The origins of the Local Transformation Toolkit (LTT) derive from the global Transition movement.

Transition is a movement that has been growing since 2005. Community-led sustainability groups have been working for a low-carbon, socially just future with resilient communities, more active participation in society, and a caring culture focused on supporting each other (visit Transition Network to know more).

In practice, Transition initiatives use participatory methods to imagine the changes we need, setting up renewable energy projects, re-localising food systems, and creating community and green spaces.  They are nurturing the Inner Transition -the cultural and mindset changes- that support social and environmental transformation.  They are sparking entrepreneurship, working with municipalities, building community connection and care, repairing and re-skilling.

The Transition movement is articulated by connecting local groups and initiatives to national or regional Hubs, where the experience, knowledge and challenges faced by local groups can be shared, learned from and responded to.  Many local initiatives and Hubs noticed that one of the key areas to achieve greater impact in implementing Transition processes and solutions was working at the municipal scale. However, many local initiatives struggled to be heard or to collaborate with municipality officials in a meaningful way. At the same time, many municipalities were contacting Hubs and other Civil Society Organisations, wanting to lead and facilitate more participatory processes towards sustainability, and also struggled to achieve it.
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How could we respond to this intersection of needs? Several Transition Hub representatives got together and designed the Municipalities in Transition project: building on previous experience from all over the world, the project would design a systemic methodology that would bring together public administration and civil society to make decisions together and implement solutions adapted to each local context. The project was highly successful, with over 15 communities actively using the Local Transformation Toolkit all over the world.
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The next step in the evolution of the Municipalities in Transition project was to create a platform that could take responsibility for ensuring continuity and quality of work, for collecting feedback and performing follow-up tasks in order to further evolve the LTT.

The creation of this platform has also served to provide a training and support program, through which we have been able to engage with funders, municipalities and communities under a unified identity. It was out of this process that KuneLab was born. KuneLab is a cooperative designed to be in service of the process of local transformation, facilitating processes of deep change and innovative solutions for the eco-social transition the world so urgently needs.