Zero Carbon Britian discussions (online)

Zero Carbon Britain discussion papers

The ZCB project has been encouraging contributors to write discussion papers to probe, ponder, reflect and imagine what a zero carbon Britain might be like.
We asked for their help to raise awareness of a more carbon responsible society, by looking at a diverse range of impacts of a zero carbon Britain. From faith groups to farmers, from restaurants to rugby teams, the aim is to get people talking about what it would be like to live in a world where we rise to our 21st century challenges.

Sustainabilty leadership in a perverse world (book)

The Positive Deviant

An economy low in carbon and high in life satisfaction will require thousands, if not millions of exceptional leaders. This book is the first to bring together sustainability knowledge with the leadership skills and tools to help you become one of those leaders. In it you will find everything you need to get started straight away, and to grow your effectiveness, even in a world that remains perversely intent on the opposite.

Helping communities to save energy (report)

 Smart Communities: Working together to save energy?

Smart Communities was a three and a half year 'behaviour change' community energy project. In broad terms, the Smart Communities findings support the contemporary policy focus on demand-side action, community energy and energy consumption feedback. At the same time, the project highlights the long term and challenging nature of these strategies, and the implications of this for the funding of demand-side community energy. The findings emphasis a lack of 'energy know-how' among householders as a key constraint on change, and identifies ways in which more widespread know-how might be developed. The project also emphasises the benefits of action on energy within a primary school, and the ways in which this prompts engagement with energy in the home. 

Fly less but stay connected (book)

Beyond Flying: Rethinking air travel in a globally connected world

Fourteen authors from around the world share their stories about how they came to the conclusion that reducing their air travel was necessary to avoid playing their part in climate change, and how they changed values and attitudes to businesses and personal travel. These are the stories of how these remarkable people found easy and better ways of living and working in a globalised world with less air travel.

Why monitoring and evaluation matter (online)

Why monitoring and evaluation matters for Transition

 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.

 

 

Transition as peaceful radicalism (journal)

Radicals without rebellion? A Case Study on four Transition experiments

This paper investigates whether and how social movements can promote radical positions whilst refraining from adopting an oppositional approach. Transition is a movement that is characterised by a markedly non-adversarial approach and that, whilst pursuing radical objectives, refrains from using confrontational means. Through a theoretical analysis and illustrations from four case studies this work investigates what are the implications of pursuing radical objectives through a non-adversarial approach.

Success factors in transition communities (#journal)

Learning from success—Toward evidence-informed sustainability transitions in communities

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.

Transition towns in the majority world (journal)

Jobs versus livelihoods: Sustainable settlements within the transition paradigm

How can the “transition paradigm” be implemented in poor communities in South Africa where most people are dependent on income from government grants? Here, the aim cannot be to have a transition to a lower consumption society; these societies are actually under-consuming. Rather, it is necessary to create settlements which are sustainable in almost every way: in terms of livelihoods, natural resources, energy and water usage, health and education, transport, and waste disposal. In this model, sustainable communities use the skills, assets and resources of their members to generate livelihoods. This paper observes three existing communities in South Africa with the objective of analysing how such models are integrated (or not) into the local economy. Thereafter aspects of a model that envisages ways that poor communities can create sustainable livelihoods, using local skills and resources, are presented. This model requires strategies for creating localised systems, including micro finance, local markets, com-munity exchange networks, cooperative construction, production and distribution systems; and infrastructure and technology systems.

Drivers of environmental change (report)

World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability

In this report, the German Advisory council on Global Change explains the reasons for the desperate need for a post-fossil economic strategy, yet it also concludes that the transition to sustainability is achievable, and presents ten concrete packages of measures to accelerate the imperative restructuring. If the transformation really is to succeed, we have to enter into a social contract for innovation, in the form of a new kind of discourse between governments and citizens, both within and beyond the boundaries of the nation state. Factsheet 5 includes detailed descriptions of 'Drivers of Transformation', such as permaculture activists and transition towners. 

Successful organic market gardening (book)

The Market Gardener: A successful grower's handbook for small-scale organic farming

Jean-Martin Fortier is the founder of a micro-farm in Eastern Quebec. Growing on just 1.5 acres, they feed more than 200 families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands. In this book he shares the secret of their success: low-tech, high-yield production methods that focus on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process. Instead of a tractor they opted to stay small-scale, relying on hand and light power tools. The book is a compendium of proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods, packed with practical information.

Transition's potential to challenge neo-liberalism (online)

ORGANIZING TRANSITION: PRINCIPLES AND TENSIONS IN ECO-LOCALISM

In this chapter, the authors investigate the potential of the transition movement to resist dominant discourses that support neoliberal conceptions of economic growth which deny the environmental consequences of late capitalism, and to transform communities through bottom-up democratic organizing. Although critiques of the transition movement focus on the limitations of eco-localism as a form of resistance to capitalism, the approach in this chapter is deliberately affirmative and is aimed at understanding the potential of the movement as well as identifying issues and challenges it may face. Consideration is given to the transition movement's attempts to be simultaneously responsive to current global environmental and economic crises, while also engaging deeply with issues and dilemmas of democracy.

Transition thinking and food systems change (#journal)

Transitions to sustainability: a change in thinking about food systems change?

'Transition' has recently gained prominence as a way to discuss and address sustainability challenges and changes. The author explores connections to food systems change, by highlighting two broad approaches in the sustainability transitions research field. First is a multi-level perspective that examines sustainability innovation pathways and second is a social practices approach that illuminates the possibilities for shifts in normal everyday routines. Taken together, these offer useful ways to think about the dynamics and significance of innovations in food and agriculture, and the part they play in transitions to sustainability.

The Transition Movement and contemporary protest (#journal)

Readjusting to reality 2: Transition?

This paper focuses on the Transition Movement that is growing rapidly around the world, aimed at responding more broadly to the emerging energy and climate change problematic, ahead of what otherwise can be expected to be the collapse of our globalised economy. The Transition Movement, by contrast, is concerned to develop positive responses that reintegrate local communities, living in harmony within their local worlds. The heart of the paper focuses on the current tumult of protest movements and demonstrations around the world, enquiring as to what these are trying to achieve, how effective they are in achieving their ostensible aims and whether the inchoate aspirations are in practice realisable. The paper suggests that the Transition Movement presents a realistic resolution to the problematic of revolution as well as addressing the emergent energy and climate change problematic.

Alternative food networks (book)

Alternative Food Networks: Knowledge, Practice and Politics

This book reviews the growth of alternative food networks and their struggle to defend their ethical and aesthetic values against the standardizing pressures of the corporate mainstream. It explores how these movements are "making a difference" and their possible role as fears of global climate change and food insecurity intensify. It assesses the different experiences of these networks in three major arenas: Britain and Western Europe, the United States, and the global Fair Trade economy. This comparative perspective runs throughout the book to fully explore the erosion of the interface between alternative and mainstream food provisioning. As the era of "cheap food" draws to a close, analysis of the limitations of market-based social change and the future of alternative food economies place this book at the cutting-edge.