Totnes Climate Hub celebratory launch event took place at the Civic Hall on June 25th with a packed programme of events. It introduced the community to many local organisations and projects that are focussed on sustainability, regenerative and caring projects in and around Totnes that they may or may not have been aware of, as they go about their amazing work helping people and nature to thrive. These are an essential part of how we respond to our climate and ecological challenges.
Engaging activities for families on the subject of climate change provided the ideal warm-up to a line-up of inspirational speakers in the afternoon. The celebrations continued with food and music that entertained the crowd well into the warm summer night.
Guy Erlacher-Downing, coordinator at Transition Town Totnes, says;
“It was wonderful to see so many people at the launch of the Totnes Climate Hub, which was a bountiful success of excitement and inspiration. A reminder of how important this space is and will be for our community.
The collective genius of Totnes is visible right now, and in times of so much uncertainty and pressure, it couldn’t come at a better time.”
Emma Hopkins is one of the hub’s founders who helped to organise the event. Emma says;
“The launch event was a huge success thanks to all the volunteers and people that supported it. We had an amazing meal provided by Food in Community in the evening and the music from the Holly Ebony band and Skin Mountain Collective was fantastic.
“It was so nice to see so many people from our community turn up, enjoying all the different activities, from upcycling to bike repairs, and engaging with the various local organisations who had stalls there. There was also a really great turn out to hear the keynote speakers who were all really inspiring and of course our wonderful Blizzard of Stories.”
Throughout the course of the day, the event attracted approximately 350 people. The crowd listened intently to hear Tom Rivett-Carnac, an author and podcaster focused on international climate change response, who spoke about how we can navigate the climate crisis.
Emily Reed from Devon Climate Emergency Partnership, the County Council’s climate response team, which backed the Crowdfund campaign for the Totnes Climate Hub, spoke about how Devon is responding to our challenges at the local authority level. The final Devon Carbon Plan, is due for completion this month, which addresses the key concerns raised by the public for ensuring Devon will reach net-zero emissions.
A Blizzard of Stories was a celebration of incredibly inspiring local people and projects. Among them was Paul Bradbury of Incredible Edible Totnes, Ruth Leonard-Williams from Transition Streets, Saif Ali of Integr8, Bob Mehew from The Apricot Centre, Ez Yaron from Project Pondfields, Erica Lewis and Nicola Lang from Transition Homes, Chantelle Norton from Food In Community and Mark Jeffreys from the Share Shed, who also performed a couple of brilliant songs inspired by the Share Shed project.
Plus, Rob Hopkins, co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and the international Transition Network, addressed the audience to ask how we can imagine a future, helping us to explore the amazing, positive and regenerative future that we might choose to move towards locally.
Visit the hub to find out about all the great things that local groups are already doing; learn helpful skills or develop existing ones with advice and support. It will also be a place for people to share thoughts and feelings, genius ideas, workshops, meetings and more.
For the most up to date information about events and opening times visit totnesclimatehub.info/events
Volunteers needed
If you're concerned about the climate emergency and would like to support our community to make positive changes, you can volunteer with Totnes Climate Hub. The team are looking for more volunteers to help out. Find out more about volunteering and join the team or email us at comms@totnesclimatehub.info
Transition Town Totnes 