The Transition Movement embraces the notion that a lower energy, more resilient future need not have a lower quality of life than present and that this transition is not only inevitable, but a desired reality.

The process of transitioning a community is a positive, solutions-focused approach that draws on all elements of a community.  It is a grass-roots evolution of unlocking the knowledge, abilities and resources already within our community instead of the traditional approach of seeking leadership from governments and outside consultants.  Transition initiatives act as catalysts for a community to explore and come up with its own answers.  They focus the collective mind on the practicalities of energy decent.

When we can transition our community from oil dependence we can then make the choices we want to make, instead of the ones we have to make.   The Transition Movement is all about transforming our communities from oil dependence to ones of localized resilience.  One of the ways of achieving this is through the creation of an Energy Decent Action Plan.  This is a plan created by the community for the community that envisions a future with limited use of fossil-fuels and describes in detail, how the community will move through the process to achieve the desired result.

The richness of our lifestyles, fuelled by 75 years of abundant and cheap energy will necessarily change leaving many of the things we take for granted behind while opening the door to new, potentially more fulfilling models of community.

Climate change makes this carbon reduction transition essential and peak oil makes it inevitable.  It is transition initiatives that make it all feasible, viable and attractive.

There are six values that underpin the Transition model.

1. Visioning – This is the belief that we can only move towards something if we can imagine what it will be like when we get there.  Creating a clear and enticing vision of the outcome is key to the success of the process.
2. Inclusion – Everyone must be included in the transition process.  It will take the collective genius of us all to build our future community.
3. Awareness-Raising – We must assume that people are not necessarily as aware about the issues surrounding peak oil and climate change as they need to be.
4. Resilience – The building of community resilience is central to the Transition movement.  With added resilience, the community can weather the problems that arise as we move quickly along the path to lower energy use.
5. Psychological insights – To engage, educate and include the entire community in the transition process eliminates the feelings of the isolation, powerlessness and overwhelm that can cripple a community into inaction.

Credible and appropriate solutions – It is important that once the community is up to speed on the reality of the changes required that the initiatives devised to meet the challenges are of the same scope.