Big Launch Celebration 17th April

National Transition Conference 2009
22-24 May photo gallery Conference TV short film National Reports

Transition City Lancaster Report:

Reflections On Two And Half Very Hectic Conference Days

The food was good; the location was recycled and had an air of a grand past that permeated the plaster work. The hotel was like something out of fawlty towers but that was nothing to do with the conference. Those things were all so trivial and add to the memory and the story of the event. All I can really say is that I feel privileged to have shared that time with so many talented and supportive people. It was simply the most inspiring conference I’ve ever attended.

Day 1

The conference started on the afternoon of 22 June with a number or introductory activities to get to know about the geographical spread of transition towns. There where over 360 people present from all corners of the UK and Ireland. There were also representatives from USA, Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand – and possibly other places I didn’t hear about.

Apart from location we briefly explored the concept of how far transition is an internal or and external process. To what extent the process comes from inside our selves and to what extent it comes from what is happening in the outside world or the people around us.

This was a useful activity as although the group was very supportive it let us consider in what ways and to what extent transition is a very personal or very public activity. What our relationship is to the local and wider community. What things do we share and where do we differ and that each of our voices are equally valid and worthy of space and time within the sessions.

As the first session moved into smaller group activities we got to know the people from the wider North West:- the Isle of Man, Liverpool, Ireland, Lake district. We created some of our transition dreams and goals as art work. I have to say the North West did a splendid job of model making with people and energy being key themes

 

The gallery of pictures should give you a feeling of the amount of energy and buzz of creative thinking in the Conference Hall.

First Open Space Event:

The Choice of Open Space Events was incredible. For those who haven’t come across this idea before. Delegates put up Ideas that they wish to discuss/share with others. At the appointed time you go to the subject you are interested in and you stay for as long as you are interested/learning/contributing and if you are not doing any of those things you must leave and find another subject.

I started with a session on dealing with apathy and burnout. This was interesting for a while: people discussed how to cope with a mixed and varied group of contributors; not taking on too much; sharing thoughts and allowing space for everyone to speak. I came away with the thought that so long as people in the Lancaster Groups remain mindful of each others thoughts and feelings and that each voice is equally valid and needs space to be heard, we should be able to face the challenges posed by group dynamics. This is a good point at which to remind people to allow space at the start of each group meeting for people to centre themselves, let go of the day’s trials and focus on the community they are sharing. I personally find it helps me to put my ego to one side and be more open to learning from others – still a work in progress…

Creating Extremely Successful Projects – An brief overview

The next session I joined (late) was presenter lead rather than shared open space, but was full of fantastically useful ideas on how to set up “extremely successful projects”. This approach uses a tried and tested technique based on living systems theory for developing, implementing tracking and celebrating projects. The name given to it is Dragon Dreaming but don’t let that put you off what you may find to be a very powerful, practical tool that I hope to be able to share at on 11 July event.

It started with an explanation of the relationship between the people involved in a project (the volunteers or givers) and the environment within which they are working to create their project. The basic idea here is that we each give into a project, but unless we get something back the relationship is not balanced and the project becomes vulnerable to failure through the threat to sustainability of the volunteers involved.

Overlaid on to this Individual/Environment dimension or continuum is the relationship between ideas or theory behind a project and the practice or practical action required to make a project happen. Again if these things are out of balance the project is vulnerable to failure. In simple terms you need a dream and action to change the world. These dreams and actions are shared between the individual and the environment inputs and outputs and we have to be mindful of the balances we strike and the risks we take. If all this seems like common sense then it probably is.

The next part of the presentation described how to move from brainstorming to actions.

  1. Brainstorm all the ideas and thoughts around an issue. Write the list down.

  2. Categorise each of the elements in the list as one or the following types:
    Dream(D), Planning Activity(P), Action/Doing Activity(A), Celebration Activity(C)

  3. If you have too many dreams and no planning and actions then the project is incomplete and at risk of failure

Here’s a simplified example project…

Brainstorm list with categories assigned

D Raise Awareness of TCL and Peak Oil
D Run a TCL Stall at a Summer Fair
P What Materials?
P Booking
A Printing
P/A Publicity Info
A Business Cards
A Posters
A Books and magazines for display
P Support People
A Name Badges
A Table – set up stall
P/A Transport
P/A/C Refreshments
A Sign up form
C/A Talk to lots of people at stall


Energy Descent Plan in 2 Hours

The evening finished off with a whole group energy descent plan. Basically this involved splitting into transition groups, brainstorming ideas, picking our top three for each group. Building a long list for each area of the plan and bring them together as one large plan. This was quite a lot of fun and a great way to meet new people though not sure it really worked as an EDAP exercise.

Day 2

There was a wide choice of workshops for the morning of day 2. Ralph and I attended the presentation on Working with Local Councils.

The Transition Guide to Working with your Local Council: A presentation by Alexis Rowel, Council member and Eco-Champion for Camden Council.

General Points:

  1. It is important to try to engage with Local Government

  2. Observe good practice and learn from best practice

  3. Council structures may need improving, may even need transition councillors

  4. Politicians change only if there is electoral benefit or crisis

  5. Individuals change if they understand the necessity, are given the opportunity and the incentive

  6. Businesses change if they benefit financially or there is a legislative imperative.

The Problem: Councils don’t understand or know what to do about peak oil and climate change. They are often, though not always,  open to ideas and should be approached with solutions not problems.

We have to cut co2 by 80%. The reality is that 90% of energy in-efficient housing stock will still be in place in 2050 – INSULATION is more important than eco-building/eco-bling.

Camden

Revolving Energy Fund (Energy and Water carbon Trust).

  • of public housing with district heating but no incentive to save as people have no local control.

  • Free cavity wall and roof insulation for everyone – 33,000 housing units

  • Reduce energy needs – includes solid wall insulation

  • Paid for by long term loans repaid via addition to council tax

Decentralised Energy Strategy

Build a CHP plant – wind power was not an option because of location so CHP next best thing
Created a Shared heat grid and a circle of CHP systems – smart use of fossil fuels
Ideal for urban institutions - see Kings Cross CHP system – ½ gas, ½ biogas

ESCOs (Energy Service Companies)Infrastructure Energy Services

Anaerobic Digesters – a must

Combined PV and Solar Thermal – sensible eco-bling

 

Positive futures

Co-opt a planning expert or an architect

New Planning Framework – Local Development Framework is a huge chance to influence LA planning on:

  1. Energy efficiency – passivhaus standard

  2. CHP and Links to CHP – establish local heat grids

  3. on and off site renewables

  4. Local carbon offset fund  (20% of energy to come from renewables

Councils accrue for citizens not for businesses - public procurement is 15% of GDP

 

Waste issues

Tonnage target are an insensitive and stupid measure for recycling as it ignores CO2 impact of transporting to meet targets

Food makes up 20-30% or waste and can be a useful resource in anaerobic digesters – to create bio-methane for vehicles. No noxious emissions, no air quality issues and on 20% of the carbon emissions of diesel.

Trading standards could prosecute people for over- packaging.

 

Transport

  • More pedestrian and cycle friendly streetscapes.(Paris has 28,000 free bicycles)

  • Need to place the cycle lane between the pavement and the parked cars!

  • Introduce emission based parking

  • Car clubs – a transitional phase

  • Free bike schemes

  • Car Free housing schemes

  • Local carbon off-set funds

Water

London has major water shortage

  • Rainwater  Harvesting

  • Green roofs and living walls if done correctly

  • Permeable pavements

  • Sustainable urban drainage

  • Day-lighting of lost urban rivers/create waterscapes

  • Separate storm water from sewerage

Food

Encourage local food growing

Less choice in schools – less meat - intensive livestock farming is a major contributor to climate change

 

Political Will, where is it?

Some examples – finance director of Woking:-  “Revolving Energy Fund” – “investing to Save” – who could make this kind of policy work in Lancaster? Paying for changes to houses through small amounts on the Council tax. Influence by involvement with groups and organisations :- businesses, hospitals, voluntary sector etc…

Work through/at the power of Procurement, Planning and Persuasion

The detailed session on LA’s was followed by another open space session:

 

Empowered Fundraising

“Empowered fundraising is all about changing people’s relationship with money”

 

We explored the idea that when we are asked to give money we each have a point between tokenism and sacrifice – the balance of “tokenism and sacrifice”. If you are convinced of the worth of a project then you know how much you are prepared to give and can afford to give towards it.

 

There is a very specific process to go through when using this method to raise funds that is detailed in John Crofts online fact sheet which you can find at:

http://www.neptunmond.de/app/download/1719995550/Fact+Sheet+Number+8+Empowered+Fundraising.pdf

 

It is more than simply asking for money but is about understanding what money is and what it means to us as people. There are a number of money games that can be used to explore this idea. The essence of the approach is based on being totally honest and open with people; have a very detailed specific proposal; knowing the people you ask well enough, treating them the same whether they give you money or not; keeping people informed.

 

The Transition Movie

We had the privilege of seeing the preview showing of the new Transition Movie. It is an intelligently put together montage of footage from different transition town projects. It is woven together through an encapsulating narrative of people in a future time reflecting on their childhood and through their lives and relating the changes they have seen. It is very warm and engaging and packed full of good ideas. See: Transition Culture web One of the stars of the film pictured here.

 

Afternoon Workshop

 

Climate Change Goes Critical a presentation by Climate Scientist David Wasdell. 

From the sublime to the sheer terrifying. This was a very powerful reprise of the presentation David put together for the Parliamentary group on climate change. We now have several copies of the book and DVD presentation for those who feel strong enough to digest the implications of the climatic feedback models that he explores. This one is not for the feint-hearted and I recommend watching it in company and having a discussion afterwards. If you can get through it, it will certainly focus your mind on what needs to be done and add power to your resolve to make a difference.

 

The essence of the message is that all the decision makers’ briefings are based on research that has now passed its use by date. Decision makers need to wake up quickly to the evidence related to the powerful positive feedback mechanisms at work in the climatic system that must be addressed by more than lip service and green wash.  He doesn’t pull his punches; he feels that the truth is that we must move beyond policies of carbon neutral to negative carbon or carbon sequestration now.

 

Evening Speakers

 

 


David Strahan: Why peak Oil is still critical despite the drop in price.

He showed projections of the oil price into the foreseeable future that predicts a series of gradually rising peaks and troughs of the kind we saw last year., So expect the price to go very high (beyond the last high point) and crash again (to a level higher than the resent low) and this pattern will repeat until we shift from oil. 

Dr Stephen Harding (pictured with Rob Hopkins to right) from the Schumacher Institute gave a beautifully crafted presentation on the importance of Giai and our place in this living system. He stressed the importance of understanding our inter-connectedness to/with/in a much bigger system. 

Mary-Jane Rust spoke eloquently on the subject of Resilience and the Heart.

She stressed the importance of avoiding burnout, remembering who you and we all are and where we are.

 

Rob Hopkins rounded off the evening with an inspiring review of the day and evening events.

For more on each of these speakers see the Transition Culture Website

 

Day 3

Workshop: Transport Energy Descent Plan by Steve Melia

Link to Powerpoint conference presentation

Steve is a writer and researcher in Transport issues see his research papers online here.

See also his Transport Energy Descent Plan for Oxford

The Scale of the Transport Problem

 2006 DEFRA: 28.3% CO2 from transport – and rising.

The figures break down as follows (from DFT 2008):

39.7% Cars

26.2% HGV’s

4.1% Public Transport

21.9% (approx) aviation

7.1% ships

 

Aviation

We ignore this at our peril.

  • 1 flight to New York is the same amount of CO2 as the average car usage for 1 year

  • The long term trend is upwards on an exponential curve

  • The “I deserve it” I’ve been good in other ways is a problematic attitude when trying to tackle this

Passenger Travel

2006 700 billion passenger kilometres (BPK) per year (cars and vans)

1980 this was less than 400 BPK per year

 There is too much need for mobility.

Low Carbon Cars

The influential King report on Low Carbon Cars acknowledges that technology cannot solve the problem then fails to mention this in his conclusions

We have to consider the marginal increase in cost of extra electricity needed to support the increase in electric cars, unless of course you still massively reduce car use.

In CO2 terms

Longer trips = more CO2 (Total Volume)

Energy use is proportional to distance. It is the longer trips (greater than 10 miles) that are the biggest part of the CO2 problem for car travel.

Can buses provide a solution? To replace ½ the current car mileage with bus journeys would require a 10 fold increase in the bus passenger miles(DFT 2007).

Conclusion

We need to:

  • Reduce the distances travelled

  • Become less mobile

  • Walking and cycling need to become more important and to be prioritised

Most significant finding associated with car use is that car ownership creates distance based living. Car mobility buys/brings distance to our lives rather than time.

 

Solutions

  • SUStrans and TT Oxford

  • Reduce Dependency

  • Reduce Consumption Short and Long Term

  • Filtered Permeability

See Steve Melia's Transport Energy Descent Plan for Oxford

Tram systems for public transport are expensive and require a pop in excess of 180,000 to make it worthwhile. The cheaper but no less attractive alternative is ultra-light rail: see www.ultralightrail.com. It needs no special road foundations and can be employed in mixed mode environments. May be a much more suitable solution for Lancaster.

 

Planning

  • We must stop sprawl and focus on:

  • intensification of centres

  • Car free developments
    No Parking Permit housing
    Traffic free residential areas (see European examples)

  • Design towns around other modes Car clubs could help

Examples

  • See Vauban (Freiberg) 2000 dwellings – vehicles only allowed at walking pace and separated from “home Zones”,

  • Stellwerk 60(Cologne) 400 dwellings where no cars are allowed on site,

  • Groningen – 16,000 people live in an area with no car access

Final Open Space

Designing a Garden Share Scheme

This was a very good session in which we all shared our ideas and knowledge of what was required to make a garden share scheme work. The mind-maps from this meeting can be viewed here. It was recognised that a gardenshare scheme could satisfy many needs and bring many different groups together. Ideally any scheme would require the support of a gardenshar coordinator to evaluate and monitor the participants in order to maximise its success. It was noted that individuals may required individual public liability insurance though this was not seen as a problem. Many transition towns (like ourselves) are in the process of developing/implementing such a scheme.

 

 

Permaculture Walk

On the hottest day of the year to date in we set off across Clapham common for the Permaculture walk. This was a fascinating ramble across the common and on to The Tree House a Zero Carbon House (http://www.treehouseclapham.org.uk). We were given the personal private tour by the owner who dragged himself in off the allotment to show us around his wonderful house. Do look at the web site it really is as good and sustainable as it looks. It supplies all its own electricity and hot water needs and exports power to the grid. The walk continued on to the various local gardens and allotments but I had to leave before the end.

 

Post Conference:Economics Crash Course

I spent a further day at the conference venue for a follow up training event on Chris Martenson’s “Economics Crash Course”. (See:http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse). After lengthy group discussions of the issues covered in the web based course, (which we had all completed prior to turning up - honestly), we were treated to an online seminar with Chris live on the internet. He summarised his resent work on the course and incorporated UK data into his presentation for us. He then spent a good deal of time fielding questions. If you want to understand what’s behind the economic crash and want to know more about where the so-called “developed” economies seem to be headed then I strongly recommend that you follow the online course(linked above).

 

To view Chris' conference slides including a view of his UK data see his conference update on:
http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/transition-towns-conference-files/19811.

Some further suggested reading by members of the crash course can be found here.