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Rob Hopkins | |
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.png) Rob Hopkins in the filmVoices of Transition (2013). | |
| Born | (1968-06-24)24 June 1968 (age 56) |
| Nationality |  United Kingdom |
| Known for | Environmental activist |
| Notable work | From What If to What Next |
| Website | robhopkins |
Rob Hopkins (born 24 June 1968) is an English activist and writer on environmental issues, based inTotnes, England. He is best known as the founder and figurehead of the Transition movement, which he initiated in 2005.[1] Hopkins has written six books on environmentalism and activism.
According toBill McKibben, "there’s no one on earth who's just done more [environmental] stuff – and inspired more doing – than Rob Hopkins".[1]
Born in Chiswick, London, Hopkins grew up in London until the age of 12, when he moved to Wiltshire, attendingSt John's School, before then moving to Bristol where he went to theBristol Waldorf School for two years, followed byHenbury School to earn hisA Levels. This was followed by an art foundation course atBower Ashton Art College, also in Bristol.
From 1988, he spent two and a half years living atIstituto Lama Tsong Khapa, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Tuscany, Italy, working as the house manager. He then spent a year travelling in India, Pakistan (including a visit to the Hunza Valley), China, Tibet, Hong Kong and then back to India where he met Emma, who has been his partner since then. They settled in Bristol, where Rob earned a degree in Environmental Quality & Resource Management at theUniversity of the West of England,[2] and also undertook hisPermaculture Design Course.[citation needed]
Hopkins holds a first class Honours degree in environmental quality and resource management from theUniversity of the West of England (1993–1996), aMaster of Science in social research (2007) and adoctorate atPlymouth University (2011) on the subject of transition (Localisation and Resilience at the Local Level: The Case of Transition Town Totnes). He is a visiting fellow atPlymouth University, and in July 2013 was awarded anhonorary doctorate by the University of the West of England. The 4 October 2016, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by theUniversity of Namur.
In 1996, Rob and his family moved to south-west Ireland, to West Cork. He initially worked with An Taisce West Cork, writing and illustrating a booklet calledWoodlands for West Cork!.[3] He began teaching permaculture, initially as short courses, and building up to running full design courses, initially as an evening class. Together with another family, he and Emma set up Baile Dulra Teoranta, a charity, with the intention of creating an ecovillage project. In 1999, with another family, they bought The Hollies, a farm near Castletown, Enniskeane. After a few years, they were granted planning permission for an ecovillage development.
In 2001, he started and taught the Practical Sustainability course atKinsale Further Education College, initially as a one-year course, and later as the first two-year Permaculture course in the world.[4] Between 2003 and 2005, its students built the Wooden O Theatre, an amphitheatre using local materials.[5] The Hollies Centre for Sustainability ran a series of courses in natural building and built two newcob houses, using local materials.[6] In October 2004, Rob and Emma's house was destroyed in a fire.
In 2004, he became aware of the concept ofpeak 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. It was downloaded by interested parties around the world. In July 2005, Kinsale FEC hostedFuelling the Future, a conference on peak oil and solutions to it.
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In 2005, Rob and his family moved toTotnes, England, and there co-founded, with Naresh Giangrande,Transition Town Totnes, the first officialTransition Town. The project held its 'Unleashing' event in September 2006. Many projects then began.[7][8] These include Keeping Totnes Warm; Open Eco Homes and the Eco Homes Fair; Transition Homes; Transition Streets (which won the 2011 Ashden Award for Behaviour Change); The Totnes & District Energy Descent Action Plan (which he co-authored); Food in Community; Grown in Totnes; Incredible Edible Totnes; Nut Tree Planting; Seedy Sisters; Skillshares; Mentoring & Wellbeing Support; The REconomy Centre; Totnes Local Economic Blueprint; The Local Entrepreneur Forum; theTotnes Pound; Totnes Transition Film Festival; TTT Film Club; Dr Bike; Caring Town Totnes; and Transition Tours.
TV presenterNicholas Crane, in an episode of his seriesTown, visited Totnes and declared, "This is the biggest urban brainwave of the century. A visionary, practical blueprint that took root in a town and is circling the globe."Michael Portillo, in Great British Railway Journeys, visited Totnes and spent a Totnes Pound.Westlife once appeared onThe One Show, showing each other Totnes Pounds.
Rob Hopkins also presented the Totnes Pound in the documentary filmTomorrow (Demain) (2015).
In 2007, with Peter Lipman and Ben Brangwyn, Hopkins 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. Transition Network is based in Totnes. There are Transition initiatives in over 50 countries round the world, in around 1,400 communities. Transition Network has run seven conferences: Nailsworth (2007); Royal Agriculture College, Cirencester (2008); Battersea Arts Centre (2009); Dame Hannah's at Seale Hayne (2010); Hope University, Liverpool (2011); Battersea Arts Centre (2012);[9] and Dame Hannah's at Seale Hayne (2015).[10]
Hopkins is a founder and a director of New Lion Brewery, asocial enterprise craft brewery in Totnes.[11] New Lion Brewery is built on foundations of sustainability, profitability, community, and innovation. In 2015, its "Pandit IPA" was voted Britain's 17th Hottest Beer.[12]
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Hopkins is one of the directors of Atmos Totnes, a community-led development initiated by Totnes Community Development Society.[13][14] Atmos Totnes is the redevelopment of the former Dairy Crest site in Totnes as a mixed use development in community ownership. It will be one of the first, and most ambitious, uses of a Community Right to Build Order, using a neighbourhood planning power created under theLocalism Act 2011, through a referendum due to take place in June 2016.
Hopkins has written or collaborated in six Transition movement books:
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