Transition initiatives aim to inspire communities to reduce their reliance on oil and lower carbon emissions by building local resilience. They encourage communities to come together and take practical steps to transition to more self-sufficient, localized economies. Since 2006, transition towns have spread internationally and work to strengthen resilience in areas like food, economics, water and energy. Their long term goal is to create locally designed plans to transition to lives with minimal fossil fuel use and dramatically lower emissions by tapping into community resources and capabilities.
In the spring of 2009, I was one of the founding members of this publication for the Design Management graduate program at Pratt Institute: Benign by Design: NYC
I was responsible for designing the masthead, cover and internal spreads of the magazine. I also co-wrote the article about the Highline and was the executive editor responsible for the final product.
I was the executive editor for this issue of CATALYST and Art Directed the design of the interior pages. I also wrote the executive summary of Ray Anderson's book, Radical Industrialist.
“Imagine Stratford” is our vision as to what the Town will be like in twenty years. Citizens have assisted in developing this vision as well as a set of principles and a strategy for moving Stratford forward. It includes not only what the Town itself can do to operate in a more environmentally friendly way, but also encourages citizens to make a difference in their everyday activities.
This resource book is a compilation of forty-seven stories about residents of Stratford who are taking action to reduce their carbon footprint. The stories are divided into six sections based on subject and each section concludes with related statistics from a survey that was completed by many of the people who are profiled in the stories and their friends or neighbours within the community.
GFSC provides mentors, methods and materials to help communities strengthen their resilience and more effectively address their issues. We support facilitators working with communities worldwide, sharing our knowledge, experience and commitment, enabling communities and the institutions that serve them to identify and achieve their goals.
We believe that facilitation is an effective caalyst to build, strengthen and sustain self-reliant communities.
In the spring of 2009, I was one of the founding members of this publication for the Design Management graduate program at Pratt Institute: Benign by Design: NYC
I was responsible for designing the masthead, cover and internal spreads of the magazine. I also co-wrote the article about the Highline and was the executive editor responsible for the final product.
I was the executive editor for this issue of CATALYST and Art Directed the design of the interior pages. I also wrote the executive summary of Ray Anderson's book, Radical Industrialist.
“Imagine Stratford” is our vision as to what the Town will be like in twenty years. Citizens have assisted in developing this vision as well as a set of principles and a strategy for moving Stratford forward. It includes not only what the Town itself can do to operate in a more environmentally friendly way, but also encourages citizens to make a difference in their everyday activities.
This resource book is a compilation of forty-seven stories about residents of Stratford who are taking action to reduce their carbon footprint. The stories are divided into six sections based on subject and each section concludes with related statistics from a survey that was completed by many of the people who are profiled in the stories and their friends or neighbours within the community.
GFSC provides mentors, methods and materials to help communities strengthen their resilience and more effectively address their issues. We support facilitators working with communities worldwide, sharing our knowledge, experience and commitment, enabling communities and the institutions that serve them to identify and achieve their goals.
We believe that facilitation is an effective caalyst to build, strengthen and sustain self-reliant communities.
Open State is a series of events starting in Summer 2013. We will explore, develop and support innovative projects that work on the sustainable future we urgently need. And everything will be open-source. Our goal: prototyping the smallest cell of a sustainable society and creating blueprints for everyone to adopt. www.openstate.cc
Overview of the Ecologos Institute and its program for regional
renewal featuring the Toronto Regional Renaissance Collaboration and
the Universarium Travelling Fair.
The Change Agent Collective is a team of individuals who are all passionate about sustainability and the process of creating momentum to scale change at the community, city and national level.
TERRE News Letter Happy News for Oven Fresh New Year, with some reservations. 2015 is stated to be truly year of climate change and Sustainable Development Goals : Read 'Twenty Fifteen: Over-supply of Optimism and Short of Actions'.
Simply Green -- A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustain...NIC Inc | EGOV
A white paper that discusses various ways that technology is delivering green benefits to government -- including the value of online services in reducing paper flow and eliminating vehicle traffic for in-person office visits.
Icon Magazine invited us to be the guest contributor to their regular column called Rethink. Rethink asks designers to choose something to redesign. Rather unwisely we chose to redesign economic strategy.
Specifically, a media campaign promoting a shift in the balance of incentives away from competition in favour of cooperation. Delivered on 32 slogans, that rather chillingly, crop up everywhere.
This is a draft of the presentation that will be given at the HEA Social Sciences annual conference - Teaching forward: the future of the Social Sciences.
For further details of the conference: http://bit.ly/1cRDx0p
Bookings open until 19 May 2014 http://bit.ly/1hzCMLR or external.events@heacademy.ac.uk
Imagined world
This paper draws upon one world imagined through the transition movement; characterised by two interrelated and dynamic movements that will trigger a major ontological shift one is the end of cheap oil and the other is the impact of climate change. Many possible worlds may result and depend upon how we respond to climate change. The end of cheap oil spells the end to our modern industrial way of life and a need to rethink our communities in terms of their resilience. Resilience describes the capacity for communities to be able to meet their own needs - currently we are 3 days away from having no food in supermarkets should the infrastructure that support this breakdown. In this future, society faces a more inhospitable climate characterised by water shortage, extreme weather conditions and greatly diminished resources; necessitating a return to traditional skills such as weaving, hunting, bushcraft etc. On the one hand this poses a planned approach to the impending apocalypse through building resilience, but on the other hand is the view “there may be a situation where society breaks down and civil unrest leaves you and your family vulnerable". So you had better be prepared!
Abstract
This paper considers the future predicted through the ‘Transition’ movement which argues that our environment and lives will be drastically altered as a result of climate change and the end of cheap oil. A consequence of this is that skills and knowledge that we engage students with will need to support the development of resilient communities; which emphasise local production and a return to traditional methods. This paper draws upon sustainability, academic practice and psychoanalytic theory to explore whether working with such a scenario is helpful or unhelpful for engaging students and peers with sustainability.
Innagural presentation for Transition Milwaukee. The transition movement is an international grassroots framework for creating local resilience and self-reliance in the face of peak oil and climate change.
Open State is a series of events starting in Summer 2013. We will explore, develop and support innovative projects that work on the sustainable future we urgently need. And everything will be open-source. Our goal: prototyping the smallest cell of a sustainable society and creating blueprints for everyone to adopt. www.openstate.cc
Overview of the Ecologos Institute and its program for regional
renewal featuring the Toronto Regional Renaissance Collaboration and
the Universarium Travelling Fair.
The Change Agent Collective is a team of individuals who are all passionate about sustainability and the process of creating momentum to scale change at the community, city and national level.
TERRE News Letter Happy News for Oven Fresh New Year, with some reservations. 2015 is stated to be truly year of climate change and Sustainable Development Goals : Read 'Twenty Fifteen: Over-supply of Optimism and Short of Actions'.
Simply Green -- A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustain...NIC Inc | EGOV
A white paper that discusses various ways that technology is delivering green benefits to government -- including the value of online services in reducing paper flow and eliminating vehicle traffic for in-person office visits.
Icon Magazine invited us to be the guest contributor to their regular column called Rethink. Rethink asks designers to choose something to redesign. Rather unwisely we chose to redesign economic strategy.
Specifically, a media campaign promoting a shift in the balance of incentives away from competition in favour of cooperation. Delivered on 32 slogans, that rather chillingly, crop up everywhere.
This is a draft of the presentation that will be given at the HEA Social Sciences annual conference - Teaching forward: the future of the Social Sciences.
For further details of the conference: http://bit.ly/1cRDx0p
Bookings open until 19 May 2014 http://bit.ly/1hzCMLR or external.events@heacademy.ac.uk
Imagined world
This paper draws upon one world imagined through the transition movement; characterised by two interrelated and dynamic movements that will trigger a major ontological shift one is the end of cheap oil and the other is the impact of climate change. Many possible worlds may result and depend upon how we respond to climate change. The end of cheap oil spells the end to our modern industrial way of life and a need to rethink our communities in terms of their resilience. Resilience describes the capacity for communities to be able to meet their own needs - currently we are 3 days away from having no food in supermarkets should the infrastructure that support this breakdown. In this future, society faces a more inhospitable climate characterised by water shortage, extreme weather conditions and greatly diminished resources; necessitating a return to traditional skills such as weaving, hunting, bushcraft etc. On the one hand this poses a planned approach to the impending apocalypse through building resilience, but on the other hand is the view “there may be a situation where society breaks down and civil unrest leaves you and your family vulnerable". So you had better be prepared!
Abstract
This paper considers the future predicted through the ‘Transition’ movement which argues that our environment and lives will be drastically altered as a result of climate change and the end of cheap oil. A consequence of this is that skills and knowledge that we engage students with will need to support the development of resilient communities; which emphasise local production and a return to traditional methods. This paper draws upon sustainability, academic practice and psychoanalytic theory to explore whether working with such a scenario is helpful or unhelpful for engaging students and peers with sustainability.
Innagural presentation for Transition Milwaukee. The transition movement is an international grassroots framework for creating local resilience and self-reliance in the face of peak oil and climate change.
Small Town, Sustainable Opportunities. Examining How the Transition Movement ...oregonslidesharer
I wanted to find out how to change my community for the better. Sustainability-wise, health-wise and economic-wise. I found the concept of "Transition Towns" and researched how that could affect my town.
Welcome to the Biosphere Economy, a revolution ignited by global ecological overshoot, which is transforming the way business, investors, and governments view, value and manage natural capital
A pro-bono document on behalf of a man who is single-handedly running recycling collections with his old van in Antigua for grassroots initiative Zero Waste Antigua and Rubber Duck recycling: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rubber-Duck-Recycling
A presentation about ecological restoration in the community. Presented by David Gould, Director of Natural Resources for the town of Plymouth, during the Buzzards Bay Coalition's 2012 Decision Makers Workshop series. Learn more at www.savebuzzardsbay.org/DecisionMakers
1. New Thinking, New Tools Think globally, act locally
The Transition Network is an international organization
Transition Initiatives inspire communities to
come together to explore practical action steps
that aims to inspire, encourage, network, support and train
communities, including existing groups and initiatives, in Can you imagine
exploring the transition from oil dependency to relocalized
for rebuilding local resilience and reducing
carbon emissions.
economies.
Since the “unleashing” of Transition Town Totnes in
life beyond oil?
2006, the concept has quickly spread through the UK,
Australia, Japan, and other locations around the world.
Resilience is the ability to flex and adapt in the Transition Initiatives make no claim to have all the answers,
face of change. It refers to the capacity of our but by building on the wisdom of the past and accessing
the pool of ingenuity, skills and determination in our com-
businesses, communities, and settlements to
munities, we believe the solutions will emerge.
deal with outside shocks, whether from fuel By thinking and acting together, the transition to a way
price volatility or food shortages. Transition of living that consumes substantially less carbon energy—
initiatives strive to build resilience across a yet is a happier, more fulfilling and abundant place—will
become much more achievable.
wide range of areas (food, economics, water,
energy, etc.) Transition Network (international)
Read the “Transition Primer” free online.
www.TransitionTowns.org
Work in these areas eventually forms the
backbone of a locally-designed Energy Descent Transition United States
Action Plan. This timetabled roadmap will offers live training events in Transition ideas
www.TransitionUS.org
define the steps leading
towards a life that has
minimal reliance on fossil Transition in Los Angeles
fuels and dramatically Transition in the vast Los Angeles basin is happening via a
lower carbon emis- network of local pods. Some of these local pods are orga-
sions, a life that profits nized within geographic neighborhoods; others have been
from the abundance founded around already-existing gathering points within
the community such as community gardens, churches, or
of resources and Permaculture groups. Local activities include awareness
capabilities within raising, holding reskilling classes, creating physical projects,
our communities. and forming working groups.
Would you like to have transition activities in
your local neighborhood? Transition Los Angeles
offers a city hub for activities and events in the
greater Los Angeles area. We can help you find
like-minded people and get started.
guiding our communities from
www.TransitionLA.org oil dependency to local resilience
TransitionLA@gmail.com
2. The Challenges First Steps to Transition
The toughest challenge
facing humankind at the
b Raise awareness Here’s how
Films, events and talks can alert to start a Transition
start of the 21st century the community to the potential
is climate change and effects of both Peak Oil and initiative in your
peak oil combined. While Climate Change. While climate local area...
climate change is well change calls for a reduction in
documented and quite carbon emissions, peak oil demands
that we increase community resilience.
visible in the media, there
is much less public aware-
b Establish a core team Solar cooking
ness of Peak Oil. Gather some like-minded people to drive the project
forward during the initial phases.
Peak Oil is the understanding that the world’s supply b Build connections
b Facilitate the “Great Reskilling” Network with existing complementary groups. When
of fossil fuels is finite, and that we are currently dipping
Offer training in the vast range of practical skills the time is right, build a bridge to local government.
into the second half of that planetary supply. The brief Rather than duplicating their work, you’re requesting
which we have lost over the past 40 years—skills like
Age of Cheap Oil has come to its inevitable end. their input in a new way of looking at the future.
food production and preservation, repairing, water
harvesting, construction with local materials, growing
The end of cheap oil will soon have a severe impact local economies, etc. b Eventually your team will...
on our lifestyles. Oil is deeply embedded in our ways Tap into the collective genius of your community. Set
of living, from transportation and food production to b Create physical projects up working groups to focus on all key aspects of local
which grow the resilience of your community. These life such as: energy, food, water, building, transport,
consumer products. We are fed, clothed and warmed
might be productive tree plantings, solar panels, or a business, education, health, psychology, waste. After
not by the produce of the land around us, but by food, about a year, you’ll be ready to develop an Energy
beautiful cob structure. Demonstrate that something
goods, and fuel transported hundreds and thousands of Descent Action Plan, and the task of transitioning to
is happening.
miles—a system which is entirely dependent on supplies a life beyond oil begins...
of cheap oil.
The full “12 Steps of Transition” are online at the
Tree planting “Transition Primer” www.TransitionTowns.org
The impact that burning fossil fuels has on our climate
has become obvious. And yet, decreased fossil fuel avail-
ability may well prevent the economic and social stabil-
ity that is essential if we are to mitigate the threats posed
by climate change.
The future with less oil could
Transition Initiatives currently represent one of the most be better than the present,
promising ways of engaging people and communities but only if we engage in
in strengthening themselves against the effects of these designing this Transition with
two monumental challenges. Furthermore, these efforts
creativity and imagination.
can be designed to result in a life that is more fulfilling, Bread baking
—Rob Hopkins, founder of the Local food
socially connected, and resilient. Transition Towns movement