Rob Hopkins

Rob Hopkins
Rob Hopkins in the film Voices of Transition (2013).
Known for	Environmental activist

Rob Hopkins is an independent activist and writer on environmental issues, based in Totnes, England. He is best known as the founder and figurehead of the Transition movement, which he initiated in 2005, and has written four books in support of Transition: The Transition Handbook (2008), The Transition Companion (2011),The Power of Just Doing Stuff (2013) and 21 Stories of Transition (2015). According to Bill McKibben, "there’s no one on earth who’s just done more stuff – and inspired more doing – than Rob Hopkins".

Born in Chiswick, London, Rob grew up in London until the age of 12, when he moved to Wiltshire, attending St John's School, before then moving to Bristol where he went to the Bristol Waldorf School for 2 years, followed by Henbury School to do A'Levels. This was followed by an Art Foundation course at Bower Ashton Art College, also in Bristol.

From 1988, he spent two and a half years living at Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Tuscany, Italy, working as the House Manager. From here he then spent a year travelling in India, Pakistan (including a visit to the Hunza Valley), China, Tibet, Hong Kong and then back to India where he met Emma, who has been his partner since then. They settled in Bristol, where Rob did a degree in 'Environmental Quality & Resource Management' at the University of the West of England, and also undertook his Permaculture Design Course.

He has been married to Emma since 2007 (although they have been together since 1991), and they have four sons, Rowan, Finn, Cian and Arlo.

In 1996, Rob and his young family moved to south west Ireland, to West Cork. He initially worked with An Taisce West Cork, writing and illustrating a booklet called 'Woodlands for West Cork!'. He began teaching permaculture, initially as short courses, and building up to running full design courses, initially as an evening class. Together with another family, he and Emma set up Baile Dulra Teoranta, a charity, with the intention of creating an ecovillage project. In 1999, with another family, they bought The Hollies, a farm near Castletown, Enniskeane. After a few years, they were granted the first planning permission for an ecovillage development.