It didn’t start too auspiciously. My Eurostar train’s engine broke down at St. Pancras and sat there for 2 hours while engineers tried in vain to reattach the flange to the sprocket (or something). After several aborted attempts where we were told all was now well, only to grind to a halt again after moving forwards a few metres, we finally all bailed off onto another train and set off. I was travelling to Brussels to collect, on behalf of Transition Network, the 2012 EESC Civil Society Prize at a rather grand award ceremony in the European Parliament building. Would I make it in time?
Let’s start this month’s bumper round-up (which contains some of the finest short films about Transition among many many other things) with the news that Transition Network has just been named as the winner of the highly prestigious European Economic and Social Committee’s Civil Society Prize. This is great recognition for the work of the REconomy Project and so many people in hundreds of European local communities who are engaging their local civil society in developing low carbon futures and livelihoods which promote wellbeing for all in the community. There are more than 500 Transition initiative community groups in 23 European countries (more than 1000 groups worldwide) who are working on the “transition” to a low-carbon, socially-just future.
I know it has been a thrillingly exciting wait, but now we can announce the Top Ten films most popular with Transition initiatives!! Thanks to everyone who voted. I know the fever pitch of excitement this has generated. You can either read them below (click ‘read more’) or you can play this little player to hear them read out in a Top Ten countdown kinda stylee.
Last Friday I visited Brixton in south London to visit Brixton Energy. Brixton Energy had just closed its second share launch, Brixton Energy Solar 2, which had raised £70,000. Its first project, Brixton Energy Solar 1, was the UK’s first inner-city community-owned solar power station, a 37kW solar array on the roof of Elmore House on the Loughborough Estate. The second was a 45kW system spread over the roofs of the 4 housing blocks of Styles Gardens. I joined Agamemnon Otero of Brixton Energy on the roof of a neighbouring tower block on a crisp and clear winter day, with a clear view over the solar systems that Brixton Energy had already installed (see picture above), to ask him more about the project.
It’s fantastic. Get a copy. It made me wonder whether the recent revival of independent record shops have a few things to teach us more generally about vibrant local economies? As a vinyl junkie and as someone who grew up in independent record shops, I wanted to explore some of the issues in the film in more depth. I was therefore delighted to be able to start out by interviewing Graham Jones, author of ‘Last Shop Standing’ and presenter of the film. As lovers of music, vinyl and independent shops we could have talked all day, but luckily for you we kept it brief.
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? This site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations
Read more»
