26 Sep 2010
Stroud’s Open Eco-Homes: The Movie!!
Here’s a short film from the recent Open Eco-Homes event in Stroud… my thanks to Philip Booth…
An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent
Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
Archive for “Technology” category
Showing results 26 - 30 of 87 for the category: Technology.
13 Sep 2010
A Report from the Launch of the Totnes Renewable Energy Society
Last Friday, in Totnes Civic Hall, saw the historic launch of the Totnes Renewable Energy Society (TRESOC). A key piece in the relocalisation of Totnes and district, TRESOC offers members of the community the chance to buy into their own renewable energy company. The evening started with Cllr. Tony Whitty, the Mayor of Totnes, who put the work of TRESOC in the context of the town’s wider spirit of being a pioneering town, a spirit now embodied in its identity as a Transition Town. He mentioned the 74 photovoltaic panels now adorning the Hall as part of the Transition Streets initiative, which will be formally ‘switched on’ at the Energy Fair next Saturday. TRESOC, he told the nearly-full Civic Hall, is another key step towards enhancing the sustainability and resilience of Totnes.
8 Sep 2010
Announcing the Arrival of the Totnes Renewable Energy Society!
This Friday night in Totnes (7pm in the Civic Hall), a historic event occurs, the launching of the Totnes Renewable Energy Society (TRESOC). TRESOC describes itself as “an Industrial and Provident Society established to enable the community of Totnes and surrounding parishes to take charge of the development of our renewable energy resources and provide maximum benefit to the local economy”. It originally emerged from an Open Space Day on energy held by Transition Town Totnes, and although it is not a TTT project, it is clearly a key part of the infrastructure of relocalisation as set out in the Totnes & District EDAP. Anyone in Totnes or the surrounding parishes will be able to buy between £20 and £20,000 of shares, which will entitle them to one vote. The model means that the company will be democratically owned, and provides a safeguard from takeover by large commercial interests. TRESOC will be announcing, on the night, news of its first major renewable energy projects which have, until now, been kept tightly under wraps. The share option pack will also be available on TRESOC’s website from just after the launch. I will be posting a report about the launch, and will be taking my cheque book in order to be among the first to invest in the renewable energy future of my community!
23 Jun 2010
Another Invasion of Our Mental Environment…. Volo.tv
Been a while since I had a rant here on Transition Culture, but with just over two hours to go until England probably get knocked out of the World Cup, which will no doubt inspire another, here is a heart-felt rail against a hideous new phenomenon. I wrote a while ago about the proposed London ‘Cloud’, a pollution of our mental environment on a dreadful scale in London (haven’t heard anything as to whether this is getting the go-ahead or not). Well yesterday I came across another such mental pollution, on a smaller scale, but equally dreadful. I boarded the 4.57 from Plymouth to Totnes yesterday, and found myself in one of First Great Western’s shiny new carriages. To my horror, on the back of every seat, at eye level, was a colour television, each silently running through trailers for sports, documentaries, kids programmes and so on that you can now watch (at a cost) on your train journey.
18 Mar 2010
An Interview with David Orr, author of ‘Down to the Wire’. Part Two.
How do you see the relationship between sustainability and resilience as concepts? Is resilience part of sustainability? Is sustainability part of resilience?
I guess for me sustainability is kind of a boring word but we’re stuck with it. But I tend to like resilience because it implies an active disposition to be able to withstand, it’s more of an engineering and mathematical term, but to be able to withstand disturbances. Some parameters change, some factors shift, and the system is able to adjust. There’s enough slack in the system that it works. So for me, at a minimum, sustainability implies resilience. In any definition of sustainability the system has got to be resilient to disturbances.
