Transition Towns and EcoDistricts: Local Sustainable Initiatives

Abstract

During the last decade grass-roots community organizations have grown up to create more sustainable and locally resilient towns and districts. The Transition Town movement was motivated by the need to assist towns to transition to a new future because of the predicted negative effects of Peak Oil and Climate Warming. A 12 Step Programme has been developed to help groups within the community identify key sectors of transitioning, such as reducing energy use and providing more local food supplies and employment, to make them less dependent upon the long-distance sources of so many products and distant ownerships. A parallel movement of creating more sustainable development through local action, has recently developed in Portland but is spreading through the United States. The newly named EcoDistrict organization communicates its ideas through an active website, annual meetings and the development of university course linkages. In addition it is developing incubator workshops in which experts show how local communities can improve the sustainability and vitality of their neighbourhoods in cities. These two examples of grass-roots activism provide an important addition to the ways in which urban places can become more sustainable and locally resilient.