The “Transition” movement has been growing since 2006. Established in Totnes, England by Rob Hopkins, the idea spread quickly to other towns in the UK and then across the globe. Originally, its focus was on the prospect of Peak Oil and proposed Energy Descent Plans for communities.

But Transition Salt Spring Society actually predates the international Transition movement. Originally established in 1997 as the Earth Festival Society (“EFS”) to provide information and education about environmentally sustainable technologies, the outreach work began with a series of Earth Fest events in Courtenay and on Granville Island. By the early 2000s the work had become Salt Spring focused.

Early foundational work by the EFS included the Salt Spring Island Community Energy Strategy and Energy and Emissions Baseline Report in 2004/2005 and overseeing the implementation of the Community Energy Strategy, covering the period 2002-2012, From 2005 to 2012, the Society coordinated and administered several technical studies related to Community Energy Strategy implementation, including two baseline update reports, a Micro Hydro Feasibility Study for Salt Spring Island, and an analysis of Policy Options for increasing building energy efficiency. During the same period EFS received Federal Eco Action funding for implementing the Community Energy Strategy including a raft of public engagement activities including Salt Spring’s One Tonne Challenge, and workshops, speakers and conferences to inform islanders about opportunities to save energy and reduce their carbon footprints.

In 2009 a small group of ESF board members and interested individuals travelled to Selkirk College in Nelson to take a Transition Town training course. Returning enthused, they established an Initiating Committee and Transition Salt Spring was duly registered as #278 on the list of members of the international Transition network. In February 2010, the Transition Salt Spring Initiating Committee was accepted as a temporary committee of EFS.

In the Fall of 2009, an informal Climate Action Coordinating Committee was set up by the Islands Trust local trustees together with the CRD Director and community members active in climate change issues. Its mandate was to coordinate the development and implementation of a Climate Action Plan for Salt Spring Island. It would also support the new Climate Change and Energy Efficiency objectives and policies contained in the 2008 updated SSI Official Community Plan as well as guide the actions needed to meet the legislated GHG reduction targets for SSI in 2015, 2020 and 2050.

In May, 2010, the Committee established a Climate Action Council, incorporated in 2011 as a BC not-for-profit Society with representatives from various local organisations, including Transition Salt Spring and EFS. Preliminary funding was primarily provided by local government. The first SSI Climate Action Plan (CAP 1.0) was released in April, 2011 by the Climate Action Council.

By 2013, the Transition Salt Spring committee decided that it needed formal legal status. The options were to either establish a new non-profit society or to change the name of EFS to Transition Salt Spring Society. Because the work and volunteers overlapped closely, the preferred option was to merge activities and the name change was registered in January 2014.

In late 2016, in the absence of funding and government support, the Climate Action Council Society was dissolved and reformed as the Climate Action Group under the umbrella of Transition Salt Spring.

The climate action initiative was renewed in early 2019 with the strong support of the CRD director, gas tax funding from CRD and additional support from local trustees and Islands Trust. Both CRD and Islands Trust had recently declared a Climate Emergency. Transition Salt Spring Society was designated as the community organization well-placed to take on the work to be done for a revised Climate Action Plan - CAP 2.0.

Prepared by Peter Lamb and Elizabeth White, June 14, 2020