Transition Towns

image: www.ettannatgoteborg.se

This weekend Gothenburg hosted its very first conference on the subject of Transition. I went to see the co-founder of the first Transition Town in Totnes, UK, Naresh Giangrande hold an inspiring speech on moving from oil dependence towards community resilience. He shared some nice examples of what is happening in the UK, like the Cottage Farm and the community owned Handmade Bakery. Paul Sousek, owner of Cottage Farm describes his journey towards sustainability like this:

"Spent 20 years in market research, discovered Peak Oil in 2005, changed my life, quit career, sold house, rescued pension, bought a farm, converted to organic, built up a herd of native rare breed of cattle (Red Ruby) and sheep (Wiltshire Horn), selling meat boxes locally and nationwide on Ebay, converted whole farm to renewables for water heating, space heating, electricity (wind and panels), water from bore hole, running cars and tractor on home produced bio diesel made from waste vegetable oil, built a pond for fishing, planted hundreds of trees for wood, fruit and nuts, grow own veg, soft fruit, potatoes, keep poultry. In short built a lifeboat. Now spreading the message through Transition to establish an island of resilience."

Learn more about the transition movement here,  Transition Sweden here and Omställning Göteborg here.

"We have to start creating the structures which will enable us to be citizens instead of consumers." Naresh Giangrande