Transition US is a nonprofit organization that provides inspiration, encouragement, support, networking, and training for Transition Initiatives across the United States. The grassroots movement aims to engage local residents in campaigns to boost sustainability and economic growth by nurturing community resilience.
Carolyne Stayton, Director of Transition US, recently answered some of EfficientGov’s questions on the organization’s goals and future plans specific to transportation.
EG: What is Transition Streets?
CS: Transition Streets is a tried-and-tested project where neighbors come together with neighbors to implement simple no-cost and low-cost actions. The actions cut household energy use, reduce water and waste, change how we eat and transport ourselves, and strengthen our neighborhoods at the same time.
The new Transition Streets Handbook covers the 7-chapters that a small group of neighbors would go through together. The Transition Streets handbook consists of five content chapters (Energy, Food, Water, Waste and Transportation), as well as an introductory chapter and a closing chapter. The five content chapters provide 35 money- and energy-saving actions with clear advice about how to carry each one out. Each Transition Streets chapter pulls together practical resources and tips on changes you can make from reducing water leaks and improving home energy efficiency, to recycling and composting waste, to growing your own food and finding more local sources, to biking and ride-sharing, and it helps you calculate what your current energy use is, how much energy could be reduced, and how much money can be saved.
The Handbook too has customizable sections so local groups can add in pertinent rebates, resources, or programs that might be available at a city/town, county or state level to its residents.
EG: What inspired the creation of Transition Streets in the United States?
CS: We did not dream Transition Streets up ourselves but adapted this award-winning program from Transition Town Totnes in England, for use in neighborhoods throughout the U.S.
In the US, Transition Streets fits a real need for an easy and empowering way to engage citizens that we were trying to fill. We think this could appeal to municipalities as most are trying to meet ambitious climate goals or reduce their waste streams. But their numbers keep rising. In California more and more talk is about the drought and what to do to conserve water. Transition Streets engages neighbors in bigger picture conversations. But more importantly, it applies just the right amount of friendly peer pressure so participants really do end up lowering their home energy and water use, reducing their waste, and changing how they eat and transport themselves. The added bonus is that all the while they are doing Transition Streets, they are building social cohesion which will put them in good stead during any type of emergency or crisis. Participants also love finding out that they have creative, caring, and interesting neighbors - to many that’s the best part!
EG: What early roadblocks and challenges were discovered when first launching the initiative?
CS: Transition US is a small nonprofit and this project was (and is) ambitious. The main challenge was overcoming our lack of capacity. But this has had an upside. To do the project well we had to crowdsource a lot of help. The exciting thing was that when we put out the call experts in many fields showed up! We had help from topic experts for each of the five main content chapters of the Transition Streets handbook; Energy, Water, Food, Waste and Transportation. We had website and messaging help, writing and legal support, and best of all we had 12 pilot groups (each with a cluster of neighbors) from around the country who took this project on in their own neighborhoods. Through their input, advice and deep caring, these participating households helped us work out the kinks and really arrive at a tested product.
EG: How did you overcome (or how are you overcoming) these obstacles?
CS: Now we are seeing that several leaders from these pilot groups are taking Transition Streets to new heights. In Humboldt County, CA a few people are working on an Emergency Preparedness module that will be offered to all users of Transition Streets. In Charlottesville, VA seven more groups have started Transition Streets and received some recent news coverage here and here. They plan to customize the handbook for their unique constituency. So already Transition Streets is evolving and we look forward to crowdsourced improvements and additions.
EG: What are the main goals/outcomes of Transition Streets?
CS: For participants of Transition Streets the main goals/outcomes are:
- SAVING MONEY - Households cut their bills by an average of $938/year (based primarily on the UK data).
- REDUCING annual household carbon emissions by an average of 1.3 tons (based primarily on the UK data).
- And just as importantly, BUILDING COMMUNITY - Neighbors form a rich social bond that goes well beyond the project.
For Transition US our main goals/outcomes are:
- REDUCING U.S. CARBON EMISSIONS – in a citizen-led effort to mitigate the effects of climate change.
- REDUCING WATER USE and using water more efficiently
- ENGAGING and EMPOWERING CITIZENS - with the understanding that citizens in motion generally continue to stay in motion and keep making their communities more resilient.
EG: How do you measure the success of the Transition Streets program?
CS: One measure is an evaluation form. These evaluations help us track the impact of Transition Streets across the US. Participants complete the first half of the evaluation during their first group meeting, and the second half during their final meeting showing their progress.
Another measure are the numbers of downloads of the Transition Streets Handbook. As of today we have had 60 downloads and know that one download was sufficient for the 7 starting groups in Charlottesville (and these seven groups could equal as many as 56 households).
The national launch of Transition Streets is scheduled for the fall and we expect to have a steady increase of interest/downloads then.
EG: What is a common misconception about Transition Streets, or similar campaigns, often found at the local government level?
CS: It is still early days, but so far local governments in Bozeman, MT, Charlottesville, VA and San Diego County, CA have been interested in Transition Streets. Many local governments are scrambling to meet their water conservation, and carbon and waste reduction goals and likely do not have the capacity to engage their citizenry in empowering ways. Transition Streets can provide a cost effective, and impactful strategy for local governments to partner with and support. We think it is very suitable for a citizen/government partnership.
EG: Where do you see Transition Streets in the next 5 years? 10 years?
CS: In 5 years (or less) there will be many more versions of Transition Streets; for renters, apartment dwellers, lower income residents; also versions for governments, and for businesses to use with their employees. There will also be additional optional modules like Emergency Preparedness, and Advanced Water Conservation for Drought Areas. Optional advanced actions will be available in each chapter to appeal to those further along in their conservation actions.
Honestly we have not thought ten years out but in my imagination I can see Transition Streets has taken a foothold in neighborhoods in most cities and towns and together we have really made a huge impact. We hope to work with government agencies to customize Transition Streets for more county-wide roll-outs as well.