The urban jungle

But huddled in a first floor office, in a lone remnant of Leeds's early-19th-century architecture, are nine people determined to change the world. This is the nerve centre of the Permaculture Association, the British branch of an international organisation devoted to "living lightly on the planet".

As the building shudders under the weight of the traffic outside, we're agreed on one thing for a start: Leeds has a long way to go to be green. "Its ecological footprint is 75 times the size of the city," says Andy Goldring, the association's development co-ordinator. "That's three times the size of Yorkshire itself."

But he believes there is a practical means of transforming the city. "We have green space all around us. If we could link that with the city, we could grow much of our food, build self-reliance, create jobs and educational opportunities. The question is how to optimise our resources and deal with our waste?"

How indeed? The answer, according to Andy and his colleagues, is clear. We need to redesign our cities, towns and villages, our homes, schools and hospitals using the principles of permaculture.

The word "permaculture" comes from the phrase "permanent agriculture". This is a movement that began in Australia as a response to the oil crisis of the 1970s. It is a fusion of ideas from, among other places, the ecology movement, back to the land, and radical theories of architecture and design. For over 30 years, permaculture has occupied the far end of the environmentalist spectrum. "We've been on the fringe for a very long time," says Andy.

But it's becoming increasingly clear that permaculture has found its moment. What was cranky and quirky is becoming popular. So much so that its theories have underpinned a number of recent, popular TV programmes.

These include the series It's Not Easy Being Green, the thought-provoking documentary The Future of Farming, and most recently The Edible Garden presented by Alys Fowler of Gardeners World, who was inspired by the internet "e-zine", punkrockpermaculture.

Andy, who has been part of the movement for 15 years, has the happy, relaxed look of a man who is being proved right: "So much of what we have been saying for so long – for example about the need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, to build local economies and in particular local food economies and to reduce and reuse our waste – is now part of the mainstream."

But what attracted him to the theory in the first place? "Permaculture is intelligent design. In fact, much of it is stuff we instinctively know. For example, it's only recently that we began to build houses just anywhere. Until then, humans knew houses should face south, in order to maximise light and heat. It was common sense, and an awful lot of permaculture is simply common sense."

The central idea is to work with nature. Andy explains that the first task of a permaculturist is to observe the environment – for example, the microclimates that surround a house, the soils, the aspect, and the other living things that share our habitat.

Human beings are just one part of the natural world and since the earth's resources are finite we must share them with the rest of the living world.

A permaculture design, therefore, is small-scale and intensive, a map of how we might "cycle" energy, nutrients and other resources (including our own). The ideal is a self-maintaining system, whether a house, an institution, or even a city. And, since the desire is to work as far as possible within the limits of what is already available, the changes are as likely to involve adapting what is already there as starting all over again.

For example? Well, how about hens. For a permaculturalist they are not only for eggs. Hens can also be used as a means of pest control, or a way of clearing and tilling a garden, or as a source of meat, and feathers, and even heat. "Designing" the hens into a garden will therefore require some creative thinking.

One such thinker is a writer called Patrick Whitefield. He has come up with the idea of a "chicken-greenhouse" – a chicken house with a greenhouse attached to its south side. The heat from the chickens' bodies keeps the greenhouse free of frost on cold nights and when the sun comes up the greenhouse warms the chickens first thing in the morning. The carbon dioxide the chickens breathe out is recycled to enhance plant growth in the greenhouse.

One of the most attractive features of permaculture is that it's fun. Ingenuity is enjoyable.

If you're the kind of person whose garage is filled with old bikes, bits of cable, an estate agent's sign and miscellaneous pots of congealing outdoor paint, why not purchase the spring issue of Permaculture Magazine where you can find out how to build a "bespoke wind turbine" for your potting shed?

This "can do", DIY philosophy is why what appears an insurmountable problem to me – inner-city Leeds on a busy Wednesday morning – is a mere 133 challenges to Andy.

"There are 133 neighbourhoods in Leeds. And each one needs a permaculture action plan." To this end, Andy and the team are also busily building and supporting the Leeds Permaculture Network to co-ordinate projects city-wide.

"Permaculture encourages people to make changes in their lives rather than waiting for someone to tell them what to do," adds Andy.

"We don't need to wait for the council to come up with a solution, although we've been working with them on their agricultural and climate change strategies. Instead, we can transform our immediate local environments. Starting now."

So the network runs courses, events and activity days, seed and seedling swaps, tree-planting days and spring soirees, all designed to spread the word and support people who want to know more. Leeds now leads the way with a number of thriving permaculture projects in the city. There's the Bandstand Community Gardens which combine annual vegetable gardens with communal and wildlife areas and Oblong's Gardening Collective which reclaims derelict land for vegetable growing and forest gardening. Urban Harvest is the name of a group who collect and distribute unharvested fruit from trees and bushes.

So maybe the answer for the committed greenie isn't to up sticks and move to Cornwall or North Wales after all. Perhaps paradise can be built in Kirkstall. I'm still a bit sceptical, but Andy Goldring has convinced me it's worth a try.

The Permaculture Association and Leeds Permaculture Network, Hollybush Conservation Centre, Broad Lane, Leeds, Tel. 0113 230 7461, www.permaculture.org.uk and www.leedspermaculture.org.

YP MAG 15/5/10