It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: How can our community respond to the challenges and opportunities of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis?  This small team of people begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative. They start working together to address this BIG question:

"For all those aspects of life that our community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (in response to peak oil), drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change) and greatly strengthen our local economy (in response to economic instability)?”

The Transition Model, as outlined in the Transition Handbook, provides a framework which includes the following:

• Guiding Principles
• Guidelines
• "12 Steps"
• "7 Buts"
• Scales

During the process the community recognizes these two crucial points:

1. That we used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and there's no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope.
2. If we collectively plan and act early enough, we can create a way of living that's significantly more connected, more vibrant and more fulfilling than the one we find ourselves in today.

Transition Initiatives make no claim to have all the answers, but by building on the wisdom of the past and unlocking the creative genius, skills and determination in our communities, the solutions can emerge.

Now is the time for us to take stock and to start re-creating our future in ways that are not based on cheap, plentiful and polluting oil but on localized food, sustainable energy sources, resilient local economies and an enlivened sense of community well-being.

The Transition Initiative Process

Transition initiatives on all scales other than national ones go through a succession of stages, as follows.

• The Initial Stage: typically, a group of people start to meet each other, start to discuss the Transition concept, and begin the process of enthusing each other to initiate the process.
   
• The ‘Mulling’ Stage: contact is made with Transition US and the individuals or groups read the Transition Handbook, download the Transition Primer, and let us know of their ‘mulling’ status.
   
• Formal Transition Initiative: the ‘mulling’ stage can last for a few weeks or for many months, depending on the group. In order to proceed to formal (aka "official") status, the group completes a declaration of intention, which lists the guidelines and asks for information about the initiative, as well as checking that the initiatives in the best possible position to proceed successfully. Please refer to the Transition Initiative Checklist for more details.  Many initiatives have told us that they cherish their formal status, and are very proud of having reached that point.

When you’re ready to apply to become an “official” Transition Initiative, then download the application form and email it back to our office at info@transitionus.org

Sidebar: Some people in the Transition movement have suggested that new initiatives should self‐assess ‐ or that there shouldn't be any criteria at all. Others strongly disagree with both these suggestions. On balance, and based on the feedback we have received, we feel that having clear guidelines which are assessed by supportive third parties creates a positive, meaningful process, but fully agree that they must remain open to debate and to being changed.