Rob Hopkins

Rob Hopkins is a cofounder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Network, and the author of The Transition Handbook, The Transition Companion, The Power of Just Doing Stuff, 21 Stories of Transition and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. He presents the podcast series ‘From What If to What Next‘ which invites listeners to send in their “what if” questions and then explores how to make them a reality.  In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. Hopkins has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Four Thought and A Good Read, in the French film phenomenon Demain and its sequel Apres Demain, and has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events.

An Ashoka Fellow, Hopkins also holds a doctorate degree from the University of Plymouth and has received two honorary doctorates from the University of the West of England and the University of Namur. He is a keen gardener, a founder of New Lion Brewery in Totnes, and a director of Totnes Community Development Society, the group behind Atmos Totnes, an ambitious, community-led development project. He blogs at transtionnetwork.org and robhopkins.net and tweets at @robintransition.

Play park in Chipping Norton

Doing it for the Kids: Transition Chipping Norton

I asked Cara what the group’s shift to a focus on young people had brought to the group. She said: “It helped us to view every aspect of the town from a young person’s perspective. Taking an approach focused on integrating their needs opened up many new doors and generated more interest in what we do.”

January 19, 2024

Grow Heathrow board

“Runner Beans Not Runways” Forest, art and community in Heathrow’s flight path

Georgia Woods, one of the founders of Grow Heathrow told me that the project “brought the ‘yes’ of Transition together with the need for resistance, linking the yes and the no”.

January 11, 2024

Friends of the River Exe

United by the flow of the River Exe

Last month, the River Exe came alive with song, night swimming, stories and a wild salmon run for the first Festival of the River Exe.

October 4, 2023

TTLondon

The London Transition Gathering: 4 days of Transition delights

It was such a delight to connect with Transitioners old and new, from far and wide, and to visit projects on the ground.

May 24, 2023

Rob Hopkins speaking

My speech at Extinction Rebellion’s ‘The Big One’

So let’s make our story one that nurtures and kindles a deep deep longing for the future, whether we have a time machine or not.

May 11, 2023

tree planting

Orchard, forest, a fruit tree for every home: communities planting trees for the future

From everyone I have spoken to who has either co-ordinated, or been part of, a community tree planting activity, it is clear it’s one of the most satisfying things we can do, where we can watch the impacts literally grow over time.

April 28, 2023

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