It’s hard to explore new ideas and socialise – to discover how to lead low-carbon and low-impact lifestyles and enjoy living together sustainably – without a physical community space that can bring together the interests of people, places and prosperity. These hubs are wonderful social spaces and a great way of nurturing more low carbon communities.
If you want to read or listen to a couple of inspiring examples of climate community hubs in the UK, look below. If you want to do something bigger regarding climate action in your community, jump ahead.
Inspiration read
The Hub and Spokes Model
Revolving around communities
Founded in 2019, and gaining official charity status in 2021, Greener & Cleaner is a South East London based organisation which has big ambitions to help communities across the UK to implement their own Community Hub initiatives. The charity is helping to build local sustainability and resilience through its pilot of a new Community Hub model, which leverages empty retail units in an inclusivity-focused, 360° and ‘hub & spokes’ style that revolves around local communities and enables local people to share skills, knowledge, equipment and space.
Hyperlocal yet interconnected
Greener & Cleaner’s Community Hub, based in The Glades shopping centre in Bromley (the ‘hub’ of the model), also organises and delivers smaller hyperlocal spaces, services (for example repair cafés) and events out in the wider community (the ‘spokes’). In both the hub and the spokes, people gather, share their stories, experiences, hopes and skills – connecting and fostering a greater sense of belonging and collective purpose. The Greener & Cleaner Community Hub houses a Library of Things and provides a venue for regular offerings, for example a baby and toddler group, energy advice clinic and mend and repair events, which occur weekly or monthly. Through both regular and one-off events and activities, people are empowered with the practical skills needed for championing and building a more sustainable, equitable and resilient community. Also the increased visibility and progress on the ground helps to normalise these kinds of activities and increase more diverse and ‘mainstream’ engagement with more sustainable living.
Scaling through sharing
The team behind Greener & Cleaner are working on scaling the impact of their project by creating a Community Hub Blueprinting Package. The idea is that interested groups and organisations can use the tools and resources provided by Greener & Cleaner to implement their own project, either completely copying their model (franchise style but with no associated cost or required branding) or by “cherry-picking” the parts that work for their place and the needs of those that live there.
More information about the Blueprinting Package and other support from Greener & Cleaner will be available in the near future. Please fill out the expression of interest form here to be kept up to date.
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Inspiration listen
Create a Community Hub
Every community deserves a place where people can come together, learn from each other and overcome issues collectively.
Do something bigger
There are many different ways of creating a hub that reflects what matters most to you and to your local community – from setting up working groups in various kinds of underused venues, to wider community projects, to bricks-and-mortar cohousing ventures.
Sharing Spaces
Ashden joined forces with community organisation Think & Do Camden to replicate their ‘sharing space’ venues, helping community groups share information and practical tips about living in a low-cost, low-impact way. A London-wide project, Sharing Spaces, has enabled eight community organisations to set up their own centres at underused spaces such as libraries, cinemas, churches and tenants’ and residence halls – serving thousands of residents – often working hand-in-hand with their local council to co-create climate action. Not limited to London, Sharing Spaces is a model for other communities to replicate around the country and create their own hub.
Community action is climate action
In the ever-widening conversation about climate action, people are recognising that tackling other social issues also helps us address the bigger ecological crisis, because the two are interconnected. Individual action alone won’t get us there and communities provide the resilience to weather great storms, literally and metaphorically. In much the same way as community assemblies, the process of gathering together is as important as the intended outcome. Supporting a community hub – whether it addresses climate change specifically or other social issues – helps to normalise inclusivity, mutual support and shared purpose, which are essential for tackling both.
Cohousing
Cohousing is another approach where people come together to build a neighbourhood. While cohousing has a big focus on living communally, it’s not a commune! Cohousing residents have their own homes which surround shared spaces where people can meet, eat together and share resources when they choose. For example, Lancaster Cohousing was originally a modest UK cohousing community idea shared by school-friends, which blossomed into an £8 million development of 41 ‘Passivhaus’ eco-homes and communal facilities. BedZED in Sutton was the UK’s first large-scale, mixed-use, sustainable eco community, made up of 100 homes with shared facilities. Through the experience of developing this eco-village, the One Planet Living framework was created to guide other community hubs and organisations towards achieving their sustainability ambitions.
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