Transition Together

Transition Town Totnes has set up Transition Together to encourage more people to get involved in saving energy, saving money and reducing their impact on the environment.

The intiiative brings groups of people together to explore energy issues, take practical action to reduce their use of resources and forge lasting social connections.

Fiona Ward, Project Director for Transition Together, explains how the initiative works: "The programme is designed for groups of between five and eight people, who might be neighbours, friends from different parts of the town or people who are getting to know each other for the first time. We provide each participant with a workbook to help them develop an action plan and over a series of seven sessions they explore practical ways to control usage and save money in the areas of energy, water, food, waste and transport."

Forming an action plan

The workbooks combine discussion ideas with practical information on topics such as using your household heating system in a more energy efficient way. "The workbooks focus on no-cost and low-cost steps, such as turning your heating thermostat down by one degree and using energy-saving lightbulbs, as well as actions that are supported by grants," says Fiona. "They also include 'bigger picture' questions for the group to think about. For example, we all know that leaving appliances on standby uses a lot of energy, but what stops us from changing our habits?"

Each group completes an evaluation form at the start and end of the workbook, to provide feedback on the practical actions that each participant has taken as a result of the programme. The Transition Together project team is able to use this information to work out the carbon savings achieved by each group.

Extending the initiative

With two pilot groups having successfully completed the Transition Together programme in 2009, the team is now using Big Green Challenge Plus funding to extend the initiative across Totnes. The funding is also supporting the roll-out of the project to 10 transition communities in other areas of the UK.

"We've had a lot of interest from groups in other parts of the country and even from overseas," comments Fiona. "Our aim is for each group to be self-supporting. We empower group members with the information and tools to take things forward in a way that suits them, whether that's simply making changes in their own homes or going further by organising events, arranging outings or recruiting new groups."