Visiting us in Totnes

There's a growing number of people from all quarters of this planet that are requesting visits or turning up unannounced at our offices, often with groups of 3 or more people and sometimes with cameras and a sound technician!

We're delighted that people find our efforts inspirational, and we're also somewhat alarmed at the time it takes to organise visits and some of the unrealistic expectations that people arrive with.

If you're thinking about a trip here, please take a good look at our visiting Transition in Totnes web pages. You may find there are much better ways of getting the information you need than burning carbon to get here.

And if you do finally conclude that you need to make this trip and it's all prearranged, please don't forget one crucial thing - bring us some cake!!

Contact details

  • click here to email us
  • email address: info[AT]transitionnetwork[DOT]org
  • phone: 05601 531882
  • office address: 43 Fore Street, Totnes, TQ9 5HN, UK
  • GoogleMap of our office in Totnes



Transition Network Board of Trustees

The charity is governed by a small board of trustees. The trustees meet every 8 weeks (appx) and the schedule is below. And just in case you're crazy enough to want to read the minutes, we're putting them below online from Dec-08.

Board meeting schedule

  • 04-Dec-08, minutes
  • 07-Jan-09, minutes (to come shortly)
  • 27-Feb-09, minutes
  • tbd

"Ask the Board"

If you've got a question that you'd like our board to answer, please email us and we'll deal with your question as soon as we can - we'll try using the forums as a vehicle for this so that the collective wisdom of the board (large dollop of poetic license in evidence here) can be shared around.

Meet the Transition Network’s Trustees

Peter Lipman (Chair) works on the Liveable Neighbourhoods and Low Carbon Travel programmes at sustainable transport charity Sustrans and is chair of trustees of the Centre for Sustainable Energy, www.cse.org.uk. He has been involved with the steering group of Transition Bristol since it got going and is very interested (frustrated at times) by the different challenges of the transition process in a city environment. Can often be found wearing shorts in the depths of winter.
Julie Richardson has over 20 years’ international experience working across a range of sectors and organisations covering different aspects of sustainable development. She has worked as a senior environmental policy advisor to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and as Principal Sustainability Officer for Jonathon Porritt’s Forum for the Future. In 2005, she was awarded an MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College and since then has undertaken a range of projects to show how new thinking in science can be applied to sustainable development. In May 2006 she was appointed Director of the Landscope Project for the Dartington Hall Estate. The Landscope is a pioneering initiative to attract sustainable land based ventures to the estate with the aim of strengthening the local economy. She recently co-authored The Triple Bottom Line:Does It All Add Up?

Ben Brangwyn had put his ecological aspirations on the back-burner, spending many years quite successfully infiltrating the world of business and hi-tech, with occasional forays into charity work. Like many before him, the strain of disconnecting from a long-lost inner Gaian core was taking a heavy toll, especially with peak oil and climate change looming fast. However, finding out how to be part of the solution wasn't proving to be easy. And just when it was all looking a little tragic, an encounter with Stephan Harding of Schumacher College re-energised the eco-warrior.
At that point, realising he could no longer be part of the problem, he backed irrevocably away from his bizarre day job of manipulating pixellated abstractions while feigning enthusiasm and started planting acorns with a vengeance. Once he ran out of acorns he co-founded Transition Network with Rob Hopkins. And ever since, he's been putting all his efforts into helping nurture the accelerating emergence of a network of communities that aspire to implement the fast developing transition model.

Ben has two sons, Josh 19, Ollie 17, and hopes they'll inherit a human-scale world.

Pamela Gray is a well respected scientist and award-winning entrepreneur who has enjoyed a long and varied career working in the US and UK. For the past 5 years she has focused exclusively on factors affecting human health, paying particular attention to those that relate to our use of fossil fuels. Pamela is a strong advocate of localized medical systems and of the need to integrate conventional medicine with the best of alternative and complementary techniques. She is deeply concerned about the implications that peak oil and climate change have for the future design and management of our health and medical systems and is in the process of producing a book on the subject. pamela.gray@transition-health.com.

William Lana is co-founder and owner of Greenfibres an organic textile company started in 1996. He is Chairman of the Soil Association’s Organic Textile Standards Committee and of the Ethical and Environmental Marketing Group. He is also a trustee of a number of charities including the Environmental Justice Foundation, Transition Network, and the Naturesave Trust as well as an elected member of the Organic Trade Group. In a previous life William worked in the City and on Wall Street in the 80’s, and in Brussels in the 90’s for the External Relations Directorate of EU Commission. He has 2 kids Megan (12) and Max (10), and lives in Totnes.
Rob Hopkins is the originator of the Transition concepts and co-founder of the Transition Network. He spent many years teaching permaculture and cob building, mostly when living in Ireland. Now based in Totnes, he is a member of Transition Town Totnes, works part time for Transition Network, publishes www.transitionculture.org, is author of the just published ‘Transition Handbook’ and generally spends far too much time thinking about Transition stuff. He is also a Trustee of the Soil Association, is a family man with 4 sons, and is deeply in love with the raised beds he just finished building.
Brian Goodwin passed away in July 2009. He was an inspirational member of the board of trustees, frequently providing insightful comments about the patterns of nature and how they might be applied to the organisation Transition Network and to the wider field of transition.

Rob Hopkins has a fuller post commemorating his wonderful work and contribution to sustainability and resilience thinking.