About Us
Finding Inspiration in Every Turn
One of the best things about Waste Not Permaculture is our diversity. Our board gets a check in almost every box! Raised on a farm? Check. Multilingual? Check. Urban dweller? Check. Rural dweller? Check. Urban gardener? Check. Rural farmer? Check. Lots of permaculture design experience? Check. Read more about us below.
Meet The Team
This Is Who We Are
Gregory D. Todd serves as the president. He is a founding member of Waste Not Permaculture and has been serving as its president since its inception in 2017. He received his first permaculture design certificate in 2007 after completing a course given by Geoff Lawton at the Green Phoenix Permaculture site near High Falls New York. Along with other class members he helped found Imani Garden, a community garden in the Weeksville section of Brooklyn New York where they created a number of permaculture projects.
In 2012 Gregory completed a second permaculture course taught by Andrew Faust of the Center for Bioregional Living. That course led to the creation of bike carting and composting business called BKGreenCart.
In 2022, Gregory relocated to Canton New York where he now resides.
Paul Sibbitts serves as vice president. Paul is recently retired and joined his new friend Greg Todd on a trip to Nicaragua to attend his first Permaculture course. Quite the eye opener for him for what he learned and experienced in a new part of the world.
Paul grew up on a dairy farm (100 cows) fairly large at that time, not so big nowadays. So when he was in the throes of the permaculture course this past winter, he found himself looking at the material through his farmer’s eyes. Most of the material was easily acceptable to him but he had to ask himself the question: “can this be done (and practiced) by my former peers still in the business today?” A good part of him says “I don’t think that there should be any question about it, but it is going to take time and effort and education to get this message to the masses”. Farmers know how to grow crops/food, now if they can be willing to look at how to do things in a sustainable manner. This is the 100 million dollar question!
Monica Ibacache serves as secretary. She is the Founder and ED of Beyond Organic Design and is a community organizer, public speaker, teacher, and ecological designer based in New York City.
Monica developed her skills while growing up with her grandparents in Chile and later expanded her knowledge in southeast Alaska. She is now a certified permaculture designer in the United States, committed to improving food systems and advocating for social and environmental justice. She has a special focus on teaching in diverse and marginalized communities.
Waste Not Permaculture is a non-profit corporation chartered in New York State in 2017. WNP received its 501c3 tax exempt certificate from the IRS in 2019. Copies of these documents are available upon request.
WNP is a young, vibrant and growing organization. If you'd like to get involved, please contact us. We're always looking for people of all ages to join in our ongoing projects or to propose new ones!