Rob Hopkins

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Rob Hopkins in the documentary Voices of Transition

Rob Hopkins is an independent activist and writer on environmental issues, based in Totnes, England. He is best known as the founder and figurehead of the Transition Towns movement, which he started in 2005, and has written three books in support of Transition: The Transition Handbook (2008), The Transition Companion (2011) and The Power of Just Doing Stuff (2013).^[1]^[2]

Family life

He is married, with four sons, Rowan, Finn, Cian and Arlo.^[3]

Biography

In 1996, having earned a degree in Environmental Quality and Resource Management, Rob Hopkins moved from the UK to Ireland, and began teaching permaculture and natural building at Kinsale College of Further Education, where he set up the world's first full-time two year permaculture course, as well as co-ordinating the first eco-village development to be granted planning permission in Ireland.

In 2004, he became aware of the concept of peak oil, and set his students the task of applying permaculture principles to addressing this challenge. The output of this student project was the ‘Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan’, which was uploaded to the college website. Much to the surprise of the authors, it was downloaded by interested parties around the world.

In 2005, Rob Hopkins moved to Totnes, England, and there co-founded Transition Town Totnes, the first official Transition Town, basing his actions on the same permaculture principles that underpinned his work in Kinsale. In 2007, he co-founded the Transition Network, a charity designed to support the many Transition initiatives emerging around the world, inspired by the processes begun in Kinsale and Totnes. Since then he has been writing and speaking widely about the theory and practice of Transition Towns.

He also holds an MSc in Social Research, and completed a PhD at Plymouth University in 2011 on the subject of Transition - Localisation and Resilience at the Local Level: The Case of Transition Town Totnes.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

Awards and recognition

His Transition Culture blog voted 4th best green blog in the UK (2007)^[8]
Winner, 2008 Schumacher Award^[9]
One of the UK's top 100 environmentalists, according to The Independent (2008)^[10]
Winner, 2009 Observer Ethical Award, Grassroots Campaigner category^[11]
Winner, 2009 Energy Saving Trust/Guardian ‘Green Community Hero’ Award^[12]
Ashoka Fellow, since 2009^[13]
Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute^[14]
Visiting Fellow, Plymouth University^[15]
His @robintransition Twitter account rated 11th in the PeerIndex-driven Sustainability Drivers List (2011)^[16]
One of NESTA/The Observer's list of "Britain's 50 New Radicals" (2012)^[17]
Accepts first prize in the European Economic and Social Committee's Civil Society Prize, on behalf of the Transition Towns movement (2012)^[18]

References

External links

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