Communities Take Charge: Managing Their Own Energy Destiny

Across the world there is a movement occurring called Transition Town. There are literally thousands of small communities, some not so small, that are taking matters into their own hands and finding ways to decrease and/or eliminate their dependence on oil.

Each community creates an Energy Descent Plan. The idea behind it is "a community visioned, community designed and community implemented plan to proactively transition the community away from fossil fuels."

Most communities are fed up with local and regional governments not doing enough, or anything, about climate change.

This model of change provides a very easy to follow framework that uses a central committee as a catalyzing force to pull together the people, initiatives and resources needed or already occurring in their town. The committee then plans its demise and the town is off and running.

Most communities do get some government support eventually, but for many towns, they are more interested in building the capacity to survive in a post-fossil fuel world.

This can take many forms, and growing food is usually the number one community project. For example, on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, 30% of their carbon footprint comes from bringing food on island! Growing more food is therefore a priority for them. 

Other communities are creating electric car co-ops, pooling funds to purchase solar hot-water heaters in bulk, or installing micro-hydro.

Great Transition Towns can be found in:

• Vermont, USA
• Peterbourough, Ontario, Canada
• Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada