Local resident and McMaster University professor Brian Baetz is part of the organization which evolved from several meetings over the last few months of local people interested in local resilience in times of environmental and economic change.

Mr. Baetz said Dundas Ontario in Transition is based on a model from the United Kingdom, where individual communities found innovative ways to deal with rising oil prices and global warming.

“It’s not from an alarmist perspective,” he said. “They tend to have a lot of fun.”

The group decided Dundas is a perfect location for locally-focused, innovative, environmental projects.

Other Transition communities have developed local gardens to grow food, or a local currency used only by that area’s stores. So the local group is kicking off by going to the community and asking for submissions of ideas for local projects that fit with the Transition Town movement’s goals of living fully, while leaving a smaller environmental footprint.

“Hopefully ideas come from a wide range of people,” Mr. Baetz said. “Something they’d like to see done in Dundas, or a more efficient way of doing something. We’d like to get some ideas from youth, and some ideas from our elders.”

The group doesn’t want to direct the process too much, figuring local residents may come up with some original ideas no one ever considered before.

One-page, typed suggestions will be accepted at the Dundas Star News office at 47 Cootes Drive until March 2. Any accompanying graphs or charts must be part of the single page. All submissions must include a contact name, phone number, street address and email address if available as well as the entrant’s age if under 19 – all on a single page. Group submissions are acceptable, as long as there is one contact person. Anyone from any area can submit an idea, but it must be directly applicable to Dundas. Multiple entries from a single individual or group are welcome.

A panel of judges will review the suggestions, and prizes of $300, $200 and $100 will be awarded to the top three entries.

The winning ideas will be announced at a community meeting in early April. The date has not yet been set.

The judges will review all submissions for relevance to the Transition Town themes, applicability to Dundas, innovativeness and clarity of the concept.

More information on the contest and the local Transition Town group can be found at the organization’s website: www.dundasontariointransition.ca .

An advertisement in today's print edition of the Dundas Star News also includes information on the contest.

All Dundas residents are asked to start thinking, and suggest some ideas for helping the Valley Town make the transition to a future where it consumes less energy and produces a smaller carbon footprint, dealing with ongoing economic change and making Dundas a more resilient and sustainable place to live.