicit editorial decision, supported by the Diploma register and established permaculture usage.
Context: The taxonomy repairs classifications inherited from spreadsheets and teaching layouts without claiming that all practitioners use identical labels.
Variants and later adaptations: Some traditions use method, process, tool and framework differently. The Library declares its operational meaning on each page.
Mark’s relationship to the material: This five-part distinction is Mark’s editorial and teaching synthesis for organising the Academy Library.
Evidence status: Settled for this Library. It is an organising convention, not a claim of universal standardisation.

Definition and orientation

Permaculture becomes difficult to teach when every useful idea is called a principle or every acronym is called a tool. This Library uses five connected domains. Ethics establish responsibility; principles guide judgement; frameworks organise the overall design process; tools perform focused tasks; practices turn ideas into repeated action.

The domains connect, but one does not silently become another. A Venn diagram remains a Design Tool even if it helps explore ethics. Relative Location may have a principle page and a distinct applied-tool page because the governing question differs.

Five domains, five governing questions

Ethics

What should we care for, protect, share or take responsibility for?

Principles

What recurring guidance helps us make sound design decisions?

Frameworks

Through what overall process do we move from intention and evidence to implementation and review?

Tools

What focused method helps perform a particular task, analysis or decision?

Practices

What repeated actions embody these ideas in real situations?

Academy-original semantic taxonomy approved for this Library. The categories are connected but not interchangeable.

Origins, lineage and attribution

Permaculture publications commonly distinguish ethics, principles and design processes, but practical teaching materials often mix methods, stages and principles in one diagram. The master register preserved those source labels and then added editorial corrections. The result is traceable: the original classification is not erased, while the public Library uses the settled governing question.

Ethical and principle context

Classification has ethical consequences. Calling a local adaptation “the permaculture framework” can erase its originators. Calling an authored practice a universal principle can overstate authority. Clear categories make attribution, limitation and learner choice easier to see.

When and how to use it

Subject	Primary home	Reason
Earth Care	Ethics	Judges responsibility towards living systems.
Observe and Interact	Principles	Guides recurring design judgement.
SADIMET	Frameworks	Organises a complete iterative process.
Venn diagram	Tools	Performs a focused comparison or relationship task.
Seasonal observation round	Practices	Repeats attention and recording in a real place.

Application in Mark’s Diploma and at Vila Pinheiro

The classification repair affects how Mark’s Diploma sources are counted. A passing mention is not a deep-dive page; a downloadable sheet is not a framework history; an Mă-Kè Bonsai Way tenet or practice is not presented as standard permaculture canon. The Design Tools production release is preserved exactly, while this programme adds the missing Principles home and expands externally rooted Framework coverage.

Limits, critiques and common misuse

A subject may legitimately appear in more than one domain when the records and routes remain distinct.
Classification does not determine quality or importance.
Colours, menu position and spreadsheet columns are not evidence of intellectual origin.
Where a source uses a different term, the page should state the difference.

Related entries

References and provenance

Mă-Kè Diploma Library Master Register, “START HERE”, “Page Register” and “Source Gaps” sheets.
Chris Evans, “Design Frameworks (a.k.a. Processes)”, 2017.
David Holmgren, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, 2002; revised 2017.
Mark D’Cruz, Designs 1–10 and the Academy’s approved Cornerstone and Design Tools content.