OUR EVENTS

Green UP! What is a green corridor? event

Fairer World Lindfield welcomed an enthusiastic crowd to The Stand Up Inn for their Green UP! event in February, to discuss “What is a Green Corridor?”. Not only were there inspiring speakers, but time was given for discussion and sharing. Alex Briggs spoke about the www.wealdtowaves.co.uk initiative to create a green corridor running from the coast, linking large swathes of green spaces in Sussex and Mark Infield, spoke about the Ashdown Forest’s inclusion in this corridor, Dan Burnett spoke about the green corridors they have created on Cockhaise Organic Diary Farm and Jennie spoke about her long-term work at the Eastern Road Nature Reserve.

Ideas were discussed about how we can all help to establish local corridors. This could be by leaving small gaps in fences for hedgehogs, allowing plants to climb up and over fences or walls, creating ponds, planting native hedgerows, not mowing the corners of gardens or more public places. The corridors created facilitate the movement of wildlife between and through our gardens and through Lindfield’s open green spaces like the Common, Wilderness Field and our nature reserves. Perhaps these green corridors will provide ‘stepping stones’ into neighbouring villages and will link with other green corridor initiatives to the Ashdown Forest and beyond. We can all be part of the Gardens & Greenspaces project with the Weald to Waves project.
Mark Infield left us with a quote from the Lawton Review (2010) “..we need more, bigger, better and joined” green spaces. And we can all contribute to this!

Green UP’s inaugural event on the topic of “How green is greenwashing”, was held on Tuesday 14th Nov in the Stand Up Inn and was a fantastically well attended affair. With over 40 people crammed in to the Stand Up, we had an hour and a half of informative and engaging discussions centered on the topic of greenwashing.

We discussed what greenwashing actually means, who does it and why. This brought on a lively discussion of people inputting what this means in their line of work and it was brought to life with some interesting facts.

Next, we discussed the varied types of greenwashing, from packaging, to unsubstantiated claims through to blatant lies, we uncovered that this is happening more than we all really thought.

We then discussed the legalities of the topic and how legislation is now being introduced which will mean that by 2025, all organisations will have to report their Scope 1 (direct emissions that are owned or controlled by a company), 2 & 3 (indirect emissions which are a consequence of the activities of the company but occur from sources not owned or controlled by it) carbon emissions through the impending Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

Finally, we discussed what watchdog organisations exists and who to ‘seek out’ if you feel that an organisation is not being transparent. All fantastic discussions and everyone stayed on to mingle over a drink to meet like-minded people – so a great success from our perspective!

We intend to host Green UP! sessions on a regular basis on a variety of informative topics, if you would like to come to the next one, save the date Feb 20^th, 19:00 – 20:30 @ The Stand Up Inn. Topic TBC however we are hoping to have our local councillors in attendance so watch this space and mark your calendars.

Want to know more, please email fairerworldlindfield@gmail.com and we hope to see you at the next Green UP! event.

Last November we hosted an Energy Help Desk at The Stand Up Inn. We had over 60 people pop in for mulled wine/tea/cake and glean information from our community of experts and Lindfield residents on subjects such as: solar panels, draught proofing and insulation, heat pumps, energy efficiency, recycling and waste prevention, grants, recycling and creating a garden pond as well as starting a wormery. We also had support from The Stand Up’s Andi Frost who sells eco-friendly products through Fill Good online store www.fillgoodstore.co.uk.

The Green Extravaganza event

In April FWL hosted a fantastic event in the King Edward Hall, called “The Green Extravaganza”. The concept was to bring local folks together to showcase their efforts to help our environment. Visitors could peruse tables on organic gardening, composting, soil, eco-friendly household products and cosmetics, solar panels, e-bike conversions, setting up a wormery, upcycling, rainwater harvesting, air source heat pumps, nature photography, eco floral art, garden ponds, swapping plant pots, and recycling. Several organisations were also represented including: Greener Lindfield, Lindfield Horticultural Society, Lindfield Repair Café, Ounce, the Growing Network, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Fair Trade and the Hurst Hedgehog Haven. Free to all, with complimentary refreshments, we provided a warm inviting setting for anyone to come along and learn more.