Transitioning towards Sustainability : What are we waiting for?

Abstract: There is growing consensus that humanity is being confronted with a sustainability challenge of which the severity has never been known to modern man. This pressing situation is demanding solutions and alternatives to change the path of society. At the community level, grassroots movements have emerged around the world as a way of striving to develop local sustainability.  This research studies the Transition Movement, a popular, global community-based movement. The aim of this study is to evaluate if a Transition Initiative is effective in moving a local community towards sustainability. The definition of sustainability used in the research is taken from the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) which comprises of eight sustainability principles (SPs); three ecological SPs and five social SPs. To this end, an analytical-evaluative case study of a single Transition Initiative was conducted in which semi-structured interviews, a survey and document analysis were all use as sources of information. The researchers chose a small-scale Transition Initiative, conducting the case study on the village of Ungersheim, France. The results revealed that the actions of Transition are contributing to progressing Ungersheim towards sustainability, both socially and ecologically. The research also revealed how the Transition is being done and what critical factors allowed for success. The study finally deduces a set of strategic guidelines that may be used for further longitudinal research cross-evaluating Ungersheim to other small-scale community transitions.