US sustainability students walk the Transition talk in Tooting
24 college students from the USA doing a ‘Sustainability in Europe’ course based in Denmark came to spend half a day in Tooting on Monday 5th March to kick off a week in the UK.
Their curriculum explores the role of local communities as agents of change towards greater wellbeing and a more sustainable future. This includes getting out into the real world and seeing what people are doing.
Two of us from Transition Town Tooting took them on a talking and walking tour.
Lucky it was sunny…even if there was a freezing wind.
We started at the busy road junction by Tooting Broadway tube, then north to Streatham Cemetery, where we explored the opportunities that the Friends of the cemetery are developing. We went back through residential streets and past Gatton Primary to Tooting Market, where we had snacks by the Brick Box and soaked up the atmosphere. Then into the meeting room at Mushkil Aasaan (thank you!) for a fuller discussion, and on up to Tooting Bec tube via asian sweet shops, and a peek into the Wheatsheaf. Three hour tour complete!
At each place we talked about the students’ own first impressions of opportunities for supporting sustainable living in Tooting, and we described diverse existing and future local projects.
In the longer discussion, the students offered very useful observations based on what they had seen, and on their own experience. It was valuable for us, and both humbling and exciting to think that some insights into community and sustainability in Tooting will find their way back to two dozen locations across the USA.
– Charles and Lucy