Green Shoots of Sustainability

A new research document called Green Shoots of Sustainability is available from the Transition Culture network.

This paper is truly interesting, it provides a fascinating snapshot of the Transition movement, and reveals a great deal about the character, origins, objectives, achievements, obstacles and more of the Transition groups working with this initiative.

A few excerpts from its introduction:

“The first UK Transition Town was Totnes, formed in autumn 2006 and by February 2009 there were 94 Transition Towns, Villages, Cities and Islands in the UK and a further 40 around the world, principally in Australia, New Zealand and the USA (ibid). The Transition movement has to date been very successful at replicating its model of community-led initiatives (Hopkins, 2008). In addition, Transition Network Ltd is a formally-constituted body which supports and coordinates activities among local groups (Hopkins and Lipman, 2009).

“Yet despite this phenomenal growth and the wave of positive publicity the movement has received, there has to date been very little empirical research into the development and character of these initiatives, or the impacts they have achieved and the barriers to be overcome. This information is vital for the continuing development of the movement, both for local Initiatives and for the Network and the movement as a whole. To address this need for knowledge, this report presents new empirical findings from the first survey of UK Transition Initiatives. It was a short survey which used open- and closed-ended questions to collect basic information about the origins, development, character and activities of the UK’s Transition Initiatives. The online survey was conducted during February 2009, with email invitations sent to coordinators of all 94 Transition initiatives in the UK. Two follow-up reminders were sent, and a total of 74 responses were attained (an outstanding response rate of 78.7%).”

The survey reveals several basic information about the movement, such as:
1. the main people and organizations involved in forming these Transition groups,
2. the diverse range of issued that are addressed by the transition initiatives,
3. the level of development and area of achievement of these initiatives, this is according to the 12 step guidelines provided by Rob Hopkins’ Transition Handbook,
4. the challenges they have faced

There is no doubt that the Transition Towns movement has become a major force for change to Resilience around the world. We just read in the past week that even the UK government has revealed their UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, where they talk about the Transition Towns movement.

To read and download this important document, visit the website:

http://transitionculture.org/2009/07/21/the-2009-transition-movement-survey-essential-reading/

Transition to Local Resilience

The Transition Towns initiative from Ireland is currently one of the most important worldwide movements towards resilience. This initiative was created by Rob Hopkins in 2005 when he was teaching Permaculture in Kinsale a small Irish town, and asked his students to draft an Energy Descent Plan (EDAP).

An EDAP is a local plan for dealing with the period leading up to and following Peak Oil. It is not a plan for how to live in a sustainable world. It is a plan for the transitional period of decreasing energy — how to get to that sustainable world. It goes well beyond issues of energy supply, to look at across-the-board creative adaptations in the realms of health, education, economy and much more. An EDAP is a way to think ahead, to plan in an integrated, multidisciplinary way, to provide direction to local government, decision makers, groups and individuals with an interest in making the place they live into a vibrant and viable community in a post-carbon era.

Hopkins continued developing this idea and became the Transition Towns initiative. He wrote “The Transition Handbook: From oil dependency to Local Resilience”, he created the Transition Culture website at http://transitionculture.org/ and the rest is history.

His site has many important articles on different transition projects from all over the world. A good set they have post in the past few weeks comes from the town of Totnes, on their Insights on Resilience from the History of Totnes. These are the links to the series:

1. Back garden on food production
http://transitionculture.org/2009/07/07/insights-on-resilience-from-the-recent-history-of-totnes-1-back-garden-food-production/

2. The Market Gardens
http://transitionculture.org/2009/07/08/insights-on-resilience-from-the-recent-history-of-totnes-2-the-market-gardens/

3. Local Farmers and the Town's Markets
http://transitionculture.org/2009/07/08/insights-on-resilience-from-the-recent-history-of-totnes-3local-farmers-and-the-towns-markets/

4. Shopping
http://transitionculture.org/2009/07/10/insights-on-resilience-from-the-recent-history-of-totnes-4-shopping/

Also from Totnes, they have a new report entitled "Can Totnes and District Feed Itself: Exploring the practicalities of food relocalisation"
http://transitionculture.org/2009/07/10/announcing-the-release-of-can-totnes-and-district-feed-itself/ Quite interesting !

It seems to me that in our present difficult times, making a transition to local resilience is becoming a matter of survival for many small towns and cities around the world and the Transition Town model is a good one to follow.