Inward Journey: Transition Towns

TRANSITION TOWNS

What is a Transition Town (or village / city / forest / island)?

by Transition Towns WIKI
Here's how it all appears to be evolving...

It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?

They begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model (explained here at length, and in bits here and here) with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative.

A Transition Initiative is a community (lots of examples here) working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question:

"for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"

After going through a comprehensive and creative process of:

awareness raising around peak oil, climate change and the need to undertake a community lead process to rebuild resilience and reduce carbon
connecting with existing groups in the community
building bridges to local government
connecting with other transition initiatives
forming groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)
kicking off projects aimed at building people's understanding of resilience and carbon issues and community engagement
eventually launching a community defined, community implemented "Energy Descent Action Plan" over a 15 to 20 year timescale

This results in a coordinated range of projects across all these areas of life that strives to rebuild the resilience we've lost as a result of cheap oil and reduce the community's carbon emissions drastically.

The community also recognises two crucial points:

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
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.

If you want to find out more, check out the other menu items on the left hand site of the page.

Final point

Just to weave the climate change and peak oil situations together...

Climate change makes this carbon reduction transition essential
Peak oil makes it inevitable
Transition initiatives make it feasible, viable and attractive (as far we can tell so far...)

Visit Transition Towns WIKI

TRANSITION TOWNS: An Interview with Rob Hopkins
The founder of a growing movement shows us around 'Transition Town Totnes' in Devon and talks about peak oil, the origin of the Transition Towns concept and how to help your community develop an 'energy descent plan' and prepare to 'power down.'

Transition Network was set up in spring 2007 to support Transition Initiatives around the world.

This Who We Are and What We Do document (now also in in Italian!) gives what we hope is a clear picture of our intention, principles and practices and how the wider network of transitioners is developing. This document will be updated from time to time - it reflects an organisation that is evolving in world that's in somewhat of a state of flux. It'll be an interesting ride...

Designated Transition Towns

10 First Steps for a Transition Town Initiative by Rob Hopkins

Transition Towns by Ruth Ann Smalley at the

from the

Transition Sydney is a group of Sydney people whose concern about the impact that climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and collapsing global trade and financial systems will have on our way of life calls us to do something practical about it.

Action is needed at the local level to help communities transition to the new realities these forces will bring and to build their own local resilience. This action starts with a few people getting together and deciding to do something in their local area.
Our role is to promote and support such local action - and to roll up our sleeves and work alongside those local groups and coalitions that take up the challenge. Our aim is to be both a catalyst, a partner and an ongoing resource centre for local transition initiatives across the region.
Our focus in this endeavour is on the Sydney Basin Bioregion. While the action projects we aim to encourage and support will be at the suburb and precinct level, our local energy, food and water dependencies span the entire Sydney Basin Bioregion and beyond, and local solutions need to take these into account.
Luckily, we are not the first and not alone in this endeavour. There are well advanced grass-roots initiatives around the world which have created a pathway for us to follow while we create our uniquely Australian, uniquely Sydney response.

So how does Transition Sydney help local Transition Initiatives?

Since the first meeting in March 2008 when three strangers met after work in a CBD cafe, our vision to assist local transitions all over the greater Sydney Bioregion began to take shape and has driven our efforts since then. In short our efforts are directed toward doing whatever it takes to:

Raising awareness of the need to consider transition initiatives in communities across the region
Helping community groups and concerned individuals connect with each other in their local areas and start the essential dialogue that leads to action
Communicating the possibilities and pathways offered by the "transition model" of community planning and action that leads to community resilience and self-determination
Representing and promoting the model of community resilience planning and action to all levels of government whose decisions impact the sustainability of lifepost peak-oil and in a carbon emission -constrained world in the greater Sydney region.
Training motivated individuals and community groups in the contexts, processes and skills relevant to successful local transition initiatives
Providing information and links to sources of information that inform the need for and the process of planning for local community resilience.
Facilitating the formation and ongoing development of local initiatives using the power of web-enabled tehnology
Encouraging and enabling sharing of ideas, information and experiences between local initiatives

Specifically, what does Transition Sydney have to offer?

Presentations to community groups and community gatherings on transitioon contexts, drivers and processes
A central website 'meeting place' for transition-minded folk to connect with others in their area
A library of films to alert, inform, inspire and motivate people to take action
Contacts with local government, state government, academic and community leaders engaged in sustainability work
A resource-rich website (you're on it now!) to inform, connect and enable
A website capability to allow local groups to 'piggy -back' on our development and run their own web-presence at no cost
Internet forums for both local groups and the wider transition community to further the development of the unique transition solutions for the Sydney region
Passion, commitment, determination and personal support for all those who embark on their inner and outer transition journey

Contact us here to discuss how we can assist you and your local community embark or continue your transition initiative
This site is dedicated to Luca Harvey and his resilient future - Luca was born ten days after Transition Sydney was established.