Places as large as Leeds and Nottingham, smaller towns like Stroud in Gloucestershire, and several villages are already adopting Transition ideas. The discussion has even reached The Archers, that traditional barometer of middle-class trends.

Is there a model here for Ripon – and what difference would being a Transition Community make to us, especially to our built environment?

The doyenne (albeit a young doyenne) of Transition Communities in the UK is Totnes in Devon. Local enthusiasts have galvanised the town – with 8,000 people it's half the size of Ripon – to come up with ideas that can help provide a more sustainable future for Totnes and for the planet.

There are plenty of schemes, some more practical than others. One that has had a great deal of publicity is Totnes's introduction of a local currency, the 'Totnes pound' that a consortium of local shopkeepers will accept in payment for goods that are locally produced. By all accounts it is working well, ensuring that food and other goods stay within the area and supplies from further afield are reduced.

But there are other aspects of Transition Community thinking that may have more immediate application in Ripon. What about the way we build our houses, for example? Despite the credit crunch and the dire warnings of a slump in the housing market, there are still plenty of planning applications for more houses and flats in Ripon. Building regulations do specify minimum requirements for energy efficiency and insulation, of course, but we could do much more. Should we take a leaf out of the building textbook of the Nordic countries and build more houses with timber frames, for example?

Timber is a sustainable product, and timber-framed houses can often be better insulated than conventionally-built ones. Some Ripon houses have already gone down this route – Hawksmoor Court, currently under construction in Little Studley Road, has timber-framed houses.

Then there are other energy-saving schemes – how many Ripon houses have solar panels, for example? The new ones on Magdalens Close do. And what about wind energy? With both of these there are planning problems – should the look of a building be secondary to the interests of energy efficiency? Ripon Civic Society has a new environmental award for projects that solve these problems.

Some Transition Communities offer water-saving kits at low cost to households and encourage the recycling of 'grey water' from domestic use. They encourage people to adopt energy tariffs that use electricity produced by sustainable methods.

All these might be expected, but other schemes have come forward as well. People who have large gardens – often older people – but cannot deal with them as they would like can offer their space to anyone who would like to grow their own food, sharing the produce. Retailers are encouraged to switch to low-energy lighting in their shops.