Our first networking/support meeting on Education for Sustainability in Millfields Community School at the end of November gave attendees (varied school community members – parents, teachers, governors, admin staff) in depth information on waste minimisation.  As well as covering the 5 or 6 Rs Refusing (as well as Replacing plastic with other materials), Repairing, Reducing, Reusing and finally…

Statement of Support from Diane Abbott



"So sorry that I cannot be with you this evening to watch and discuss this very important film.



Visiting the Calais refugee camp is something that will never leave me. The refugees were desperate and living in absolutely appalling, dehumanising conditions. There were thousands of people, including babies and very young children, living in freezing conditions with no…

Following a successful meeting at Hackney’s only Eco-schools’ Green Flag school, Orchard Primary School, several schools signed up to take on the Eco-schools’ programme.  We've been into some of the primary schools to support them on the beginning of their journey. 

An increasing number of schools are now appointing Sustainability Coordinators and pupil/school community Eco-teams to lead the Eco-schools’ programme. We have been to meetings and…

Fracking was headline news this September while at the same time dire warnings were sounded by the IPCC about the risk of runaway climate change. Fracking companies across the country are now poised to step up fracking for shale oil and gas and their flagship Caudrilla is readying itself to drill in earnest at Preston New Road near Blackpool. However, just a few days in and earthquake tremors interrupted their plans bringing them more negative publicity. Our…

At the April screening of the film ‘Powertrip’ on fracking we were pleased to welcome Richard Roberts aka Richard ‘the piano tuner’ as a panellist. Sadly Richard along with two other anti-fracking activists received a much rougher welcome by the HM Prisons Service this month. His crime, for which he received a sixteen month custodial sentence, was attempting to stop a greater environmental one.

The judge handed down the three…

Anti-fracking: Let Communities decide

Right now, our government is consulting on outrageous proposals that could allow fracking to go ahead across England without local planning applications. These plans fly in the face of local democracy and threatens to slash community involvement in decision-making.

The consultation ends this October, so it’s…

Tackling climate change and air pollution and giving residents a real voice in how the borough is changing are upfront and bold in the Mayor’s foreword to ‘A Fairer, Safer and More Sustainable Hackney’, Labour’s manifesto for the 2018-2022 Council. And while the environment is bringing up the rear in the document, the…

Tackling climate change and air pollution and giving residents a real voice in how the borough is changing are upfront and bold in the Mayor’s foreword to ‘A Fairer, Safer and More Sustainable Hackney’, Labour’s manifesto for the 2018-2022 Council. And while the environment is bringing up the rear in the document, the…

Between 5 December 2017 and 12 January 2018, local residents, businesses and schools were consulted on the proposals and a majority were in favour of the proposals. You can view the approved Delegated Powers Report which gives full details on the scheme and consultation at…

At long last it’s starting to happen, but so, so slowly – general recognition of our right to breathe clean air and that we are not able to do so. Our air quality is illegal; our air quality is killing people – 40,000 early deaths every year. Here in London, which falls way down the air quality league table of European capital cities, the main contributor to pollution is transport.

The pressure started with Client Earth, whose UK offices are in Hackney, successfully taking…

Clean air should surely be a basic human right – for us, our children and for future generations. Right now in London we are living in illegal levels of air pollution.

By the end of January 2018 the city had already…

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, has taken the next step towards divesting the London Pension Fund from fossil fuels, and he’s called on other London Boroughs to do the same. This is good news, but there’s still lots to do to get the commitments we need and to build the fairer, cleaner Hackney and London we want to see.

A few things you can do to get involved - no contribution is too small ...

Sign the petition to Divest…

A strong message that emerged from the Climate and Jobs Conference on March 10th was that we can’t afford any longer to treat climate change as solely and narrowly an environmental issue.

The image of the polar bear stranded on an ice sheet belies a deeper human reality. Our gaze should be directed instead at the millions whose…

Image: Fairtrade Foundation

Celebrations of Fairtrade Fortnight in Hackney were made extra special this year as, thanks to a grant from Hackney Council, we were able to ‘buy in’  presentations from Ketra Kyosiimire, a visiting female coffee producer from Uganda who gave…

Mayor Philip Glanville invited representatives of Hackney's social enterprise sector to the Town Hall in February to present the results of a consultation with more than 250 SEs to create a Social Enterprise Manifesto for Hackney. 

The manifesto is full of ideas on how Hackney Council can support recognition and development of the sector.  It highlight three strategic aims for the sector locally: promoting awareness & understanding of social enterprise, building…

Extended interview with Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell before he reports to jail at 4 p.m. Friday in upstate New York for taking part in a nonviolent protest against a natural gas-fired power plant. Cromwell says he’ll also launch a hunger strike. He was one of six activists arrested for blocking traffic at the sit-in outside the construction site of the 650-megawatt plant in Wawayanda, New York, in December of 2015. The activists say the plant would…

Hackney Stand up to Racism held a successful and widely supported solidarity evening on 2^nd December that raised over £2000 for Care 4 Calais to continue their work helping refugees rendered homeless after the camp at…

In London the fracking threat is getting closer

The fracking threat is getting closer. While recent news, if very little, has focussed, on Lancashire and…

The Loop at Pembury is a reuse project on the Pembury Estate launched in September which aims to make quality secondhand furniture available to purchase at super, cheap prices.

• There is a workshop on the estate, where volunteers repair and upcycle donated…