wombat library's List: Transition / community

...In the winter 2011 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review we introduced the concept of “collective impact” by describing several examples of highly structured collaborative efforts that had achieved substantial impact on a large scale social problem, such as The Strive Partnership1 educational initiative in Cincinnati, the environmental cleanup of the Elizabeth River in Virginia, and the Shape Up Somerville campaign against childhood obesity in Somerville, Mass. All of these initiatives share the five key conditions that distinguish collective impact from other types of collaboration: a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and the presence of a backbone organization. (See ”The Five Conditions of Collective Impact,” below.)...

An ongoing series of briefings summarising key findings across all our grassroots innovations projects, designed for a wide audience of policymakers, practitioners and academics. (briefings are in pdf format)

Community Energy Scenarios
Briefing 11, October 2011


Seeing Community Climate Action

Briefing 7, May 2011

A Glimpse into Grassroots Climate Action

Briefing 6, January 2011

A small town outside of Melbourne is bringing a disused hydro electric station back to life, thanks in part to its community branch of the Bendigo Bank.

Warburton micro-hydro project leader Luke Whiteside told an audience in Bendigo this week how the Upper Yarra Community Enterprise Limited had provided the project with a major shareholder and would hopefully see enough clean energy to power 50 houses.

The story of the Warburton micro-hydro station has been attracting attention to the small renewable energy project on the Ythan Creek.

"The hydro station was bought out in 1945 and decommissioned a couple of years after the grid came to Warburton," Mr Whiteside said.

Around two years ago, an idea to to bring the station back to life surfaced among locals and the community-owned energy project was born.

"We're building a whole new pipeline, a whole new powerhouse, and, obviously, all the new electrical devices," Mr Whiteside said.

When the community enterprise arm of the local community bank decided to support the project, they were able to get crucial environmental assessments done.

Mr Whiteside was in Bendigo for the Community Power Conference and was keen to share his town's experience with other groups from central Victoria and across Australia.

"Too many times we think 'this is too big' and 'we can't do anything about it'," he said.

"I'm not a renewable energy expert but I think the learning point is there.

"If you get enough people around you can really make a difference with the community."

People in some country areas are in a unique position to take steps to lower their electricity costs.

Community owned projects such as wind turbines and micro hydros can offer discounted electricity as well as an annual dividend to shareholders.

Projects discussed:
Warburton
NSW wind farm

In September 2011, New Dream spoke with Gay Nicholson, founder and President of the citizen-based group Sustainable Tompkins and a member of our Board of Directors, about her efforts to advance the sustainability movement in the Finger Lakes region of New York.

What can we do to create sustainability in our own communities? How can local people work together to save or generate energy and tackle climate change? The Rough Guide to Community Energy has the answers. Packed full of practical advice and inspiring case studies, it covers:

Local energy groups – how to set one up and keep its momentum going

Types of project including solar, wind, hydro, biomass, CHP and energy efficiency

Getting a project off the ground, from fundraising and planning to construction

Real-world advice from successful groups all over the UK

Over the past few years, thousands of people all over Australia have come together in their local communities to discuss how they might take action for a clean energy future.

From Ballarat to Balmain, Canberra to Cairns, people have gathered in pubs, cafés, living rooms and community centres and formed groups, started talking to the public, running stalls, getting in the media and meeting with their local politicians.

In January 2009 over 500 community members from 100 local community groups came together in Canberra at Australia’s first Community Climate Summit - and realised we were all asking the same questions.

Why we came together:

Why in a country like Australia - with such abundant sun and wind, where we could be a global clean energy leader, when the impacts of climate change were hitting already, when thousands of new jobs would be created – were we not getting serious about renewable energy?

In small group sessions, and over coffees and beer we asked - when the technology was here and ready to go, why were we not taking it up? When reports like Beyond Zero Emission's zero carbon plan showed it was possible, why was nothing still happening? Why was community doing its bit but the government so slow? And what could we do to speed it all up?

The conversations that weekend focussed on the need to grow the connection and strength of community voices and to share our visions, our hopes, our stories and our ideas for action.

The story so far:

Over the next few months, with new found friends from across the country, some members of local groupscontinued discussing the importance of uniting around a common vision we all believed in.

Over phone link ups and snatched moments in inter-state visits we starting planning for a campaign that would respect diversity but support, promote and reinforce the inspiring work of community groups at the local level. We started researching and strategising to establish clear, winnable, short term objectives to move us towards 100% renewable energy. We asked wise and experienced friends in other parts of the movement to give advice.

And we got talking - to existing contacts, new contacts, to people at the other ends of website addresses across the country - working to connect those we knew dreamed of a 100% renewable energy future.

What next:

Today, we are in the early stages of building an exciting new community owned campaign: 100% Renewable. We are calling for the introduction of a national feed-in tariff to really kick start renewable energy investment in Australia.

One by one we are working to get every community, every business, every politician in Australia behind our vision. But we can't do it alone - we need more voices, hearts and bodies to join our call.

So, find a local group, or start one of your own, write a letter to your local politician or have a chat to a friend, get some mates and take a photo at your town or suburb sign or join the effort to have 20,000 conversations on renewable energy.

Together we are creating a groundswell of community support to make a fast transition to 100% clean renewable energy.

Todmorden, an ethnically and economically diverse mill town of about 15,000 residents located about 20 miles from Manchester in West Yorkshire, U.K., is home to Incredible Edible, an ambitious, agrarian-minded scheme that's brought together an entire community under one common goal: to become completely self-sufficient in food by the year 2018. And so far, things are going swimmingly.

In Summary
With this broad survey, we wanted to get a sense of how Transition is evolving in the US and what kind of support is
needed.
In general, the majority of initiatives are reporting that things are going well, but at least half of the respondents had
experienced challenges.
Food, communications/publicity, collaborations with other groups, skill sharing, and energy issues are among the top
areas that Transition Initiatives are engaging in.
Ongoing challenges include balancing time and energy, engaging people on long term basis, communication and
developing clear goals and actions.
Developing relationships within the community, finding common cause, organizing events and collaborating with other
groups were among the successes. Coming together as a group and finding others who shared similar interests came up
again and again as things that people valued most about being involved.
More regional gatherings and networking opportunities, along with advanced skills workshops for transition leaders, were
identified as resources that people would definitely use.
Initiatives are using a wide range of tools and creative means for getting the word out, though most people thought their
initiative needed to do more to be inclusive. Examples of ways that Transition Initiatives are exploring diversity were
shared.
With regards to handling conflict, for some groups, the relationships between the core organizing group is one of the
highlights of their experience, but for others finding cohesion and building capacity is a large stumbling block.
When asked about thinking toward the future for Transition US, many people stated the need to achieve more widespread
awareness and recognition, engaging in a larger dialogue, and ultimately a working towards a “culture shift.” With regards
to needs for the movement as a whole to be most effective in the next few years, more regional networking, engaging a
broad and diverse network, and creating viable alternatives were common themes.

local time banks, 100 Garden Challenge, Community resilience transition plan, etc.

film available for screening

"In Transition 2.0 is an inspirational immersion in the Transition movement, gathering stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. You'll hear about communities printing their own money, growing food, localising their economies and setting up community power stations. It's an idea that has gone viral, a social experiment that is about responding to uncertain times with solutions and optimism. In a world of increasing uncertainty, here is a story of hope, ingenuity and the power of growing vegetables in unexpected places".