After pursuing international training and certifications in renewable energy and regenerative design, as well as a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Michelle, along with her husband and business partner Rob, began Verge Permaculture in 2010, now a globally-recognized and award-winning design, consulting, and education company.

She loves the complexity of working through holistic design challenges to create resilient, eco-sustainable homes, acreages and farms that produce their own energy and food, harvest water, cycle nutrients and restore the surrounding ecosystems. By integrating innovative technology with sound design, her goal is to engineer creative solutions that bring a positive benefit to the environments in which people live and thereby thrive. A frequent instructor in Verge’s programming, she is also the co-author of two books, Essential Rainwater Harvesting and Building Your Permaculture Property.

Coupled with a deep connection to nature and a passion for growing nutrient-dense food, Michelle’s driving goal is to ensure that her work and actions leave this world a better place for future generations to inherit.

Dr Coombes is a Systems Thinker, Scientist, Engineer, Economist, Problem Solver and Policy Analyst, a Provider of alternative perspective and a designer of sustainable cities, projects and buildings.

Peter J. Coombes is a director of Urban Water Cycle Solutions and is currently an editor of the Urban Book of Australian Rainfall and Runoff and was awarded the 2018 GN Alexander medal by Engineers Australia for his contributions to hydrology and water resources.

Peter recently contributed to the inquiry into stormwater management held by the Senate of the Australian Parliament and inquiry into Australia’s water resources held by the Productivity Commission and was a chief scientist in the Victorian Government.

Peter has held senior academic positions at the University of Newcastle, Melbourne University and Swinburne University and has experience in change processes in government, development of government policy and managing complex engineering business collaborations. His professional and research interests include systems thinking and analysis, hydrology, water resources, economics, molecular sciences, water quality and public policy.

Mitch comes to us with a BSc. in physical geography with a concentration in Earth Systems from the University of Victoria (BC, Canada), and an MSc. in physical geography (applied meteorology) from the University of Otago in New Zealand where he researched the utilization of machine learning for frost prediction in complex terrain, and the controlling meteorological variables of frost events.

Mitch helps out with the Essential Rainwater Harvesting Course, Passive Solar Greenhouse Course, is the product manager of Contour Map Generator, teaches the climate & mapping section of our Online Permaculture Design Course, and leading the event planning for our summits & conferences.

In his spare time you can catch him working on the endless amounts projects at Moose’s Groovy Grove, reading, developing frost forecasting models (amongst other data science projects), running around or cycling, dipping in some cold water, going for walks with his and Madi’s growing family of animals, or working on his latest funky sauerkraut recipe (Verge PDC Grad 2021)