Part 1 of 6. All six parts are on Youtube.

Dr Krumdieck gives this incredibly insightful look at how a transition town may look. This material dove tails nicely on from the TT twelve steps. Modelled with help from many disciplines, what emerges is very useful for where we find ourselves now.
This study was done in 2003 and was not promoted as it was deemed to radical.
Interest was sparked again in 2006.
WATCH THIS MOVIE 

Here is a viral we created recently for Razorjunior in Australia.

Vision Rodney: A Strategy for the District’s Future

Submission to Rodney District Council
From Sustainable North Trust, Transition Town Orewa
and Rodney District Community Members
from Kaukapakapa, Silverdale, Orewa, Puhoi, Stillwater,
Whangaparaoa, Waiwera, Warkworth

CONTENTS

Executive Summary

How Our Submission Came About

Closing the Gap: Intent 7- Sustainable Rodney

About Sustainable Development

Our Vision for Rodney

Our Mission for Rodney

Action Plan: A Beginning

Conclusion and Next Steps

Executive Summary

Five years have passed since the first issue of Vision Rodney: A Strategy for the District’s Future was released. Since then, our district, nation, and indeed the world, has faced massive changes from global forces such as climate change, carbon emissions and oil and food price increases, and local developments such as the rise in Rodney’s population, changing industry sectors and the increase in developed land.

These changes are among so many others that will shape our communities and our way of life well into the future. We must prepare and plan for the challenges and opportunities presented by these changes, and do so using an effective and comprehensive approach that addresses the needs of all people within Rodney and the environment on which we all depend. This approach, a clear sustainable development strategy, acknowledges economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts and interdependencies, and is the basis from which our submission is framed.

To help us comprehensively and responsibly respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by current and future changes, effective planning, decision-making and actions that use the sustainability lens will ensure that development in Rodney will meet the essential needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In this way, our unique, yet interlinked collection of communities in Rodney will effectively ride the tides of change with resilience, equity and prosperity.

The nature and speed of the changes we are collectively facing will take many capable hands and the active support of all of us. As a group, we recognise that “sustainability” and a “Sustainable Rodney” is no small task and we wish to acknowledge both its importance and magnitude. Our broad-brush submission in no way diminishes the important subject that it is for our district. It is our sincere aspiration that our discussions will be the seed of wider conversations in the spirit of fostering mutual collaboration from all sectors around this topic for Rodney - among community organisations, the Rodney District Council, developers, community leaders, central government departments and agencies, individual people, communities and neighbours.

In supporting Rodney District and the Rodney District Council with a new release of Vision Rodney, two not-for-profit community groups (Sustainable North Trust and Transition Town Orewa) and many community members met to discuss our contribution to the existing strategy document. This submission is a summary of our open floor productive discussions from two meetings held on July 26th and July 31st 2008. We expect to hold additional, ongoing meetings to establish further details for achieving our collective goals and outcomes, and look forward to working with other initiatives (such as, the Long-Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) and the Social Well-being Strategy 2008-2011) for the benefit of all of Rodney. Our meetings and discussions addressed the following topics:

Closing the Gap: Intent 7-Sustainable Rodney
About Sustainable Development
Our Vision for Rodney
Our Mission for Rodney
Action Plan: A Beginning
Conclusion and Next Steps

How Our Submission Came About

This submission to the Vision Rodney document is from a wide range of people with two things in common—we all live in Rodney and we are all aware of the need for a sustainable future especially in light of peak oil and climate change.

While some of the members are old-timers in the area of permaculture others are newly joined in the Rodney Transition Town movement and heard about the Sustainable Rodney Day via the email networks. A few responded to the newspaper articles and advertisements.

The goal of Sustainable Rodney Day was to move the Council decision-making process in a more sustainable direction. The Sustainable North Trust initiated the project with a grant from the ARC’s EIF fund.

Joe Polaischers’ original idea for Sustainable Rodney Day was invite the new Mayor and Councillors to an environmental education day. But as the year continued and the opportunity arose to run a community input process in parallel with RDC the Trustees felt that this was a better way to instigate long-term sustainable change. This also coincided with the EIF grant’s goals of affecting long term change.

So it with grace that the participants present our vision for the 2009 Vision Rodney document and look forward to continuing input with the LTCCP process.

Closing the Gap: Intent 7 - Sustainable Rodney

Ko tatou ko te tangata he kaitiaki noahio i nga taonga iti me nga taonga tapu whakarere iho o ratou ma. Te tumanako kia mahi tahi tatou ki te pupuri tonu te mana, te ihi, te wehi me te mauri o enei taonga katoa hei whakaatu kit e ao tona atahua.

Man is merely custodian of the minute and holy treasure handed down through generations. Our endeavour is to work together to prosper, to preserve and protect these treasures for the benefit of all race, colour and creed to appreciate and enjoy.

Vision Rodney 2003 contains statements that can be related to sustainability, however, these words from the Maori opening statement contributed to our broader discussions about a clear sustainable development strategy for Rodney District.

Highlighting the Key Issues

Our world looks very different today from just five years ago. The nature and speed with which change is occurring is reaching the shores and pastures of Rodney District with as much fervour as any other community. Our group identified many key issues that are likely to affect Rodney District. While not an exhaustive list, these include:

Energy decline
Food safety, security and the need for abundance
Climate change, including extreme weather events and rising sea levels
Species and biodiversity loss
The need for sustainable transport
The need for sustainable land use planning
Rise in population growth
Crime and violence associated with social stress
Equitable distribution of remaining resources
The need to ensure health and social wellbeing for all
An underlying sense of urgency to address these and other issues

Our group agreed that the key to effectively addressing these issues lies in establishing a clear sustainable development framework in Rodney District – one that encourages, inspires and works carefully and consciously to foster collaboration and coordinated action among community organisations, the Rodney District Council, developers, community leaders, central government departments and agencies, individual people, communities and neighbours.

In addition, the group agreed that education about sustainability, including environmental education should be presented by the community. In other words, “the community must educate the community”. This approach would benefit both the Council and the community in that community-based education can support Council initiatives and be more efficient and effective.

As such, we applied a sustainable development lens to Vision Rodney 2002’s Six Intents as follows, and have added Intent 7: Sustainable Rodney

Vision Rodney 2003 – Community Outcomes

Social/Cultural
Economic
Environmental

Intent 4 - We will take care of ourselves while working with others.
Safe and healthy communities

Intent 1 - Keep our country look and feel
A country look and feel

Intent 5 - We will be able to make our living in Rodney.
Jobs and opportunity in Rodney

Intent 2 - We will not let our towns and villages sprawl.
Contained and distinctive towns and villages

Intent 3 - We will maintain our lifestyle and look after the environment.
Maintained lifestyles and environmental care

Intent 6 - We will determine the future of our district
Locally determined futures

Intent 7 - We will make decisions and take actions based on a clear and ongoing
Sustainable Development Strategy
Sustainability Lens

Source: Dr David Kettle, Environmental Engineer
About Sustainable Development

Sustainability is the best attempt to provide the best outcome for human and natural environments both now and into an indefinite future. At an earlier point in human history, the environment largely determined the shape of society. Today the opposite is true: human activity is reshaping the environment at an ever-increasing rate.

The parts of the environment unaffected by human activity are getting smaller all the time. Because people need food, water and air to survive, society can never be larger than the environment.

Our group holds to the United Nations’ definition of sustainable development:

“Sustainability is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
-1987 UN World Commission on Environment and Development – The Brundtland Report

Sustainability is not a new concept. It is how most people lived before the Industrial Age in the 18th century. However, the notion of “sustainable development” and the need to address vital global and local development issues was made known to the wider world 20 years ago by the United Nations.

In 1987, the United Nations called upon former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland to head the World Commission on Environment and Development following the UN’s growing concern “about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development”.

The UN recognized that environmental problems were global in nature, and they determined that it was in the common interest of all nations to establish policies for sustainable development. Under Mrs. Brundtland’s leadership, the commission was to, among other goals, recommend ways that concern for the environment would lead to the achievement of common and mutually supportive objectives that take account of the interrelationships between people, resources, environment and development.

The scope of sustainability goes beyond the environment to include broader thinking of economic prosperity, cultural preservation and celebration, environmental restoration and social wellbeing and quality of life. Drawn graphically, these relationships look like this:

Sustainable Development
Society is part of the Environment. The Economy is part of Society.

Our Vision for Rodney

He aha te mea nui? Maku e ki atu he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
What is the greatest of all things? It is people, it is people, it is people.

Rodney is unique among the regions of New Zealand.

Our group discussed that Rodney is much more than “Auckland’s Playground”. We believe Rodney needs a unique branded identity – one that:

Sets us apart in New Zealand
Is inclusive, no one is left out
Supports our community values

Highlights Rodney District, its Council and communities as a world leader in sustainability best practices (innovative, forward-thinking, energy efficient, “carbon positive”, non-toxic)
Highlights Council partnering with community empowered to make decisions on sustainability (and operates by collaboration, cooperation and transparency)
Recognises future generations – all decisions principles and pathways of seven generations

Recognises the Treaty of Waitangi as an important guiding/empowering document
Authentic to the “clean and green” image/identity that the world perceives New Zealand to be
Adopts the economic, environmental, social and cultural quadruple bottom line – the “4 Well Beings”

Creates “villages” of self sufficiency
Adopts the ARC Sustainability Framework
Shows faith in the community, faith that the community vision will inspire change

We anticipate that we will work collaboratively with Rodney District Council and all communities to formally establish a new Rodney District “brand” with appropriate publicity. The following is an example of our vision:

Example of Our Vision

Rodney is a leading model in a collective of safe, healthy, happy, equitable, collaborative and peaceful communities. We build and develop on our inherent community capital to build a sustainable future
Our Mission for Rodney

To accomplish the sustainable development strategy of Vision Rodney will require the collective intelligence and actions of many people. Our group formulated a “first-draft” of our mission as follows:

We will create communities where people can live work and play.

We will make sustainable development the norm by 2012 (many sustainability initiatives are underway at the national (i.e. Beacon Pathways), regional (ARC Sustainability Framework) and local levels (such as EcosHomes www.ecoshomes.co.nz).

Rodney District Council will make all decisions through a sustainable development lens

Establish a target/benchmark date for:
A Carbon Positive region
Renewable Energy (energy that is clean, safe, secure)
Sustainable Organic Agriculture

Our decisions and actions give us the power to control our destinies economically, socially and politically

We plan and work within our bioregion (water catchments) in ways that build resilience and adaptability to change

Action Plan: A Beginning of the LTCCP

We recognize that a strategy for a Sustainable Rodney must be accompanied by best practices and ways to measure and monitor how we are doing – the systems, structures, metrics and performance measures.

Decisions based on real sustainability take into account the impact and influence of all four well-beings on Rodney’s economics and ecological systems as well as oru community capital, social capital and spiritual capital.

We look forward to driving innovation in our district through sustainability, and what that means for business, our leaders, the environment, our communities and people.

The following actions are a first-step toward a more comprehensive planning process:

We will adopt the ARC Sustainability Framework (all the work is already done for goals, plans, and actions)

We will create intensive rather than extensive agricultural land use, supportive of family farms, local food production, 80% within 80 kilometers.

We develop community-supported agricultural initiatives and community-supported energy production.

We will create regenerative systems that mimic natural systems.

We will cultivate new industries based on “green economics” – waste resources, soil fertility building, capital skills, knowledge and imagination.

We will implement the existing Zero Waste 2020 plan.

We will work to make changes in corporate law from solely profit-driven to begin legally responsible for sustainable decisions.

We build affordable housing in which people feel safe, secure and healthy.

We adopt a cradle-to-cradle model in our communities in Rodney.

Our initiatives are well funded, enabling community educators to effectively serve the communities, ensuring the further success of the endeavours.

We create opportunities to educate our young people and all people within our communities about sustainable practices.

We encourage a stable-state economic system

We develop our inherent community capital to build a sustainable (very different future).

Conclusion and Next Steps

Every generation has experienced challenges and opportunities in their time.
The mounting challenges in global areas that affect local communities such as climate change, peak oil and rising population must be a central priority in the coming decades.

Our group has put forth the frame of a sustainable development strategy on which we must all hang our actions. The most successful people in any field combine two views – a focus on big-picture development and on the details and inner-workings of processes, practices and mechanics. Now is our time to rise to the challenges we face in our community in Rodney District by establishing the means for effective - and sustainable - growth and development while preserving and restoring the environment we cherish.

We look forward to our ongoing open floor community discussions and in supporting our local Rodney District Council and community leaders to build a better future.

We appreciate the opportunity to make our submission and are available to answer any questions or provide further information.

Betsy Kettle, Sustainable North Trust (426 4909)
Jeff Smith, Transition Town Orewa – (426 4466)

Please indicate if you would like your name listed below or removed. Please provide your town as well. Thank you for your participation.

Community Members
Your interest, occupation, what you’re involved in, or qualification
Town/Village
Betsy Kettle
Permaculture facilitator

David Kettle
Environmental engineer

Jeff Smith

Diane Winder

Richard updates events since mid-2007 with Janaia Donaldson of Peak Moment Television, including the credit crunch and fossil fuel price volatility, noting that we’ve missed most of the best opportunities to manage collapse.

30 Oct 2007 by Eric Silva

Photo by Knut

This article from tagesschau.de (German) claims that a single Google search query (taking less than a second) consumes as much energy as an 11-watt light bulb does in one hour. This number is based on the total number of servers Google is running, the total energy consumption of those servers, and the total number of search queries processed.

Rolf Kersten estimates that running a single Google query releases 6.8 grams of CO2 and consumes a bit less—2 to 8 watt-hours of energy.

Kunstler on CBC talking the long emergency, suburbia, and life without cheap oil…(8 mins)