At their first December meeting someone mentioned the phrase “Transition Town” and so, to find out what Transition Towns are all about, they went away and read the Transition Primer over the holidays. The Transition model of creating an energy descent plan, to reduce their communities’ dependence on fossil fuels, appealed to them. So in January they were all fired up to give it a go.

“We started showing movies once a month, first in private and then in the local hotel. We invited SEAD to give two excellent workshops, we also invited several local speakers and three people attended the Transition Training in Dundee in June. One person went to the Transition Conference in Cirencester in April and three people went to the Scottish gathering in July. All this networking has been instrumental in keeping the energy for the project going. All our events have been very well received, except possibly for one event which was all doom and gloom. Until now we’ve had between 10 and 50 people come to our different events and talks and we hold an email list of about 120 people now plus an allotment list of 70 people.”

“Tip: Always aim to have suggestions for solutions to enable people to keep their hopes up. Despair makes people lethargic whereas action is an antidote to despair.”

The Forres Transition Town group has derived a lot of strength from having a clear set of aims, allowing them to achieve a strong group and a clear plan of action in only one year.

“Our aims are to promote a sustainable and resilient local community along the principles of the Transition Town ethos. The Future can be even better than the past if we are in charge of the change that must happen to preserve our planet. Community cohesion and empowerment as well as community engagement is what drives us forward.”

With these clear aims, they’ve been able to take their project forward, get funding but still keep the wider community involved in deciding what happens in their locality.

“In late October we were awarded £184,119 from the Climate Challenge Fund for our community project of starting allotments, a farmers market and awareness raising over a two and a half year period. This is giving us the opportunity to prepare a Development or Business plan which we are doing through community consultations, interviews and several drop-in sessions. We are increasingly working together with other groups in our community and we take every opportunity to promote ourselves at community events. We are forming links with Moray Council and are now planning events together. We have full support from our Community Council, our Area Forum and Forres in Bloom.”

It hasn’t all been success, and as with all groups they have faced challenges, but by building links and drawing on their strengths they have found ways to overcome their setbacks.

“The main problem so far is time. To affect change is time consuming. We’ve been lucky to have several very dedicated people on our steering group and several people with experience of setting up companies before. Forres is a small town with an already good community spirit and a number of useful organisations in place, this has helped enormously. We have had a lot of support from SEAD, from the Climate Challenge Fund, from Transition Support Scotland and from our local newspaper.”

Forres’ top tips for communities starting out:

“Start small, grow organically, be sure to have fun and make sure you see your own skills no matter how small they might appear. Together we can shift mountains. Take advantage of existing official local partnerships, local Area Forums and Community Councils, etc. Build bridges and have fun.”

The Climate Challenge Fund was launched on 3 June 2008 by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment Richard Lochhead. The fund of £27.4 million over 3 years (2008-2011), is designed to enable communities to come forward with their own solutions to make a significant reduction in carbon emissions.

The fund was announced in the November 2007 Budget and sits alongside Scottish Government’s action on climate change to deliver an 80% reduction in Scottish emissions by 2050.

The Climate Challenge Fund is aimed at the community sector including community groups, schools, and not-for-profit organisations, and these groups may also be supported by NGOs, voluntary sector or local government partners.

Projects can involve a range of actions from helping communities to use less energy, walk and cycle more, to local sustainable food production. They can also have an environmental, social and economic dimension to the projects, that give people new skills, improve health, help them to work together or provide better community facilities, but carbon reduction must be at the heart of every proposal and the community at the centre of the decision making.

Climate Challenge Fund grants are primarily designed to help communities reduce their carbon emissions. That might mean planning and organising in the first instance, however will always mean taking direct action to reduce carbon emissions.

The projects funded will be expected to be ambitious in their work to reduce emissions, for example aiming for 30% reductions or more in carbon emissions over three years. However, priority will also be given to ideas that also help strengthen local economies, improve community cohesion, and other social objectives alongside making significant carbon emissions reductions.

The fund does not aim to target any specific or particular carbon reducing activities but the extent and sustainability of carbon reduction should be an important factor in which initiatives gain support.

The fund is supported by the ‘Climate Challenge Fund supporting alliance’ which is made up of a network of interested organisations that are able to provide a working network where communities and stakeholders can exchange good practice and learning. The alliance also aims to develop a shared sense of purpose amongst national stakeholder bodies in supporting the purpose and delivery of the Climate Challenge Fund, as well as to support Government’s work on evaluation of actions by Climate Challenge Fund communities in tackling climate change.

Perth and Kinross Carbon Reduction project

Comrie Development Trust to date has been awarded £299,650 over three years (2008-11) to launch a groundbreaking project to reduce the carbon footprint of the whole village, in partnership with Perth & Kinross Council and Scottish and Southern Energy Company. Part of this will be rolled out through Alyth and Letham in a street-by-street insulation and energy efficiency project. If successful, this model could have the potential to be adopted and rolled out across many communities in Scotland.

Wider village action will be complimented by the sustainable development of the community owned 90 acres of land at Cultybraggan Army Camp. The land gives the opportunity to create green buildings for local workspace and manufacturing, allotments for local food production and leisure and recreation opportunities.

For further information on the Climate Challenge Fund, please visit: www.infoscotland.com/climatechallengefund

Getting Started

As the two members of the Alyth community were illustrating the banner with rain and sunshine, to take on the Make Poverty History march, they discussed how it would be best to get people to change their lifestyles to reduce their carbon footprints. They decided that individuals often feel it is not worthwhile if no one else is bothering, and that a community project would have much more impact. People would feel that their efforts were less futile and governments would take more notice of communities’ efforts than those of individuals. Alyth is a very, very community minded town so it seemed like the perfect place.

The first event was an Energy Saving Fair in one of the town halls. Since then there has been a showing of An Inconvenient Truth and an infra-red survey of home efficiency with an exhibition in the hall, sponsored by Scottish Hydro. The most successful events have had something to attract children, and thus their parents.

Future Plans

They now have a whole host of new projects planned. One is a street by street home efficiency survey. Another is a transport and hot office survey. They are hoping to reduce and rationalise commuting from Alyth partly by encouraging employers to hire space in a hot office in Alyth. The third idea is to put on a play! The play has been written by a member of the committee. It is a musical romantic comedy set in a house in Alyth where the occupant is struggling against his own inertia about reducing energy use in his life.

Alyth’s top tips for communities starting out

Be visible and active, don’t preach, be light hearted, offer free stuff and entertain the children!

Film: AGE of STUPID to be released in March 2009

The Age of Stupid is the new movie from Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel) and producer John Battsek (One Day In September). Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? It will be released in UK cinemas on 20 March 2009, and subsequently in other global locations.

Find out more here: http://www.ageofstupid.net

Wake Up, Freak Out – Then Get a Grip

This 12 minute animation clip explains and demystifies how the earth’s positive feedback systems work, leading to a much faster rate of climate change than we previously expected – and points to an even more urgent need for action. Note: its not one to watch as a pick-me-up if you’re feeling down about climate change!

You can watch the film at: http://www.wakeupfreakout.org

Win £20,000 with the Future Friendly Awards

Do you know any unsung heroes who’ve taken positive action to live more sustainably, and persuaded others to change the way they live too? If any groups or individuals spring to mind, then you could nominate them for the Future Friendly Awards, giving them the chance to win £20,000 to spend on consultancy and development of their sustainability projects. The deadline for nominations is Friday 23 January 2009.

For more information visit: http://www.futurefriendly.co.uk/awards

The Highland LEADER Fund

This EU fund is dedicated to revitalising highland communities. Constituted community groups, social enterprises and micro-businesses are eligible for the fund, and themes they are interested in include renewables and learning opportunities. They are especially interested in funding projects that target specific groups including young people, the under employed and migrant workers.

For more information on the fund, visit http://www.highlandleader.com/funding

Transition Scotland Support

Transition Scotland Support exists to support and develop a national network for communities who want to use the Transition model to tackle climate change and peak oil. If you want to find out more, contact Transitionscotland.org, or click here to go on the mailing list.

One-day course: campaigner training

Saturday 7 February 2009
10-3pm, Leith Academy, Edinburgh, £15 (£12 concessions)

Have you ever wanted to change the world, but didn’t know where to start? Then World-wise is just for you! Its a fantastic one-day course all about the power you have to make a difference on issue like climate change and international poverty. The course is facilitated by the World Development Movement Scotland.

If you would like to register, please contact Fiona Henderson at Leith Academy on 0131 553 2810.

Switch On to Climate Change at SEAD

As you know the Switch On to Climate Change project at SEAD has a whole array of resources, workshops, training for trainer events and support to offer you and your community. The participatory workshops support communities in developing plans for community action to tackle climate change. Our educational resources and case studies of community action help motivate, inspire and encourage community action.

If you want to take action in your community but don’t know where to begin or need support and advise with fledging groups, then contact Lorraine.

Trapese Popular Education Course

22-26 March 2009
Findhorn Foundation College

This five day course entitled Do it Yourself: exploring tools for empowerment and grassroots social change, will cover a wide range of themes, including looking at popular education methods and investigating examples of active campaigning and direct action. The course is open to anyone committed to being involved in positive social change and non-hierarchical ways of organising.

For more information visit:
www.findhorncollege.com/proftraining/exploringtools.php

Climate March
Saturday, 6 December, 12:30pm – 3:30pm
Assemble: Amphitheatre, Clyde Street, Glasgow
Rally: Glasgow Caledonian University

This event is organised by the Scottish Climate Change Campaign as the Scottish part of the Global Day of Action during the United Nations Climate Talks in Poznan, December 1st to 12th 2008. This international event will call on world leaders to take urgent action on climate change. We want to involve the widest possible range of people and organisations, so bring your banners with your message and all your family, friends and colleagues!

The purposes are:

• to be seen by the public and in the media
• to bring together all the numerous organisations and individuals who are committing to action on climate change
• and to invite them to bring their contributions under the theme of the march.

We aim to send a positive message that we CAN indeed do something about the situation if we all work together on this and also tell our elected governments:
Act now – for just solutions to climate change! We are prepared to act – are you?

We will be walking together from the Clyde Amphitheatre through Glasgow city centre towards Glasgow Caledonian University where we will hold the rally. Bring banners and anything bright, visual and colourful, as well as warm and waterproof clothing. There will be speakers, music, workshops and fun activities before, during and after the event!

Further info

www.globalclimatecampaign.org
http://scottishclimatemarch.info
http://sccc.byethost3.com

Films from around the world and speakers on local community initiatives

Presented by: Camcorder Guerillas, Towards Transition Glasgow
and The Scottish Climate Change Campaign

Film 1: Wake Up, Freak out – Then Get a Grip

By Leo Murray – 11 minutes

This really isn’t about polar bears anymore. At this very moment, the fate of civilization itself hangs in the balance.

An ingeniously clear and engaging animation about Climate Change, Wake Up, Freak out – Then Get a Grip explains why the next few years are the most important humanity has ever faced, or will ever face.

Website: http://wakeupfreakout.org/

Film 2: An introduction to Transition in Scotland

By Precious Productions, Scotland 2008 – 8 Minutes

This is a short video documenting the first Scottish Transition Gathering, which was held at the Big Tent Festival in Fife in July 2008.

Guest Speaker: Eva Schonveld from Transition Scotland will talk about the transition initiative in the Portobello district of Edinburgh.

Film 3: Eat the Suburbs

By Tanya Curnow, Australia – 10 minutes

Eat The Suburbs is a short that offers a profile of the activist gardening movement as well as offering tips on how to start your own miniature organic farm. Eat The Suburbs received its world premiere at the 2007 Hot Docs International Film Festival.

Guest Speakers: Brian Dillon from the Master Composting Programme in Glasgow will do a short presentation on home composting and Larry Butler will present a new local initiative happening in Garrioch, Glasgow.

Film 4: The Power of Community – How Cuba survived Peak Oil (extracts)

By the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions

Cuba, an isolated island nation, rebuilt its quality of life following the collapse of cheap oil, supplied by the former Soviet Union. This fascinating and empowering film shows how communities pulled together, created solutions, and ultimately thrived in spite of their decreased dependence on imported energy.

Website: www.powerofcommunity.org

Guest Speaker: Lorraine is the project officer of the Switch to Climate Change project at SEAD (Scottish Education & Action on Development) and will give us a short presentation about SEAD and about the community projects they have been helping.

More info on the CCA website

“It is often said that the world has become a global village. We are able to communicate with people at the other side of the world in an instant and many of us in Scotland have been lucky enough to see far-flung places and meet people first hand. At our conferences and events Community Development activists are often deeply moved and motivated by face to face meetings with international partners. Our experience tells us that there is a hunger for deeper learning and exchange between communities here and overseas.”

IACD is a volunteer led, Scottish-based organisation committed to building a global network of people and organisations working toward social and environmental justice through a community development approach. They are currently developing an exciting new project together with communities in the UK and Ireland.

To respond to this enthusiasm, IACD will develop ‘global village’ residencies in 2008/9, supporting communities in the UK or Ireland to host an international visitor or small team of visitors who might share dialogue and experiences, tackle practical problems, run workshops/training sessions, undertake community arts work or be part of the development efforts in that community.

Some of these pairings will include additional practice and policy seminars at partner organisations and some will stand-alone. The costs of the residency will be part-funded from Carnegie UK Trust funding, with the remainder levered by IACD and host village fundraising. We will focus initially in rural areas and will host an initial pilot with communities in Cornwall, Ireland and Scotland.

If you would like more information please contact Tara O’Leary, info@iacdglobal.org

The Climate Challenge Fund was set up to help communities make a real difference by significantly reducing carbon emissions. There is no set grant and no minimum level of award but a £1,000,000 maximum has been set.

For more information on how to apply, contact the fund administrator at ccf@ksbscotland.org.uk or call 01786 471333. You can also visit www.infoscotland.com/climatechallengefund for the expression of interest form, as well as guidance on what types of projects are eligible to apply.

In response to the recent round of awards, Green MSP Patrick Harvie said:
“Although there is much that government, business and individuals can do to beat climate change, we believe inspirational local projects have a huge role to play. The eighteen projects receiving support today are just that. Each one is an imaginative and community-led solution, with ideas tailored to local circumstances across the country.

“Groups in our cities from Portobello, Edinburgh and Toryglen up to Inverness have come up with some seriously imaginative proposals, including energy surveys, urban gardening, and shifts to public transport.

“Similarly, we’re pleased to see funding going to projects in towns from Alyth to Dumfries and Haddington, schemes that will bring together schools, businesses and the local community. They are forging strong partnerships to cut energy costs and help build a better understanding of the opportunities a low carbon economy can bring.

“Scotland’s islands have particular difficulties with rising fuel prices, for homes and businesses and for transport, but they also have very particular opportunities. Groups on Shetland, Skye and Eigg have brought forward broad projects looking across island life to find opportunities to cut carbon and boost local economies, and we’re delighted to see that.”

Top Tips

A big tip from lots of groups, for getting the message out there is offering carbon footprinting advice to the public; showing that offering a free service or advice is an effective way to start community conversations about carbon. Especially if it saves people money!

Cambridge Carbon Footprint project started with just two volunteers and the Centre for Alternative Technology carbon calculator, back in 2005. They found that the calculator combined with the face to face method really helped engage people’s attention and opened up a dialogue about carbon consumption. The group now has two paid members of staff, eighty volunteers and attends thirty events per year.
Their top tip: is to use carbon calculation as a conversation opener, but not to force advice on people.

Going Carbon Neutral Ashton Hayes got started in 2006. They offered carbon reduction advice after local students carried out a carbon survey with the town’s residents. This led to an average 14% reduction in householders’ carbon reduction in the first year, amongst those who took part.

Their top tip: is to work with all other community groups in a town so that everyone is more inspired to do something positive. For example, they held a lightbulb library in their local Brownie group, and got students working on the survey.

Alyth Climate Action Town sprung into action after the G8 summit was held near their Perthshire village in 2006. They have found the Energy Saving Trust Community Action For Energy (CAFE) project a great source of carbon reduction ideas. CAFÉ offer courses in Finding out about Energy, Energy Auditing and Funding Community Projects.
Their top tips: They particularly liked the Energy Saving Trust’s Carbon footprint Card Game for engaging the public.