The Transition Companion Making your community more resilient in uncertain times

In 2008, the bestselling The Transition Handbook suggested a model for a community-led response to peak oil and climate change. Since then, the Transition idea has gone viral across the globe, from universities and London neighbourhoods to Italian villages and Brazilian favelas. In contrast to the ever-worsening stream of information about climate change, the economy and resource depletion, Transition focuses on solutions, on community-scale projects and on positive results. 

 The Transition Companion picks up the story today, describing one of the most fascinating experiments now under way in the world. It shows how communities are working for a future where local enterprises are valued and nurtured; where lower energy use is seen as a benefit; and where cooperation, creativity and the building of resilience are the cornerstones of a new economy.  

 The first part discusses where we are now in terms of resilience to the problems of rising oil prices, climate change and economic uncertainty. It presents a vision of how the future might look if we succeed in addressing these issues. The book then looks in detail at the process a community in transition goes through, drawing on the experience of those who have already embarked on this journey. These examples show how much can be achieved when people harness energy and imagination to create projects that will make their communities more resilient. The Transition Companion combines practical advice – the tools needed to start and maintain a Transition initiative – with numerous inspiring stories from local groups worldwide.

Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Network. He has many years' experience in education, teaching permaculture and natural building, and set up the first two-year full-time permaculture course in the world, at Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland, as well as coordinating  the first eco-village development in Ireland to be granted planning permission.

He is author of The Transition Handbook: from oil dependence to local resilience and The Transition Companion: making your community more resilient in uncertain times, and co-author of Local Food: how to make it happen in your community (all published by Green Books / Transition Books); also Transition in Action: Totnes and District 2030: an Energy Descent Plan (co-author), Woodlands for West Cork! and Energy Descent Pathways.

The Transition Handbook has been published in seven other languages to date, and was voted the fifth most popular book taken on holiday by MPs during the summer of 2008. Rob publishes www.transitionculture.org, which has been voted ‘the fourth best green blog in the UK’. He is the winner of the 2008 Schumacher Award, is an Ashoka Fellow and a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, served as a Soil Association Trustee for three years, and was named by the Independent as one of the UK’s top 100 environmentalists. He is the winner of the 2009 Observer Ethical Award in the Grassroots Campaigner category, and in December 2009 was voted the Energy Saving Trust / Guardian’s ‘Green Community Hero’. He lectures and writes widely on peak oil and Transition, and has recently completed a PhD on Transition and Resilience at Plymouth University.

Central toThe Transition Handbook and The Transition Companion is the concept of ‘resilience’, which refers to the ability of a community to withstand external shocks and stresses. Rob argues that just cutting carbon emissions is insufficient: we need to rebuild the ability of our communities to provide for their core needs, and doing so will create huge opportunities for local economic regeneration. His books are about hope and optimism, and their untapped potential for engaging people in repairing their communities, their towns and cities, and, ultimately, their planet. The Transition Companion expands on the ideas in the Handbook, combining practical advice on starting and maintaining a Transition initiative with inspiring stories about groups across the world who are putting these ideas into practice.

Rob regularly features as a keynote speaker, and has participated at the following events: Community Land Trust Conference; WWF (talk to the various teams); Sustainable Consumption and Production Conference; Dorset Schools Eco-Summit; Eco-Build Summit; Prince’s Foundation Annual Conference at St James’s Palace; Skype presentation to the Nova Scotia Planning Directors Association (NSPDA) Conference; Skype presentation for the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) conference.

He lives in Devon with his wife and four children. He has particular passions for cob building and walnut trees, and is staggered by the rate at which the Transition concept has spread.

Forewords

Introduction

PART ONE: Why the Transition movement does what it does

Chapter 1: The emergence of an idea: a potted history of Transition

Chapter 2: Why Transition initiatives do what they do

Chapter 3: Where we might be headed: the power of future scenarios

Chapter 4: Resilience and localisation

Chapter 5: A taste of a powered-down future

PART TWO: What the Transition response looks like in practice

Chapter 6: Framing Transition

Chapter 7: The story of four Transition initiatives told using ingredients and tools

PART THREE: How the Transition movement does what it does – ingredients for success

Starting out

1. Coming together as groups

2. Inclusion and diversity

Tools for Transition No.1: Permaculture design

3. Respectful communication

4. Forming an initiating group

Tools for Transition No.2: Standing up to speak

5. Understanding scale

6. Measurement

Tools for Transition No.3: Transition Training

7. Visioning

8. Arts and creativity

Tools for Transition No.4: Running effective meetings

9. Awareness raising

10. Forming working groups8

Tools for Transition No.5: Forming a legal entity

11. Building partnerships

12. The evolving structure

Tools for Transition No.6: Communicating with the media

13. Backcasting

14. Creating a space for inner Transition

Deepening

1. ‘Transition Towers’ – having an office, or not?

2. Practical manifestations

Tools for Transition No.7: Volunteers and volunteering

3. The ‘Great Reskilling’

4. How we communicate

Tools for Transition No.8: Financing your Transition initiative

5. Celebrating

6. Celebrate failure

7. “How are we doing?”

8. Local food initiatives

9. Momentum

10. Ensuring land access

Tools for Transition No.9: Supporting each other

11. Personal resilience

Tools for Transition No.10: Unleashings

Tools for Transition No.11: Healthy conflict

12. Education for Transition

Connecting

1. Forming networks of Transition initiatives

Tools for Transition No.12: Street-by-street behaviour change

2. Involving the council

Tools for Transition No.13: Becoming the media

3. Working with local businesses

Tools for Transition No.14: Energy Resilience Assessment

4. Oral histories

Tools for Transition No.15: Community brainstorming tools

5. Engaging young people

Tools for Transition No.16: Meaningful maps

6. The role of storytelling

Tools for Transition No.17: Speaking up for Transition

7. Pausing for reflection

Building

1. Energy Descent Action Plans

2. Social enterprise and entrepreneurship

3. Scaling up

Tools for Transition No.18: Community renewable energy companies

4. Strategic local infrastructure

Tools for Transition No.19: Tools for plugging the leaks

5. Appropriate technologies

6. Community ownership of assets

Tools for Transition No.20: Community-supported farms, bakeries and breweries

7. Strategic thinking

Tools for Transition No.21: Peak oil resolutions

Daring to dream

1. Policies for Transition

2. A learning network

3. Investing in Transition

Epilogue: Where might all this be going?

Appendices

Notes and references

Resources

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