Totnes is the UK’s first Transition Initiative. By this we mean a community in a process of imagining and creating a future that addresses the twin challenges of diminishing oil and gas supplies and climate change, and creates the kind of community that we would all want to be part of.

The challenges presented to us today by global warming and peak oil (and gas) are perhaps the greatest that humanity has faced. This time brings a great opportunity for rethinking the way we live and making conscious choices about what kind of community and world we would like to live in. Change is coming whether we like it or not – and a planned response to the change will leave us in a much stronger position than if we wait until change is upon us.

Totnes' Energy Descent Action Plan

One of that main focuses of TTT over the last 12-24 months has been to create an Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP). Just being printing as we speak it is a collective vision of how Totnes could be in say, 2030,  figuring out which pathways will best take us there. Our next task is to look at how we go about implementing these changes.

D.E.C.C. Award

On December 19th TTT was announced as one of 10 communities across England and Wales to be chosen as a 'Low Carbon Community', and awarded £625,000, specifically for a project called 'Transition Streets'.  You can read more about the grant, and about the Transition Streets proposal here. You can see the moment the announcement was made at the TTT Xmas Party here.  Read more...

Support from our local community...

Invest in our community - and become a ‘TTT Supporter’

Step one in the three-year plan to TTT becoming self-financing:

Up until December last year, we conservatively estimated that TTT had generated roughly £236,000 for the town and district.  We thought that was pretty good going but being awarded £500,000 in one whack really does trump the figures. 

As highlighted elsewhere in this bulletin, the DECC-funding is fantastic news and will enable us to make significant progress.  Among all the jubilation, it is worth observing that the funding for this project is understandably, heavily ring-fenced. Just for the record, TTT has not just suddenly become horribly rich!  Funding TTT’s core costs remains an outstanding priority for all of us. 

We have a strong case to put to funders.  After all, if we have achieved all this with so little, imagine what we can achieve with a little more!  However, while some funders do seem keen to support us, the messages regarding the terms under which they will do so are becoming clear and consistent.

1. Totnes needs to be demonstrating itself as a hub of pioneering social enterprise.‘Transition in Action’.  If EDAP is the new community plan, we need to develop the businesses and community services in order to implement it effectively.  The value of ambitiously piloting this process on a community scale cannot be underestimated.  No one else is doing it yet and with severe public service cuts on the cards in the near future, many people will be looking to us for ideas and examples. Developing appropriate social enterprise and investment models is necessary for the implementation of EDAP – ‘EDAP Phase 2’, if you like - what we are calling

Transition Streets is but one of several catalytic project that is underway or gathering on the horizon.   We will be featuring others through this bulletin in the forthcoming months, looking forwards to how and when all our work on ‘Transition in Action’ will be having significant impact on the infrastructure and social fabric of the town and district. 

2. TTT needs to become self-financing.  Funders do not have a habit of writing cheques to fund the same thing year on year.  Quite understandably, they want to see benchmark achievements and they want to see an end-point, when their financial support is no longer needed, ideally through the emergence of a self-financing, economically-robust venture.

We reckon the DECC award and publication of EDAP represent some pretty outstanding benchmark achievements.  So we now need to show that we are emerging as a self-financing venture. 

As we are currently submitting bids for further funding, we are doing so by demonstrating that we have a clear route to TTT becoming self-financing in three years.  It is ambitious but realistic and, at the end of the day, absolutely necessary to TTT’s ongoing survival.   There are a couple of key threads to this journey - one being our ability to raise financial support from our supporters.  So, yep, you’ve guessed it.  Here is the big ask!

New for 2010, we are launching the ‘TTT Supporters’ programme.   In order to become an official ‘TTT Supporter’, we are asking that people set up a standing order monthly payment to TTT of a minimum of £5.  We are aiming for 300 TTT Supporters over the next year.

So expect to see Lou, Hal and maybe one or two other volunteers out and about at forthcoming events. Click here to download one of our Supporter Forms. Don’t be shy – this could be one of the wisest investments you’ll ever make!

Many thanks for all your support and energy!

Our Aims

Transition Town Totnes (TTT) believes that only by involving all of us - residents, businesses, public bodies, community organisations and schools - will we come up with the most innovative, effective and practical ideas, and have the energy and skills to carry them out. Our future has the potential to be more rewarding, abundant and enjoyable than today, and by working together we can unleash the collective enthusiasm and genius of our community (that means you!) to make this transition.

With this in mind, our mission is two-fold:

1. To explore and then follow pathways of practical actions that will reduce our carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.
2. To build the town's resilience, that is, its ability to withstand shocks from the outside, through being more self reliant in areas such as food, energy, health care, jobs and economics.  

How will this be achieved? We don't exactly know yet (although we have some good ideas). Our approach is to support you, the community, in exploring the practicalities of this challenge. Click here to see what we most want to achieve in 2008/9. 

Get Involved

Meanwhile there's plenty already going on in TTT, and lots of different ways for you to get involved - for example you can start to use Totnes Pounds for your weekly shopping, or come in an talk to our Volunteer Coordinator Annie on Wednesdays (11am-1:30pm). Click here to see upcoming events.

At the moment we have 10 groups and about 20 projects on the go, plus a wide range of events and workshops. If you have time, skills, resources or cash to spare there are lots of other ways to support us. To stay informed, please register on our website so you can receive our monthly bulletin. This is packed full with news, updates and more ways to participate.

All of our groups are listed in the menu box on the left of the page, just click on one to find out more about what they do and how to get involved. If you want more information or to discuss any ideas then contact us directly, or pop in and see us on Fore Street. We hope to see you soon...

We also have a FAQ page that answers common queries, and a press room where you can see all the media attention we have been getting.... Check out our newsfeeds for the latest external news about the environment, climate change and peak oil.

Finally, and most important of all, we recognise that lots of people have helped TTT become what it is today and we want to give thanks to everyone for their fantastic efforts so far. In addition to the huge amount of voluntary time that has been freely given, we wouldn't have gotten very far without some hard cash and we want to also thank our benefactors. See here for information about our funding process, and how we are spending current grants.

If you are interested in starting up your own Transition Initiative where you live, then see the Transition Network for advice and support. Already there are over 265  other communities that have been inspired by TTT to become an official Transition Town, City, Village or area... with thousands more mulling it over around the world.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete". Buckminster Fuller

If you have any comments, suggestions or feedback on this website please do contact us with them. This is just the first release and we are already working on a simpler, easier to navigate structure and a shorter, more readable homepage!