Transition Initiatives

A Transition Town is a community-led response to the pressures of climate change, fossil fuel depletion and increasingly, economic contraction.

The movement originates from a student project overseen by permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins at the Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland. The project involved writing an Energy Descent Action Plan, which looked at creative adaptations in the realms of energy production, health, education, economy and agriculture as a road map to a sustainable future for the town. The term Transition Town was coined by Louise Rooney and Catherine Dunne, two of Rob Hopkins students, who set about developing the Transition Towns concept presented it to Kinsale Town Council, resulting in the historic decision by Councillors to adopt the plan and work towards energy independence. Following its start in Kinsale, it then spread to Totnes, England where Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande developed the concept. The movement currently has thousands of member communities worldwide.

The term "Transition Towns" has morphed into "Transition Initiatives" to reflect the range and type of communities involved- there are not transition towns, villages, universities and even a transition island (Isle of Wight).

The main aim of Transition Initiatives is to raise awareness of sustainable living and build local ecological resilience in the near future. Communities are encouraged to seek out methods for reducing energy usage as well as reducing their reliance on long supply chains that are totally dependent on fossil fuels for essential items. Food is a key area. Central to the Transition Town movement is the idea that a life without oil could in fact be far more enjoyable and fulfilling than the present. A low carbon society can be thriving, resilient and abundant; somewhere much better to live than our current alienated consumer culture based on the myth of perpetual growth.

The project starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together to address the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil. The decision to form a transition initiative rests on several crucial points:

• to a certain degree, we all experience a life disconnected from our living environment, disconnected from our communities and disconnected from our landbase

• that our energy-profligate ways of living have depleted our resource base to critical levels

• that we used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there's no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope

• that we have to act now, rather than wait for "someone else"

• if we collectively plan and act early enough there's every likelihood that we can create a way of living that's significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.

A key concept within transition is the idea of a community visioned, community designed and community implemented plan to proactively transition the community away from fossil fuels. A disclaimer is offered with the initiative. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale. There is no guarantee that the actions undertaken will work, but it is better to engage proactively with the challenges in a community context than wait until the last minute to act.