The Transition movement is about positive change. It’s about congratulating people for the changes they have made, and encouraging them to take further steps, rather than focussing on the doom and gloom. It’s also about community rather than individuals. It’s about planning and working to ensure that communities become more resilient to be able to withstand shocks like global pandemics, Brexit, and the demise of fossil fuels for example by having renewable energy resources, and locally-grown food. I was involved in setting up our local Transition Bournemouth group back in 2009.

Since then, we’ve been running hands-on projects that people can get involved with to start living greener lives. We’ve run several garden projects with schools to help children (and their families) learn more about food and related subjects (climate change, pollinators, nutrition etc.), we run the community garden at Slades Park, we run a regular Repair Café to reduce waste to landfill and help people to learn fixing skills, and we also run film screenings. We’d always love to do more, and welcome people with passions for projects to come and talk to us about how we can help.

Alongside supporting the development of Transition Bournemouth, I have also developed a keen interest in Permaculture – a holistic and sustainable design approach initially developed with land-based projects in mind but also adaptable to any scenario. I used a permaculture approach for developing the design for Slades, and for continuing to manage the project. I think that permaculture is going to be incredibly helpful in developing more sustainable ways of living.  

It feels really good to be helping people and wildlife in my local community. And it helps me to know that I am making a difference. And I don’t think I’ll ever stop wanting to make a difference, as I write this I am actively looking for a new project where we can run a community veg garden in North Bournemouth. 

So, 30 years on and I feel have learned a lot, and hope I continue to learn! There have been plenty of times when I’ve needed a walk in the woods to get some perspective. I find the age of the trees comforting, thinking about the changes they’ve lived through – it helps me to deal with the changes coming. So I would recommend that, when you feel overwhelmed, either by the global situation or looking at your own life and wondering where to start, take a walk in the woods. Or wherever you go to reconnect with nature that makes you feel calm inside. Then when you’re back home, take a structured approach when thinking about what you can do to make a difference.  

Most of what you can change will be your own, personal, domestic situation. But you do have influence over others; friends, family, colleagues, employers, local community. You also have influence over your local and national government, as a lobbyist and a voter. 

I would recommend focussing on what you can do at home first and foremost, but make some space for local and national participation. 

For planning what to do at home, headings like Energy, Waste, Water, Transport, Food are useful to work with, you may well have others. Think about what it is you’d like to change, what would have the most impact, and what you can realistically do in the timescale you’re looking at both in terms of effort and cost.

If you’re not sure about the impacts, try using a carbon calculator online to get an idea of your carbon footprint and it’s breakdown. You’ll then see all the easy things that can be done quickly with the least cost and effort, like changing to a renewable energy provider; and the things that may take a bit more planning, like replacing some of your purchases with options that use less or different packaging to reduce waste; and the things that will need to happen over the longer term, like changing your job or moving home so that you live closer to where you work and don’t have to use a car for commuting. There will be people and groups that can support you in this, like Transition Bournemouth and others. You are not alone! 

Be proud of the changes you have made to make your life more sustainable, but don’t stop there. Plan the next change. Make it realistic, but make it count.” 

“I run the 2 acre Slades Farm Community Garden, which is part of Slades Park, in north Bournemouth. We have built a fabulous pond that attracts literally hundreds of frogs each spring, and have planted around 50 fruit trees, and a hundred metres of mixed hedges. More importantly, so many local people of all ages, and organisations, have been involved, in all the gardening and conservation activities. It’s a small wilderness retreat within a busy conurbation. 

This has been the culmination of 30 years of interest in the environment, but what motivated me initially?  

Empathy. I cried when I first heard whale song and knew that they are not able to hear one another anymore against the cacophony of noise we make in the ocean. The brutal slaughtering was bad enough, but the whale song broke my heart. Since then, as my understanding of the impact we are collectively having on the planet has grown, so has my sense of duty to do something about it.

As far as we know, we are the custodians of the only planet in the universe that is burgeoning with life, and the lifestyles that we are consciously adopting are destroying it in front of our eyes. That is so very, unforgivably wrong. I don’t want any part of that. I don’t want that blood on my hands. I don’t want to contribute to ecocide.  More recently, I learned from Steven Covey the habit of ‘Begin with the end in mind.’ So, from time to time, I now view my actions and inactions through the lens of what I imagine to be my deathbed. Sounds morbid, but I don’t want to reach the end of my span and feel ashamed that I should have done more. 

So, what have I done? Well, like most people’s life stories it’s been a bit circuitous. I have adapted my lifestyle over the years to be as low carbon as I can. With regard to influencing others, all I have done has largely been along-side my day job, as a volunteer, in my spare time. And initially, as a working single-parent, I didn’t actually have that much spare time. I started out supporting global campaigns, joining the then Poole & Wimborne Greenpeace group.

I met some great people and we had fun, but I didn’t really feel like my efforts were making an impact. So, on the after-wave of the Earth Summit in 1992 I adopted the ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’ approach, and focussed on making local changes through lobbying local government and raising local awareness with the Poole Agenda 21 Group. I also started doing practical conservation work in my local nature reserve which I really enjoyed. However, I still didn’t feel like I was making enough of a difference, and then Transition came long.