Transition Town initiatives are bringing people together out of a desire to explore how we - and our communities - can respond to the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil. We know we don’t have all the answers but we believe we have the innovation to create those solutions.

Each transition group networks with their local community on a coordinated range of projects designed to transition from high energy to low energy lifestyles in a positive and creative manner. Our aim is to re-localise our communities, making them vibrant, resilient and truly sustainable.

A substantial number of towns (Islands, Suburbs, Communities, Regions) are working on peak oil and climate change education, and localisation initiatives in New Zealand.

Where to now?

• About Us
• Read the 12 Steps of a Transition Initiative
• See what your local Transition Town initiative is up to
  
• Go to a meeting, film screening, etc
• Join the email group
• Chat in the forum
• Check out Ning - A TT social networking site
  
• Support the work
• Stay informed about local and global news

New and Current...

• A book about Transition Towns in New Zealand
• TT on Campbell Live - Video
  
• Becoming an Official Transition Town
• Video - NZ, the first year in Transition

What are Transition Town initiatives?

"Scalable microcosms of hope" - Jeremy Leggett

Transition Initiatives are based on four key assumptions:

• That life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable, and that it’s better to plan for it than to be taken by surprise.
• That our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil.
• That we have to act collectively, and we have to act now.
• That by unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively and proactively design our energy descent, we can build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and that recognise the biological limits of our planet.

The future with less oil could, if enough thinking and design is applied sufficiently in advance, be preferable to the present. There is no reason why a lower-energy, more resilient future needs to have a lower quality of life than the present. Indeed, a future with a revitalised local economy would have many advantages over the present, including a happier and less stressed population, an improved environment and increased stability.

What can I do?

Begin by reading a description of the 12 steps that guide a transition process. If they resonate for you, take some action.

Here are some of the people who have come across the Transition Towns model, and who have expressed their appreciation for the ideas and actions being suggested and undertaken. Taken from The Transition Handbook.

“The Transition concept is one of the big ideas of our time. Peak oil and climate change can so often leave one feeling depressed and disempowered. What I love about the Transition approach is that it is inspirational, harnessing hope instead of guilt, and optimism instead of fear. The Transition Handbook will come to be seen as one of the seminal books which emerged at the end of the Oil Age and which offered a gentle helping hand in the transition to a more local, more human and ultimately more nourishing future.”
– Patrick Holden

“It seems to me that [a] low-carbon society would be one which remembers that our planet is a unique gift – perhaps the only one of its kind in the entire universe – which we are indescribably privileged to be born into. It would be a society that could look back on the six degrees nightmare scenario as just that – a nightmare, one which humanity woke up from and avoided before it was too late. More than anything, it would be a society which survived and prospered, and which passed on this glorious inheritance – of ice caps, rainforests and thriving civilisations – to countless generations, far into the future.”
– Mark Lynas