People around the world initiate transitions toward
sustainability on various levels of society. Each initiative
presents learning opportunities to build robust transitions. Little
empirical research has been conducted on how the transition context and
process lead to particular outcomes. This article presents an
analytical-evaluative framework for appraising the sustainability of
transition outcomes and reconstructing transition pathways in order to
identify critical success factors. Ashton Hayes in the U.K. serves as an
illustrative case study. The ultimate goal is to derive, accumulated
over many studies, evidence-informed guidelines to improve the
effectiveness of transitions.
What role does measuring and evaluating impact have in
Transition initiatives? How important is it, and how straightforward is
it in a group that is already busy "doing stuff"? This project, from Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, is developing a project called Monitoring and Evaluation for Sustainable Communities (MESC) to develop and trial a range of tools to enable groups to self monitor and evaluate their work. 
