"Your work is at the cutting edge of food and energy security" ~Dennis D., Waitsfield, VT

"The work of Whole Systems Design is fascinating, visionary, and vital. They craft living solutions out of what a place is and what it can be. They are testing the waters for a new wave of design that embraces social and ecological  complexity and finds a fundamental fit between the two."

~Paul Cawood Hellmund, ASLA, Director, Conway Graduate Program in Sustainable Landscape Planning & Design

Learning Landscapes

“We approached Whole Systems Design with the goal of turning the sloping lawn of our dining center into a campus vegetable garden. Drawing on the campus’ Olmsted and Leopold legacy they designed an integrated annual and perennial food garden system that models the best in sustainable agriculture. They also integrated an outdoor classroom and study space into the design and graphically outlined a compelling long-term vision for the dining center to become a pioneering sustainable food production facility complete with rooftop food gardening, year-round greenhouse cultivation and much more. Their plans were produced to serve directly as a curricular tool in design and ecology-based classes. With the help of their illustrative plans we are well on our way to raising the funds necessary to implement the long-term sustainable learning landscape plan. Whole Systems Design exceeded our expectations and has outlined a path toward successes in opportunities we hadn’t yet identified.”

~Joshua Hahn, Ed. M., Harvard University
Former Aldo Leopold Fellow, Lawrenceville School


Healing/Inspirational Settings

“Ben Falk is a visionary craftsman with a sensitive eye to the land and to the relationship between people, land and community. Whole Systems Design has worked with Center for Whole Communities for three years helping us create a design benchmark for the kind of natural building that inspires people and is a core component of our programming. WSD helped us to design and build a solar bathhouse using materials directly from the site. The structure has successfully met its goals and is a source of constant inspiration and education for us and for the participants in our programs. We turn to Ben often for his perspectives on design and whole thinking.”

~Peter Forbes, Author and Director of the Center for Whole Communities.


Working Landscapes

“The approach at Whole Systems Design is to combine ecology, design and compelling communications in the creation of landscapes that are simultaneously beautiful and regenerative. This is landscape design that reflects true environmental sustainability.”

~Amy L. Seidl, PhD
Associate Director, LivingFuture


"Falk's firm, Whole Systems Design, wrote the 100-year master plan for the soil, water features, plants and animals on the site-from the willow trees to the algae in the ponds. It's a prototype for sustainable, fossil-fuel-free food production. Beginning this fall, they'll harvest wild rice and cranberries from the wetlands, hickory nuts and mushrooms in the 1000+ acres of forest, plums and gooseberries in the orchards, and grains and strawberries intensively on rotated sites. Perpetual agriculture at Teal Farm looks less like the monoculture fields of traditional agriculture and more like an enhanced wilderness. In place of "conventional organic farming" – monocrops with intensive, albeit natural, fertilizer and pesticide inputs – permaculture transforms the entire landscape and puts in "guilds" of different plants that work together to support each other and enhance the soil. Food comes from orchards, gardens, ponds, bogs, annual vegetable and seed gardens, hedges and terraced hillsides. Nitrogen-fixing plants, crop rotation, and grazing animals will restore the soil; Food will be dried and preserved on site, seeds saved, and new varieties introduced..."

~Anya Kamenetz on Teal Farm
Writer, Fast Company Magazine

Presentations-Communications

"This presentation should have been required on all days of the conference.  The information imparted is what all green industry folks need to know and plan for accordingly.  Kudos to Mr. Falk and NEG for having him speak."

~Conference Attendee to New England Grows, Boston

“Ben, your presentation was terrific! Students have been raving about it. Great stories, great images and great examples of systems thinking and interdisciplinary problem-solving in action. I can't thank you enough.”

~Matt Kolan, Professor UVM Rubenstein School of Natural Resources

"I wanted to thank you again for your outstanding presentation to the Mountain Gardeners last week.  The scope of your knowledge is remarkable and we all left with our heads swimming with new ideas, a sure sign of a successful afternoon"

~Liz Weller, Community Organizer

"Ben, we were thrilled by your presentation! We got about twice the attendance we expected, and people left beaming and thanking us profusely. I learned a lot, and I'm sure there weren't many people there that didn't go away with a much better understanding of permaculture and the skills and tools we will need post-oil."

~Kye Cochran, Transition Town White River Junction Organizer

“I’ve learned more practical skills in this course than in any of my other classes at UVM. The opportunity to engage in real projects with actual clients was invaluable and an experience not normally available in liberal arts education. In this course we’ve produced a product and had an experience that will serve us well past graduation.”

~Student in University of Vermont’s Ecological Landscape Design: ENVS 295, 3 credits