Zone5

by Graham Strouts

The process of relocalization was the focus of a visit to Kinsale on May 5th-6th by Brian Weller of Willits Economic LocaLization (W.E.L.L.) in northern California.

About 50 people came to the Trident Hotel in Kinsale on the Friday night to hear Brian speak, and 30 people from communities around Kinsale, Cork County and beyond attended the seminar the following day.

Brian Weller is introduced by Deputy Mayor of Kinsale Fred Treacy, in the Anchor Hotel, Kinsale, Friday May 5th

Organised by Louise Rooney of Transition Design, both events were a great success and I think many of those who were there left hugely inspired that a similar process could begin here in Kinsale.

Brian Weller is originally from England, but spent time in Ireland and indeed met his wife in Allihies, Co. Cork, in 1992. He later moved to California with her, and later, together with Jason Bradford, a world-travelled biologist who has gained an acute appreciation of global ecological issues through his work, co-founded the Willits Economic Localization project.

A few examples of many initiatives coming out of this project include:

-renewable energy manufacturing companies;

-a group called “The Grateful Gleaners” who forage food from neglected gardens and orchards and from the wild, and redistribute it to the community;

-a remarkable plan to build a “Green” Hospital, complete with energy-efficient design, and aromatic gardens;

-a “Well Done” business scheme that gives members a special discount one day a month, supporting local businesses, to everyone’s mutual benefit;

There are many, many other initiatives beginning in Willits to work towards sustainability in the face of impending energy shortages, and practically the entire community has become involved in one way or another.

Brian has more than 30 years experience working as a facilitator and workshop leader in both corporate and governmental sectors developing “Creative Learning Skills for people in organizational settings.”

In particular, he has been interested in looking at how change takes place.

A small town on Highway 101 a couple of hours north of San Francisco, Willits is a little bigger than Kinsale with about 6000 inhabitants, and shares much in common with us here: like Kinsale, it’s relatively small, its local economy relies heavily on tourism, its young people are leaving and its property values are rising as wealthy outsiders come into the community and buy property. In addition, in common with many communities everywhere, the people of both Willits and Kinsale are beginning to wake up to how rising energy prices brought on by the arrival of a peak in world oil production will usher in a new era of energy descent.

What are we to expect as we move into a future of progressively less energy?

Renewables such as wind, solar and energy crops like willow will not be able to make up for the shortfall in total energy available to us. Currently at only providing less than 5% of world energy consumption, these forms of energy will have essential roles to play but will not prevent radical changes in our lifestyles.

As fuel prices rise- which they may do very rapidly- our near total dependence on fossil fuels will begin to reveal itself.

In particular, the urge to grow energy crops on arable land to replace imported fossil fuels will begin to compete with agriculture, itself highly fossil-fuel dependent. This will be an even bigger problem in China and India, two of the biggest grain producers in the world, but since so much of our food is imported, the ability of the producing countries to continue to meet our needs will be severely challenged.

Initially, the effects will be economic as interest rates rise, the cost of imports increase and more and more businesses –already operating on tight margins- will fail.

As unemployment rises and consumer spending becomes sharply curtailed, people will adapt to meet a radically different economic environment.

We are also facing a serious situation with regard to supplies of natural gas for electricity production: Ireland is at the end of a very long pipe-line stretching across Asia and Europe, and with UK gas supplies also pushed to the limit, we could very easily be facing blackouts ,real shortages and general energy rationing in the next few years unless we quickly work to adopt a “Plan B”.

Slowly but surely communities are beginning to prepare and organise themselves for the inevitable changes coming in the next few years and decades.

Willits is one of the most impressive example of this: in a short period of time, they have managed to engage practically the whole community in a process of preparing for a more local future, one where the private motor car may be a rarity, stories of cheap holidays to the sun are told to by the old to their wide-eyed grand-children, and the vast majority of goods and services that we need to thrive- including food, building materials and fuel- are produced from local resources which the whole community are engaged in taking responsibility for.

Brian Weller giving a seminar on Economic Localisation at the Anchor Hotel, Kinsale, Saturday 6th May

Engaging the Community

How did the Willits Economic Localization process get started?

To begin with, Brian, Jason and some friends and colleagues began public showings of the film “The End of Suburbia”. Made in 2004 by Gregory Greene and Barry Silverthorn, this documentary looks at the geological, political and economic implications of Peak Oil, especially for highly car-dependent communities in long spread out suburbs. Many of these issues will be acutely relevant to us in Ireland as well, as has been explored in these pages of Transition Times over the last few months.

After the film they began group processes inviting people to explore their feelings about the message of the film- how will our economic life change in response to rising energy prices? What does this mean to our businesses and communities? What about transport? Education? Supplies of essentials like food, water and shelter? What about security and emergency services?

In addition, those who attended the first meetings were asked to list the community leaders, local politicians and others who they thought should really see the film and get involved. This process of recruitment proved highly successful and soon the size of the meetings had increased four-fold. Local businesses began to take the issue seriously as they became better informed about the implications.

Presentations were taken to various groups in the community, and this lead to the creation of a “Joint Statement towards a Sustainable, Healthy Willits”.

This document gives a brief outline of the environmental and economic challenges the community will have to contend with, and points out the need to “localise” in response. The following is an extract:

“Local food and energy systems would require us to tap into the vast wealth of knowledge and ingenuity in our area. We can create many new businesses that serve our common needs. In doing so, our youth would find many avenues to express their creativity, which benefits all of Willits. Our rural landscape would be enhanced by thriving farms that grow livestock and crops, from potatoes and grains to summer and fall vegetables. Renewable energy and non-polluting transportation systems would give us a quieter, less expensive and more dependable set of services, while providing an array of interesting employment.

“ The key to making this transition will be harnessing and developing our human and financial capital. Fortunately, our natural resources, such as forests, fields, rivers and aquifers are ample and can be harnessed if understood and managed wisely. We call upon the people of Willits to learn about why and how we can reorganize our economy, and then add your ideas towards creating a place that is even more beautiful, healthy and secure.”

Many community leaders, businesses and politicians signed the document.

Meetings took place regularly from then on and different committees and sub-groups were established to work on different areas such as energy, food, transport, housing and so on. Much of the early work that was done involved producing a series of reports or “inventories” on the current and on-going state of the community, in terms of natural and human resources, strategic plans and so on. This involves a lot of hard work, all on a voluntary basis, but much of the information can be sourced from official statistics. These reports then go on to give recommendations as to how the community might manage its resources in a future where high energy prices and other environmental constraints might limit the ability to import goods and services from outside the region. Lighting a Fire

Brian’s talk and seminar gave valuable insights into the process that one community has followed to prepare for the coming energy crises. Engaging, charismatic and at times hilarious, Brian did not shirk from the difficulties that they have encountered along the way, but also gave us useful tools for working in groups, facilitating meetings, and much more. The process in Willits stands as an inspiration to us all as what a community can achieve in a very short space of time.

Referring frequently to a book by Malcolm Gladwell called “The Tipping Point”, which looks a how large-scale change can often take place rapidly from small beginnings, perhaps the most significant thought I left the seminar with was Brian’s comment that “we need to get away from thinking that change will happen very slowly”.

“Kinsale” he thought “could be the spark that lights a fire across Ireland”. Indeed, with rising fuel prices in recent weeks making the headlines on a daily basis and more and more businesses being effected, it seems only a matter of time before a “tipping point” is reached and the drive to localise our economies, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, invest in renewable and grow food more locally will be the only game in town.

Kinsale Economic Localisation

The process to develop Kinsale as an Urban Sustainability Model, co-ordinated by Louise Rooney of Transition Design, moved forward at the council meeting of May 3rd with presentations by Permaculture students from the Kinsale Further Education College of designs they had done for a proposed community garden.

Some of the designs for the garden- an area of scrubland along the Glen next to the old waterworks- were put on the walls for the councillors to take a closer look at, after presentations by Louise and Robbie Foley.

Students and Councillors consider the Permaculture Designs for a proposed Community Garden in Kinsale

With an emphasis on combining recreational and meeting space with productive food gardens and orchards, the student designs exhibited a high level of creativity and technical expertise. They were the culmination of several weeks’ hard work since January which included some valuable interviews conducted with town councillors, locals and others in the town with an interest in the garden. Although the exact site still needs to be chosen for the project, and a lot more work needs to be done in terms of community consultation and involvement, we left the meeting with a clear sense that the council gave their support and blessing for the establishment of a community garden in the town. Many thanks to all the town councillors, and to the students for their support.

Above: Permaculture students Colleen Burke, Tara de las Casas, Hendrik Lepel, Daniel Benn, Charlotte Henderson and Robbie Foley at the May 3rd Council meeting

Graham Strouts teaches Permaculture at the Kinsale Further Education College. He can be contacted at graham@zone5.org

It is planned to run a series of film screenings and meetings on the subject of Economic Localisation in Kinsale in the near future.

Thanks to Louise Rooney, Isabelle Sutton, the Trident Hotel, John Thuillier and especially Brian Weller for his time and commitment.

For more information on Willits visit www.willitseconomiclocalization.org

For more information on projects around Ireland go to www.sustainable.ie and subscribe to the Powerdown Community e-bulletin