Origin of Transition Towns

The Transition Towns global movement was established with the publication of Rob Hopkins’ book The Transition Handbook in 2008.  At that time came the formation of national hubs to give the movement support.

Rob had a vision about ending dependency on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change.  That was also the year of the Great Recession and rising awareness of global economic uncertainty.  How was that to be accomplished?  Rob’s response was to develop more resilient communities.  That requires a local organization.

Rob started Transition Towns as a permaculture teacher in Kinsale, Ireland.  He organized his students to produce a document for dealing with oil dependence:  Kinsale 2021 – An Energy Descent Action Plan, completed in 2005.  That plan was adopted by the local Council.  Rob then moved to Totnes, England and worked with friends to develop the first Transition Towns.  From that experience he published The Transition Handbook and launched an international movement.  

The Transition Towns national hub was formed in the US in 2008.  It set out to establish a national network of Transition Initiatives.  The program and core values of the US model were published in the Transition Initiative Primer (“to be carefully read and understood” to qualify as a formal initiative).  This was a concise statement of what a Transition Town is, how to form one, and what it does.  The objective of the program, fully followed, was to develop a comprehensive community sustainability plan and an outline of tasks is to achieve were described.  These principles and practices, applied over the years, can be found in The Essential Guide to Doing Transition.

The Transition Handbook made a clear statement of the problem and advocated development of a vision for local resilient communities.  It included a long list of “Tools for Transition.”  

In 2009 a series of Transition Network books were published that included:

·  Local Food

·  Local Money

·  Local Sustainable Homes

Rob and friends were purpose driven.  Rob is a master permaculturalist.  He has a scientific and a practical discipline for developing regenerative ecosystems, and that includes communities.  As such, he understood that there had to be a comprehensive community plan, and Totnes produced one.  That effort came out as the next book in the core sequence, Transition in Action, the Totnes Energy Decent Action Plan (EDAP), published in 2010.  

This was the first official Transition Towns EDAP and it provided a working example of how it can be achieved through grassroots community collaborated.  The process consists of forming a number of working groups including: Energy, economy, food, arts, heart and soul, transport health, buildings, etc., each a 20-year timeline for community transformation.  Rob made it clear that these workgroups must constantly compare notes in order to develop a unified vision.  The Transition Centre review of the book can be found at this link[1].  Transition Centre completed Centre Sustainability Master Plan in 2014 and is currently available as the Resilient Communities Blueprint (link), a template to guide local sustainable development.

The Transition Companion was published in 2011.  It represented five years of progress of the Transition Towns movement; over 300 pages and beautifully illustrative.  It provides a description how the Transition movement looks in practice.  The bulk of the book, “How the movement does what it does – ingredients for success,” has five parts that cover the spectrum of development of a local initiative:  Starting Out, Deepening, Connecting,  Building and Daring to Dream.  There are 43 chapters, examples of what has been done. There are 21 “Tools for Transition” exercises. 

In 2013, Rob published The Power of Just Doing Stuff.  This book provides examples of the application of social entrepreneurship.

The Transition movement rapidly expanded in the US and around the world.  As we know, some thrive, some do not.  The COVID pandemic was a stress point for all organizations.  Since then, efforts are being made to revitalize the movement in the US and globally.  Transition Centre Director, Bill Sharp, has been internationally certified as a transition trainer under this new program.

[1] Transition in Action review:  https://transitioncentre.blogspot.com/2012/02/transition-in-action-totnes-and.html

The Transition Towns model, a product of the collective genius of thousands of participants.  These principles and practices have been carefully worked out by trial and error and have proven a “best practice.”

1.  Form a steering group of four or five people who want to launch a Transition Initiative.

2.  Awareness Raising accomplished by showing films, having public events, inviting speakers and giving workshops.

3.  Networking with other people and organization that want to build a sustainable community.

4.  A major public event that will go down in the history of the community as the time they all first came together to do something about their collective future.

5.  Form working groups to address the needs of your community in transition.  These groups work in many areas to establish goals and launch projects to achieve a good life with less energy and material goods.

6.  Organize Open Space meetings to engage the community in productive dialogue.

7.  Set and achieve goals that demonstrate success.

8.  Facilitate a Great Reskilling which recovers a broad range of lost skills needed for greater local self-sufficiency and self-reliance.  There are also new jobs to develop to support a green economy.

9.  Building bridges to local governments paves the way for merging Transition Towns and the local authority.

10. Honor the Elders, those who carry memories, knowledge and wisdom that will help the community prosper in times to come.

11. Let It Go Where It Wants To:  Transition is not prescriptive.  It must adapt to local conditions and cultures and it relies on the collective genius of people where they live.

Create an Energy Descent Action Plan:  Where does your community want to be in 10 to 20 years living on less energy and with true sustainability?  From that vision the community works to create and launch its EDAP.

1. Life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable and it’s better to plan for it than to be taken by surprise;

2. Our communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to weather the inevitable challenges that will come;

3. We have to act collectively and we have to act now;

4. By unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively and proactively design our resilience response, we can build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and that recognize the biological limits of our planet.

1. Visioning: Imagining what it will be like when we achieve our desired outcome.

2. Inclusion: We are all in this together and must learn to work as a cooperative community.

3. Awareness-raising:  We need clarity about the risk and options before us.

4. Resilience:  How do our communities absorb the shocks of changing environmental, economic, and political realties?  

5. Psychological insights:  How to overcome the sense of powerlessness and isolation.  Of equal importance is creating a safe psychological space for people to discuss the issues and plan an alternative future.

6. Credible and appropriate solutions:  Between individual responses and government programs lies the more human-scaled playing field of the community where we can act synergistically and creatively.

1.  Healthy Groups: Learning how to work well together

2.  Vision: Imagining the future you want to co-create

3.  Get your community involved in Transition: developing relationships beyond friends and natural allies

4.  Networks and Partnerships: Collaborating with others

5.  Practical projects: Developing inspirational projects

6.  Part of a movement: Linking up with other Transitioners

7.  Reflect & celebrate: Celebrating the difference you're making