A sustainable future for everyone. That’s what the Transition Town movement is all about. It’s a retaliation from the people towards drastic climate change and lack of supplies of cheap energy. In order to reach their goal, they have organized specific projects to tackle the causes of the problem itself and stop the increase of issues that spread from it.
To tackle the problem, they have created different groups that will each focus on a specific aspect on the improvements we can all do, that hopefully, will, in the end, impact our lives for the better. One of the biggest groups run by Crystal Palace Transition Town is concerned with food and growing. This is for the promotion of and help with producing more locally produced food which then supports shops and restaurants to use this more organic and sustainable food. Another important project has been the setting up and continued support of the prize-winning Food Market, which supplies locally grown food to the people of Crystal Palace, and which also, in the process, helps Crystal Palace become more of a close-knit community as a whole, as we are encouraged to help the movement and grow with it. Another group also focuses on energy and presents the better need of using renewable energy sources in order to reduce the amount of energy we use in general. They even run workshops that teach people how to build their own solar panels. Other groups include support for greater recycling awareness in the community and the ways in which we can use more creative ways of scaling back on waste, support for better transport in the area and more things that are local and fair. This includes initiatives such as Handmade Palace, where local crafts people can sell their wares, local crafting groups and the Library of Things at the local library, where instead of books you can borrow sewing machines, power tools and more. For further information on these visit their website.
The Transition Town has been used in so many different ways to make Crystal Palace a happier and safer place to live, in the current climate of shops closing and town centres losing their appeal to the world of online shopping, it would be good to see more places taking this approach and coming together as communities.
