Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Network. He has many years experience in education, teaching permaculture and natural building, and set up the first 2 year full-time permaculture course in the world, at Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland as well as co-ordinating the first eco-village development in Ireland to be granted planning permission.
He is author of Woodlands for West Cork!, Energy Descent Pathways, The Transition Handbook: from oil dependence to local resilience, Local Food: how to make it happen in your community (co-author), and Transition in Action: Totnes and District 2030, an Energy Descent Plan (co-author). The Transition Handbook has been published in a number of other languages, and which was voted the 5th most popular book taken on holiday by MPs during the summer of 2008. He publishes www.transitionculture.org, recently voted 'the 4th best green blog in the UK'(!). He is the winner of the 2008 Schumacher Award, an Ashoka Fellow, is a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, served as Soil Association Trustee for 3 years, and was named by the Independent as one of the UK's top 100 environmentalists. He is the winner of the 2009 Observer Ethical Award for the Grassroots Campaigner category, and in December 2009 was voted the Energy Saving Trust/Guardian's 'Green Community Hero'. He lectures and writes widely on peak oil and Transition, and is researching a PhD on Transition and resilience at Plymouth University. He lives in Devon and is a keen gardener.
Central to The Transition Handbook is the concept of 'resilience', that is, the ability of a community to withstand shocks. Rob argues that just cutting carbon emissions is insufficient: we need to rebuild the ability of our settlements and communities to provide for their core needs, and doing so will create huge possibilities for local economic regeneration.
The Transition Handbook is about hope and optimism, and their untapped potential as tools for engaging people in repairing their communities, their settlements, and ultimately, their planet.
Rob regularly features as a keynote speaker and has recently participated at the following events: Community Land Trust Conference (keynote speaker); WWF (talk to the various teams); Sustainable Consumption and Production Conference; Dorset Schools Eco-Summit (keynote speaker); Eco-Build Summit; Prince's Foundation Annual Conference at St James's Palace; Skype presentation to the Nova Scotia Planning Directors Association (NSPDA) Conference; Skype presentation for the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) conference.
He lives in Devon with his wife and four children. He has particular passions for cob building and walnut trees, and is staggered by the rate at which the Transition concept has spread. He publishes www.transitionculture.org, a popular website which promotes the Transition concept which was recently voted 12th Best Green Blog. Some of his previous jobs include illustrating, cartooning, gardening and strawbale building. He lectures, teaches and writes widely on permaculture and the Transition concept. For more information see www.transitionculture.org and www.transitiontowns.org/Totnes
