Transition in Action: new economy projects in the southwest of England

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Transition in Action: new economy projects in the southwest of England

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English (Automatic Captions) 0:01you 0:05don't 0:09the ambition a transition is a really big transition says 0:13how can we change our food system our energy generation system 0:16the crux of what we do is that we grow gourmet ice too much who's 0:19from way Scott Graham it is a genuine local store 0:23money arresting two people in Bristol really need it tonight 0:26thinking about cooperative and 0:29went there collectively we could have a system where people couldn't 0:33invest more demands individually our idea was to what we were creating 0:38wasn't detox for the way our business 0:42is for the community and it's not for profit at all 0:46sold money at the end of the day 0:49is it that social relation if we could ships 10 percent of what we spend on 0:53food as a community 0:55to supporting local food has 2 million pounds in our economy 0:59bus economic development got how she couldn't go to release sketches had 1:04little bit came back to decide given no 1:06take Market Garden actually walk the developing 1:09world needs his alternatives to development 1:12really what it comes down to it is trust we started doing transition 1:16imagining it was a an ecological process an environmental processes economic 1:21process 1:21but now we really see it as being a cultural process 1:24surreal sensed it did working together to try and transfer 1:29things investor and that his millions band 1:35in her own chili which sent I were kitchen 1:39the connie chung the economics transition program in I hate enjoy that 1:43amazing said clips and founders put its inspiring 1:46there are examples transition in action here across the South West England 1:51during this movie we can look at how the new economy is coming into being in this 1:56area while 1:56so we can look at how Transition Town Talk nest started 2:00and salsa at projects that are not getting off the ground 2:04in the fusion energy and finance sectors then we can a scale 2:07and look at what transition look like at the city level using per so 2:12as a case study then again stay with us transition like 2:15at the national level looking at how transition is beginning to influence 2:20national policy 2:21in the UK and then how transition is in fact 2:26growing across the world not just in northern countries but in certain 2:30countries 2:31new transition initiatives starting all the time 2:34and regional and national hub for developing hijra pockets to tell me more 2:38about how transition started 2:40transition time Thomas started as a question 2:44we said what would it look like 2:47if if we all came together and and did something about this 2:51we don't need anyone to give us permission we could just get started so 2:55in 2005 to 2006 2:59we just showed films about peak oil and climate change and 3:02after a while people started to stop us in the street and say 3:06yeah okay we understand the peak oil thing now we get the peak oil thing 3:10been what next so project started very quickly 3:14people wearing we're excited they were inspired they wanted to do things 3:18in there September 2006 we held a big event 3:22that was the launch event to kick the whole thing off 3:25we have about 400 people for 150 people came to this event 3:30and we can just invited them to be part of a process 3:33we started to set up group working group 3:37we had a food group we had an Energy Group we have Housing Group 3:41we have an education group and these groups started doing different projects 3:46and food was the thing that got started first 3:49and you see in transition group around the world the food projects get started 3:54first 3:54school farm it's a brilliant project because it reflects both 3:57and low-carbon think growing business 4:01as well as operating as a 4:04training ground for new students in sustainable horticulture 4:07the number of these horticulture students from Smith College 4:10went on to develop school from into a community supported agriculture 4:13enterprise 4:14and his house in order to tell you what that looks like in practice 4:17in the sixties is pulling its peak a sixties and seventies importa culture 4:21education 4:22then in the nineteen eighties this place kinda I'm 4:25fell into disuse this failed was completely overrun with perennial weeds 4:29and very much has been written off I would say bye Dartington Hall trust that 4:33manage their properties to generate income 4:35they weren't really expecting much income for this and related ample great 4:39perfect conditions for 4:40regeneration it was a space to support land-based 4:44sustainable projects and now it's really as thriving as a as a CSA that's the 4:49really key part the community 4:51me the first thing was to get this the horticultural base going again 4:55and there was a proposal to get a market garden going 4:58and the feeling was we wanted something a little bit more ambitious 5:02and so the guy proposing it couldn't go to anyone scratched his head at that 5:06came back to decide even know 5:08take Market Garden turning the soil be releasing a lot of carbon into the 5:12atmosphere basically you're losing a lot of the quality of the soil incentive 5:16conditions for growing 5:17and and so it's easy to see why a few plowing regularly get into the chapel 5:21needing to use lotsa artificial inputs fertilizer mono 5:24yes if this is very much no never turning the soil 5:27its and that's actually adding organic matter on top on top 5:31on top and lot waiting and low mechanization say this 5:36there's not much machinery goes up here you have a low feel that the solo play 5:39this is by gateway 5:41and they still a little bit bounce in the soil here 5:44if you go by gateway on any conventional farming be like concrete 5:47civil machinery running over once things start to happen here we were approached 5:51by a close call Duchy college 5:53they said well you got so much going on here now we could run horticulture 5:56education here so students could learn hey they could learn 5:59they've got money back she Mackie College and they could learn at the 6:02Heritage Gardens that's when starting to hold at the top 6:05and and once that started to happen then there was also an income for the place 6:10and and basically everyone is working here now 6:13has almost without exception has been through that course which is kilo or 6:17for college courses that we're on she Macker and 6:21Duchy college brought this whole farm tonight 6:24has four different businesses running on the small side 6:27so we have a flower project salads and nursery plants 6:31we have and orchard and then we also have a CSA 6:35the community supported agriculture project which is run by four 6:39directors so for women and we all 6:42take part in our livelihood and from the farm 6:46the community including Transition Town partner 6:50said we really like to see a community supported agriculture 6:53we always produce more in cases problems and then 6:56if we produce more and we have much more harvest that year 6:59we can sell it to the local shops we have sold to referred 7:03farm shop its divergent otherwise for the most part we sell into green 9 7:07which is unethical small supermarkets 7:10am in the center Thomas our business 7:14is for the community and it's not for profit at all 7:18social enterprise are income comes one-third comes from our CSA members 7:23one-third comes from teaching on college courses through sumac 7:27and through and picked in college and also we run our own 7:31no dig beginners gardening course and then one third over income at the moment 7:35is through grants 7:37we're still working on the business plan and how we can create 7:40farm that will carry through into the future and just keep going 7:43no matter what happens in be resilient says who farm with one of the first 7:47projects to get going 7:48in in this area on the Dartington the state and since then a number of other 7:52projects 7:53whole cluster actually in fact across the over projects have 7:57involved and the rule linked in some way 8:00for example the flowers at school from and 8:03are used by Abu by green few new company which is one of the new businesses there 8:08there's also a gray cycle which is about and growing mushrooms 8:12based on waste and particularly from coffee grounds 8:16as well as those two businesses the 10 abates 8:19he's the traditional that the worker and together they create a whole cluster 8:24businesses state they share resources they work together 8:27one one activity fees in a 8:31to provide every source input into another activity 8:34so it's well I would call creating an industrial ecology or 8:38a sickly economy in the beginning to that begin to sell 8:41and with school school from being at the center said his 8:45and at and he's going to talk to this little bit about what's happening 8:48recycle we run the business cycle per cycle 8:51crux of what we do is that we grow gourmet ice to my shoes from waz coffee 8:55grounds the inside each one of these boxes 8:57this the waste about 100 cups coffee what happens here is 9:00is mainly a business porn production and the croquettes 9:04the site in Exeter is much bigger and in some ways a bit more interesting with 9:07more 9:08happen but you'll get a sense that from the inside 9:11the night is when you come inside that is really warm I'm 9:15an only the lights are off in stock and that's just the ideal conditions for the 9:20the mushroom spawn to stop growing and you can see various different stages a 9:24growth scare 9:25so for example his wanted the grandkids after about a week or so 9:29been made you can still see there's quite a lot of you can see that to 9:32coffee that Conyers kind 9:34mister quite dark just a week later and you'll see that its complaint like that 9:39and that's that the the russians ones taken into the coffee 9:43feeding off a bit for that new to instill and its use as much as it's food 9:47source 9:48another week or so this time you can cut back open it will start to produce 9:51motions 9:52and no love this ring serves to highlight 9:56the role in the funky playmate sandwiches to recycle nutrients back 9:59into their 10:00through 10 in religious utilizing 10:04millions of years ago the pollution we're playing 10:07tonight in a very large waste streams 10:10Casey just heard back to really exciting to protect the 10:14happening in the local area I am but what this isn't just 10:17fixing don't think there's also some really exciting Finance and Economic 10:21projects that going 10:23and one of those first purchase it started up with its the the top with 10:26pound 10:27and the top with pound is about supporting 10:31local a businesses 3 keeping money flowing lately 10:36in in the top this area of the topless pound 10:40various other projects have been getting to the setup including the 10:43the economy project re economy project has developed a local economic 10:48blueprint top mess and it's discovered that 10:52there is many a opportunities who knew 10:56local businesses to set up for example in the food sector 11:00and there's also the incubator which supports new social environmental and 11:05crisis in the necessary and 11:09one things I really love is the and new social entrepreneurs forum 11:13this is where projects that need new finance 11:17poo get together with local we've national investors 11:21and members of the community come see what they get the cno 11:24sport development all new local economy into a mess 11:28one other things is probably generated more Press 11:32and media for transition time talk less than anything else has been the topless 11:35pound 11:36which is the local currency scheme we started and in 2007 11:42I went into a building and in the town 11:45which used to be a bank and on the wall they had an 11:4818 10 topless banknote 11:52framed hanging on the wall than I thought that's very interesting 11:56what happened if we printed symbol we printed just 11:59300 as a kind over an experiment 12:03some people really liked it so then we printed some other ones and that was 12:06fine and then we printed these ones 12:08the for a for a few years we only had one pound note this is the new tom is 12:12paramount 12:12and they have for local famous people on them 12:15and we have a 21 per note and the woman is on the 21 polo tees 12:19is the woman who founded the Dartington estate Dorothy honest 12:23the idea this is can you have a currency which is only has a value 12:28and in in topless so if you take it out to talk mister has no value 12:33if you think if be economy atop this is like a bucket 12:36with holes and money leaving money pouring into the town 12:39how can you ensure that the money stays locally and local currency does not 12:43really beautifully 12:44in terms of thinking about the local economy can we argue that 12:48economic localization is a former economic development 12:52so last year we did this local economic blueprint 12:56and we did that together with the Town Council District Council 12:59the Chamber of Commerce the Development Trust with a real coalition of 13:03organizations 13:04who created at and the idea that economic blueprint was 13:07actually where does all the money going topless so we know for example now that 13:11we spend 13:1230 million pounds on food every year 13:16and all that 22 million pounds is spent through supermarkets 13:20if we could shift 10 percent of what we spend on food as a community 13:25to supporting local food past two million pounds in our economy every year 13:29that's economic development and then we also said well if you add in 13:32energy as well and insulating buildings 13:35and things then actually there's potentially five million pounds 13:39the could be in our local economy every year that at the moment just doesn't 13:43happen 13:44so we really really see this as a for as economic development as the 13:48the economic story that defines the future 13:51of this ten we also open the re économie Center 13:55which is an incubator for new enterprises this man is the head of 14:00are District Council who have given us the space 14:04for very very low rent and so many different enterprises now starting 14:08in there it's a great resource for everybody here one of my favorite things 14:12that we do every year 14:13is called the local entrepreneurs forum so we have a day where we bring together 14:18people with ideas for new businesses I'm 14:21potential mentors people with experience in business 14:24and potential investors but saying everybody can invest in some way 14:28in creating this new economy 10 the social enterprises I've been involved in 14:32as been starting a brewery 14:34another first local entrepreneurs forum we presented 14:38the idea of the new library and there another person who who 14:42pitch their business that evening was Adam who's based 14:46here and got into the state so now they also take the 14:49the grain that is left over from making beer and they grow mushrooms on that 14:54so we for this year's local entrepreneurs forum 14:57we made a beer a stout very dark beer 15:00that was flavored with police the mushrooms 15:03and we called it the circular economy in class 15:07the local entrepreneurs forum gave us that opportunity to ask 15:11and it gave everybody the opportunity to give 15:14and so we came together am and it really spurred us for it because everybody 15:18there 15:19was really excited and I really really wanted they said yes of course we can 15:23support you no problem love 15:24give your money will give you time will give you mentoring will give you 15:27massagers whatever you need we've got a room full un 15:31very interesting people about 130 people 15:35much for new workers and community votes nom 15:38everybody considers themselves investor which is kinda exciting 15:42this event has become and fixture in the community but a focal point 15:47around which an entrepreneurial culture is beginning to develop 15:51than what I love about like what's been up for an is banned 15:55israeli when the 15:58the work on a mi theory comes to life and 16:01it feels really exciting to see the number of new cases that here 16:05and particularly in the number young faces that here as well 16:09the my love the entrepreneurs form for me it's one of the highlights the 16:16it's really a an exciting thing to be out because what you see is what it 16:20looks like when the community come together 16:22to support its entrepreneurs to collectively help to bring in new 16:26economy 16:26into being it was different every year and its 16:30it's a really thrilling occasions White Plains this just 16:34that kinda the census appall 16:38and an who consulate are safe for people to start businesses that they can feel 16:44that step up something really special 16:46nationally in Poland and that's what they're doing and I think 16:50a brings a real sense and talks to me 16:53you know that we can stop this fantastic businesses in really make a difference 16:57there were 17:00transition handelman on the project feeling 17:03and what I was pitching for today her it's pretty this conflict Grand Ole Miss 17:08understanding arrangement foods that's available 17:12the ALMS the hungry yet so the idea is that we won't be 17:17with local farmers and encourage them to grow crops that we 17:21that than can be sold director human consumption 17:24hungry have loan processing facilities 17:28service cropped up process locating them with a woman 17:34not that bad on martha is dull 17:37timbers indeed small and sawmill intimations 17:42specializing in that the most like to attend 17:45rather than just hundreds kids make the best use is a little weird being grown 17:50hosted place times 17:56my name's the king's men and I came in presenting the holyfield 17:59which is a with Julia miss company do 18:03regenerating ancient woodland on dark brown thing when expressed are my own 18:09commercial director 18:10or cancellations brand is your business based in to amass 18:14and we've texted design-build 18:18install and monitoring systems for commercial and industrial loans 18:22is not just a bail all those different projects it's about the web 18:26the connections and relationships the week between them because that's 18:29what gives the local economy like this its reasons 18:33SC but this is a safe place face 18:36we'll do not eat lotsa reading magazines 18:40and like to play Asia 18:44sleep and Issa 18:48KS I'm really liked class you got a response 18:52Press too fast locals 18:56doubled I like this 19:01this is my this me 19:06heedless 19:08just time test the whens Ishan 19:16in Totnes i think is one of the most involved places 19:19because what you start to see is how how transition forms 19:23the kind of glue the sticks everything together so we did a report last year 19:27called the new economy in 20 enterprises 19:30and we identify from across the UK a number 19:33businesses that you could happen have anyway social enterprises 19:37community-based businesses 19:38every town every city could have its own currency 19:42the community bank a community energy company a transport system which is run 19:47and managed 19:48by the community but where transition comes in 19:51is it's the glue that sticks everything together and some light on this where we 19:55have somebody 19:56who sits in the middle as a project manager who connects everything together 20:00makes such a difference in some other places you get what we call the doughnut 20:05effect where you start doing transition lotsa stuff starts happening 20:08then you get different working groups start to form food and energy 20:12and then they start to develop their own social enterprises in the know starts do 20:16really well 20:17and everything moves out to the edge but there's nothing left in the middle 20:20that spark that transition bit the weeds everything together 20:24the idea of transition isn't the transition does everything 20:28today acts as a kind of its to the changes the soil 20:32it's a culture process we started doing transition 20:36imagining it was a an ecological process an environmental process and economic 20:41process 20:41but now we really see it as being a cultural process 20:44how do you change the culture a place 20:47a one part about has been the kind of 20:50the focus within transition total this is well on 20:54ons on what people would call in a transitional 20:57how do we support each other to do this you know how do we 21:00reduced the risk a burnout how do we support each other 21:04so we now move on to look at how transition works at different scales 21:07at the city level transition Bristol is working with the Bristol City Council 21:11to implement changes that can happen at a great scale and his rock and 21:1510 more with the transition in like in the city Thomas is a market town 21:19how is this Caleb to a city well that looks different in different places so 21:23in London now 21:24there are fifty different transition initiatives 21:28in different neighborhoods across the city often 21:31around the same kinda sizes to have topless so how can you take a city and 21:36break it down into all its topless 21:38sized pieces because that seems to be a scale 21:41where change feels more possible in Bristol 21:45they started doing a doing transition Bristol 21:48in 2006 2007 21:51and they tried to idea of starting neighborhood 21:54group and some others group still work but actually they've 21:58they found moreover role working with the city council and trying to help the 22:03city council 22:04to be more innovative so in 2000 22:07and nine Bristol City Council produced the first peak oil plan 22:13for the city that the first city to do a plan for how the how they will adapt to 22:17peak oil 22:18so they started to think into the city scale by strategically about 22:21what does this look like and they've been part of Bristol now becoming the 22:25European Green Capital 22:27their work has been more looking at the whole Nick looking strategically on the 22:31city scale 22:32working in giving the calmest given the City Council support 22:36and and permission to be real experimental 22:39I'm really innovative in terms of looking at transition in Bristol 22:43and transition topless and they would be 22:46a lot so the lots at the core ingredients that would be the same 22:50in terms of how you run a group I have health economic group culture 22:54how you I'm 22:57how you designed events using things like open space at World Cafe 23:01how you really had a talk and and and engage people in those questions 23:04those would be the same a the idea that you would start with food project 23:10most things would be the same but they would be certain maybe extra ingredients 23:14within the city 23:15I think there are certain things you could do it the city scale that much 23:18harder to do 23:19at the scale overtown so something at the Bristol Palin and 23:23works so much better because it's got a hundred thousand people to draw your own 23:27then the beauty of some light on this because it's small arrays 23:31we can make things happen much quicker so we can start to tell those kind of 23:35inspiring stories 23:37much quicker at the scale of the town 23:40so i think is the know that there are pluses and minuses 23:44working at the different scales this issue scale is also critical to the 23:47Bristol pound 23:48Bristol pound direct the flow of money in the city to increase trade with local 23:52independent raters 23:53and create community cation across the city I'm very interested in how 23:58people in there in places can stop take some control 24:02money and use it to direct flow 24:06two places Inc im increase the well-being about 24:09dicks their room no positive values in culture that we live in 24:14but we have a feeling that they're really almost universal 24:17widely shared positive values to do with 24:21quality fairness collaboration very very important 24:25very commonly shared and we think that we need to bring those back to the fore 24:29so we developed the press to Pam concept 24:33in 2009 we developed ideas of how we could get this to 24:37a scale where it's really making big impact key things 24:40for that were presley the scale in the area that is operating in 24:45so city region with approximately half a million people in 24:49allows enough volume within the system 24:54for to make a real impact and 24:57the scale is credible second thing we really wanted to do was 25:02make sure it works not only with paper knives 25:05also electronically and the third thing is 25:08want to embed it more in the local economy 25:12by developing partnerships with key institutions firstly 25:16missed a credit union which is effectively pistols and community 25:21Cooperative Bank is a genuine local store 25:24money directing its people in Bristol really need it the most 25:28and the second institution was and Bristol City Council 25:32throughout history when keep things intensive trusted money 25:36is the ability to pay taxes and so we worked very hard time persuading Bristol 25:40City Council to accent 25:41some local taxes in Prestonpans 25:45and got agreement before we launch that they would 25:49businesses could buy that business rates which is the local business tax 25:53investor pounds the Mac gets paid 25:56his full salary and wrist bands some other employees a 26:00City Council get part to their salary in Prestonpans 26:04really work comes down to is trust money at the end of the day 26:10is a social relation am 26:13and for people to accept it anti-trust in the system 26:17and we got all those in place with so we now have 26:20and local currency that uses paper notes and has been a very important gauge into 26:26really feel like they they belong to press the link that come from Purcell 26:30and we have electronic systems so that you can open up a 26:33a press the panic County have an online account you can deposit money into in 26:37the normalized 26:38you can I'm use you online bank account 26:41press the pound account to make payments online 26:44we'll send electronic payment systems using my butt bangs 26:48the total volume in circulation moment is approximately 330,000 26:52this depends I'm trade is in paper 26:56and the rest isn't it so account the volume of transactions is 27:00a lil a bit over 30,000 mister pounds 27:03a month and so from the place where ya now are also 27:06looking at opportunities what we can do next and how we can use this tool that 27:11we've created 27:12more positive impact first is with cooling the real economy 27:16and this is targeted particularly around the poorer areas have pressed a bit more 27:20disadvantaged 27:21carries a Bristol when the criticisms that the press the pound so far 27:25is that it doesn't reach the exams so when I really help people in those areas 27:29as well make it very inclusive 27:30across the city the real economy is about bringing people together 27:34in in creating buying group so that they can 27:37use that collective purchasing power we're also 27:40creating pop up markets so it creates trading place 27:44hub trading activity now we've got projects to thing which is to share this 27:49what we're doing with other areas as part of that 27:52burning as pilot in tightness 27:55and this problems with the scale internet I reside 27:58identified as a problem for the time expanding when they first launched 28:04week I we can overcome some these problems scale 28:07by having this disease but great things discreet network 28:10and running thing Central Texas Louisiana and less costly into 28:14its gonna system we are seeing positive impact we know from serving our members 28:19that he's in currency 28:21they're spending more money in the local independent traders in Bristol 28:25wheels and I'm from nice irving's that people fail 28:28more connected to their communities I feel more pride 28:32im density it's a big long-term project what we're trying to do 28:37and we're in the very very early days buttressing 28:40positive impacts is very well respected 28:43apart from the people who use it we know that it's an awful lot of support within 28:47the city 28:48for the project is Corey is raise huge map awareness in conversations 28:53about money is the possibility of having different money 28:57that again has been very positive go a long way to go 29:01another example impressed with the Bristol energy co-op cooperative 29:04in this next case study we reviewed formation cope with an industrial and 29:09provident society 29:10and its approach to inclusion as well as some say the project has been working on 29:15media also talked about the importance the Bristol energy network to share 29:19information resources cost city 29:21as well as its role in the creation for to why energy strategy 29:26thus although media describes the feed in tariff 29:29which helped kick-start many community energy projects across the UK 29:33say the feed in tariff is a incentive for renewable energy for small-scale 29:39renewable energy that 29:40with first kinda consulted on by the government in 2009 29:45and started in 2010 29:49and and it's a payment 29:52for every units have electricity generated 29:55there's something that people who n there n home hey 29:58land or who have enough money to invest 30:02in the technology could benefit from and can come over 25 years but people who 30:07didn't have that capital in the first place 30:09couldn't benefit and that got me thinking about how 30:13that could be made more accessible to more people and I started thinking about 30:18cooperatives and whether collectively 30:21we could have a system where people couldn't invest more demands 30:24individually 30:26and be able to afford T get summit that benefited the feet and had 30:30say this is the time line a have 30:33the cooperative has developed a for the last 30:37for five years and the idea was first discussed 30:41at a shift Press the femina and that's it 30:44cost has been running investor for quite a while 30:48there are people from a number of different sustainability group who 30:52at that semana and there's people start talking about the feed in tariff in the 30:56implications and 30:57so the bed and presto white Energy Cooperative would be 31:01a good way love not having TD pick ATF it 31:05in each neighborhood to have one and investor 31:08and that net ti being incorporated at 31:12a community benefit society and 31:15we managed to by working with 31:19ethical they let TN still and 20 kilowatts 31:22affected pp on the reef hand-written have 31:25say with and other stuff first share a for in the spring of 2012 31:31and we were aiming to raise 88 at compounds 31:35and within a month three very a hundred and that he hasn't happened 31:38said much more successful than we planned and that enabled St 31:42the team or installations one on the reef this building 31:46and and the other one on the reef the Easton 31:50community content after community benefit society 31:53we how r guided by our objectives and the czarina 31:58legal founding document say the aim 32:01above the breast Energy Cooperative as to support the creation of a resilient 32:06robust and organized community and respond equitably 32:10to current and future energy challenges say 32:13that means a mission is a bad cutting carbon emissions 32:17renewable energy and energy efficiency and doing that 32:21equitable way the cope has a board of directors there 32:25that directors and the directors are elected 32:29by the members from the members every member has one vote 32:33regardless of how much they've invested in the project and the members a move 32:37people who 32:38invested money in T project this diagram custom 32:42approached by form for the future could funding methylation 32:47and really at 9th the model I've 32:50revolving fund financed that we've been using get there is that local 32:54shareholders 32:55invest in the project that investment 32:58spent on opinion energy projects and then the income from that could it get 33:02back 33:04to the local shareholders and SAT community benefit activity 33:09the aim of the best up and to keep the money circulating in the local economy 33:14say in order to put that we decided 33:17a member would have the option to buy shed 33:20evening press the pound and to receive the Internet payment 33:24in Prestonpans the other thing that we've done 33:27intensive inclusion and author dealing with money 33:32is to work with the best to credit union to try and make the shed 33:35more accessible to more people with the have 33:38love to different people think things about contending the breast 33:41Energy network with started at the way and 33:46avoiding each have a speech having to reinvent the wheel and 33:50make materials for themselves independently 33:54over the past couple have year the with the energy network has 33:58been coordinating the development of a community strategy for energy 34:04and that that Luther lead 34:07headline output of that ft which has five different themes 34:13these a community resilience and fuel poverty 34:16understanding and Indian behavior energy efficiency and low-carbon technology 34:22renewable energy generation and local economic development 34:26management systems and community among the members if the best energy network 34:31people if got married today you think faces each time 34:34and is a real sense that way 34:38working together to try and transfer things investor and 34:41affects millions buying so so far we've been looking at 34:45what transition look like the town level and we look to various projects 34:49we just look at what transition at like at the city level but what i'm really 34:52exciting is how to transition is now 34:55beginning to influence national policy making and this is a bottom-up movement 34:59it all starts with local initiatives in your local community 35:03which is joining together and create change national level 35:06and this is totally different a different way 35:09operating then how community thrift she's normally operate which are 35:14people in offices government offices developed the community strategy 35:18and then it's settled down with this tightly too much strategy and it means 35:23it's got Will Power 35:24NT behind it because people know being empowered 35:27and passion about these projects people might say well transitions all very well 35:32it's a nice idea 35:33but it's not going to effect government thinking government policy 35:38when I actually earlier this year the government here produced 35:41the community energy strategy there's so many communities now 35:45some transition communities some not transition communities 35:48who started their own energy companies the government had to create some kind 35:52of a strategy to 35:53to keep up so transition network was involved in helping to write the 35:57strategy 35:58many of the case studies in there are transition examples 36:02and so now is the first example of what policy-making 36:06designed to support transition looks like so you just heard we'll talk about 36:09the community energy strategy 36:11in the UK government there's also being government policy on PV solar 36:16which encourages and supports local communities to start their own energy 36:20projects and 36:21in particular on the top of residential buildings but transition is not just 36:25about 36:25affecting policy in the area energy more recently the UK Parliament published a 36:30note on alternative currencies 36:32looking at several local currencies including the top with pound and the 36:36personal pan 36:37as well as the judge to currency become the first national document we've seen 36:41how 36:42was from the Bank of England here is rope against tell me more about 36:46how the purse to pound influence the formation this document 36:49as well as the importance the transition to remain non-party political 36:53the personal pound was the first one that was big enough 36:57and they got lotsa published T they got lots of 37:01media coverage one day they got a call from the Bank of England who said 37:06could do come to London and a had a conversation 37:09with us so they went up and they spent three hours with the Bank of England 37:13be increased and act like an exam what are you doing has is what 37:19and actually the Bank of England about six months ago published 37:23a document which is their position on local currencies 37:27the thing I love about the Bristol Palin and is that if somebody wants to close 37:31down the Bristol Palin and 37:32they don't take on transition personal they take on the City Council 37:37one other powers have transition I think is is that it is not 37:41party political so it has no allegiance 37:45into two different political parties so it's not a left-wing thing a right wing 37:50thing 37:50anti-capitalist Procop at least whatever 37:54transition works kinda underneath the surface 37:58underneath the radar and it's only able to do that because it's not seen as 38:03being political 38:04so something like the economic blueprint that we created 38:08in topless with the time counsel and the District Council Chamber of Commerce 38:11we can only do that because we are seen as being 38:14not political in that way and I think similarly 38:18if you know I'm sure there are people who were involved in transition 38:21who go to McDonalds I'm sure there are people involved were not very many but 38:25I'm sure there are some 38:26and there are people who are involved in transition you vote for all different 38:29political parties and 38:31and so actually we try to remain very open 38:34so we don't have a big long list of things that we don't like 38:38you know we are focuses on how do we make this economy 38:42more resilient how do we can healthier 38:45better connected culture in this time 38:49the Transition Towns now being in over a thousand places across the great 38:52certain lessons have been learned to information that the state's first 38:56initiatives 38:57right now talk about some the reasons why Transition Towns 39:00fail have training issues to try and tackle these challenges up front 39:04an important celebration keep momentum going 39:08sometimes transition group fail because 39:12they all argue with each other 39:15a sometimes transition group fail because 39:19the scale of what they take on is too big 39:23some fail because life kind of takes over 39:27I suppose they just burn a little run out of energy and 39:30just didn't manage to keep moving forward 39:33so the the training that we do the two-day transition launch 39:37trainee which is the training to get people started 39:40is very much about those things how do we hi how do you 39:44avoid conflict in your group how do you look at sustaining the momentum 39:48how'd you get the right structures in place to enable it to move forward 39:53and our experience is that that the initiatives that that do the training 39:56have a much much higher a chance 40:00chance at success the thing I often experiences I go to visit the transition 40:04group 40:04and they say well we don't feel like we've done very much 40:08and you know we feel we feel like we're running we've run out of energy a little 40:13bit because we know we feel we've done very much 40:16and you say I'll I say so to tell me what you don't tell me about the last 40:20three or four years what have you done well we did this weed eater 40:24it admitted to it we did this and we did that 40:27without really great thing over there we took this from 40:31and they go on like to 20 minutes about we did this to me do that through 40:35I'm so happy you ever have you ever as a group stopped 40:39to celebrate all this fantastic stuff we've done 40:42no in the culture is so often we just keep going we do one thing that we do 40:47the next thing to the next thing I mean 40:49and you never stop to stoop at everybody on the back and say fantastic well done 40:52that's brilliant 40:53I think one of the fascinating things about how the transition timely 40:56has a bold is the little firstly as a detox the Global North so how are we 41:01going to move beyond 41:03our addiction to possible feels 41:07and how we going to attacked climate change 41:11but now it's intake known by many countries in the global thou 41:15who are not the shoes for them not so much about 41:18climate change in peak oil more about issues around poverty 41:22and and women's empowerment so whether it's 41:25the detox in the Global North all the pollution 41:28no tentative transition development path in the global cell 41:33transition is now popping up in across all cultures and all geographies 41:37all over the world so transition network which is based here in Thomas we have 41:41about 12 people over work for transition that work there are traditional dishes 41:45are thinking about 50 countries 41:48so we have for now twenty twenty countries 41:51that have a national transition organization transition US transition 41:55Italy 41:56transients we don't know whatever so there is a network those organizations 42:00we have about 140 transition trainers around the world who run 42:05training courses the process of becoming a transition initiative 42:09a formal an official transition group is no many people just send us an email 42:14we have a few quick questions but in in lots of places people's relationship is 42:19more 42:20with the transition initiatives around them all with the national organization 42:23them with us 42:25so in Japan for example there are maybe we have maybe for Japanese 42:30transition initiatives registered with us on our website 42:33but there are about 40 in Sweden I think we have seven 42:37Swedish initiatives registered with us and there are 171 42:41on the Swedish website so it's kinda fits 42:44is difficult people people's relationship tends to be with what's 42:48closest to them rather than with us so 42:50the figures that we have a a fairly low the model has always been very self 42:54organizing 42:55take it run with it make it happen so in brazil has lotsa transition happening 43:00all across Brazil 43:01boat but we didn't think we must now 43:04now we missed it when it's not like a coca-cola franchise you know we didn't 43:08think now 43:09now we must take Brazil Brazil 43:12just people got excited decided they were going to do transition 43:15when we started transition our idea was that what we were creating 43:20was that a detox for the west 43:24for the Global North and in the contraction and convergence climate 43:29model where 43:29the the West is here and needs to come down to hear on the developing world 43:33needs to come up to here 43:35to a point where everybody can carry on on the on a sustainable kinda level 43:39transition was about this bet how do we bring 43:42get from there to their in such a way that it feels like we've progressed to 43:45move forward 43:46rather than come back to living in the caves again 43:51but what's been really interesting as a self-organizing local 43:54is to see transition emerging in Brazil 43:58in India and South Africa in in places so in Brazil 44:02and there are there's some really good transition 44:06happening in fabulous a is some Paulo for example 44:10the press comprise a lounger which is the first 44:13transition initiative in a father and 44:16there they don't talk about peak oil and climate change 44:20they talk about transition is being about social justice 44:23a empowerment for women ending violence 44:27in society they've developed ways to teach transition to people who can't 44:32read 44:33a love their work is around social enterprise there's lots of new social 44:37enterprises that have started in San 44:40in them Plaza London and 44:43a.m. their brilliant they're really 44:46interesting project there's a place in South Africa cool great time 44:50which is a tale on which was built as a kind of 44:54and to move a lot of 44:57the black community and to a place so the away from everybody else 45:02and transition the woman who was doing transition ashes a transition is the 45:05best 45:06I'm community development tool I've ever come across 45:10and they're using it there to do work around waste and recycling and food 45:15and all kinds of different things there I think in terms the developing world I 45:18mean there is a very good 45:20thing could when the which is so the start in South America which is about 45:24saying 45:25actually what the developing world needs 45:28is alternatives to development rather than a salute Green a former 45:33development it's a different approach to development which then modeling now 45:36which is a bear 45:37which starts with the small farmers are starting to communities 45:41at me like like was a petition in mobilizing to say no to things but also 45:46telling a story about what people want instead and that's a very powerful 45:50and a growing movement so we would see transition as can a sitting alongside 45:53that 45:54this really interesting I didn't expect that at all you know I thought we were 45:57developing something it would only really 45:59have traction in the in the Global North so in this meeting we started off 46:03looking at what transition look like at the town level we looked at various 46:06projects would 46:07the projects and energy projects and finance projects 46:11then we looked at what transition the plan at the city level 46:15and how transition crystal is working with Bristol City Council 46:19we then look tacky how transition is beginning to affect national policy and 46:24its impact on 46:25energy policies and tentative currencies for example 46:28and also the international expected transition 46:31and how regional national pubs are springing up all over the world 46:36and how and different development Paul is bolting 46:39with we thought at first it was about the talks 46:42often in the West and getting over our addiction to fossil fuels and 46:48learned to live with that to climate change but now we've realized that 46:52the transition model can be used as a and 10 tipoff 46:56the development incredible thou heavy fund its firing 46:59and I hope you will look at the resources that are available 47:03at the into this movie and look at the transition networks I 47:07look at Shimla college side perhaps stocked up a transition 47:11initiative in your area or Kentucky there or the p1 p2 joint 47:15a good luck you 47:20you see that didn't mean historical plunge in and sell 47:24modernization personalization turbine 47:27doesn't bombing 300 47:32p education global to children and young people would take place 47:37cash in on that land should mean something 47:40assignment 47:42really want in China it is %uh 47:45union-busting on the 0 treats 47:48Martin's sent in the AM in some 47:51field 48:07sir 48:12sir 48:17the 48:22cited 48:27served

Published on Oct 29, 2014

This is a short documentary reviewing Transition in Action in the southwest of England.

The video looks at the market town of Totnes (where Transition Towns was founded) and some of the food and finance projects taking place there. It also compares this to Bristol and some of the projects there that are reaching scale.

Transition is now beginning to influence Government policy in the UK and some of the documents related to this in the area of energy and alternative currencies are reviewed. The international context is also outlined and how Transition is moving from the initial detoxification of the global north, to alternative development strategies of the global south.

The footage for the video was only taken on field trips during an exchange with a delegation from Southwest University in China in July 2014 to Schumacher College. Rob Hopkins, School Farm, Grocycle, Totnes Pound, REconomy, Bristol Pound, Bristol Energy Co-operative are amongst the projects outlined.

For more information, please visit transitionnetwork.org or visit schumachercollege.org.uk

An Opus Earth Production for Schumacher College. SHOW MORE COMMENTS • 1