Using Greenprints

Greenprints offers a practical pathway through the often confusing maze of existing and emerging approaches for creating sustainable, regenerative and economically secure societies. Greenprints offers the critically important step of embedding these approaches within the unique ecological, cultural and economic context of a bounded ‘space’, such as a bioregion or sub-region, to ensure we’re working to create ‘nested’ sustainability, so we can live within our ecological limits. The Greenprints Steps and Greenprints Mapping Tool provide a user-friendly way to handle complexity and bring diverse approaches into an understandable and practical way forward.

For community groups

Local community groups and organisations – including environmental, NRM and land care groups, and local social justice organisations – can use the Greenprints Steps to develop rigorous ecological, social and economic ideas, plans and scenarios, so they can create a better future for their communities. By working through the steps, community groups can work with AELA to host new and/or connect existing local initiatives, creative events, webinars, mapjams, citizen science projects and information gathering activities. This hard work builds community connectivity, gathers and shares knowledge and can connect diverse initiatives (never repeating existing efforts) to strengthen local community leadership, so that transformation to a regenerative future is possible.

For First Nations peoples

First Nations peoples are advising on the development of the Greenprints initiative, and play a vital role as partners in all our project work, both in the creative development of the Greenprints approach and in the development of specific local projects.

In addition to advising about the development of Greenprints, some First Nations peoples are also using the Greenprints approach to support their own, community led objectives.  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations have for millennia, managed their own unique cultural, legal, social and economic initiatives. Greenprints can be of use to communities who are looking to use western knowledge frameworks to support First Nations’ led projects and initiatives.

AELA and Greenprints works in partnership with Future Dreaming Australia, a First Nations led organization, so that First Nations communities can advise the development of Greenprints, and can connect with Greenprints in ways that suit their own interests.

For local councils

Local councils can use the Greenprints Steps as a guide to review and ‘ground test’ their existing sustainability initiatives, and to engage with regenerative strategies for ecological, community and economic health. The Greenprints Mapping Tool can also be of assistance in communicating the vision of innovative Councils who are working hard to create sustainable communities.

For businesses and corporations

Businesses and corporations can engage with the Greenprints Steps to understand and situate their operations ‘into place’, to better engage with community initiatives and connect with cutting edge approaches to regenerative economic activities.