Entries by Marianne Lindfield

Small but Mighty: Our Charity’s Ripple Effect Across Sussex in 2025

Small but Mighty: Our Charity’s Ripple Effect Across Sussex in 2025 2025 was truly a bumper year for our small but mighty charity, one that has created powerful ripples of positive change across East and West Sussex. Guided by our three pillars – conserving resources, making food sustainable and restoring biodiversity – we’ve shown what […]

Try the Kindness Challenge: Why Veganuary is the Perfect New Year’s Resolution

Try the Kindness Challenge: Why Veganuary is the Perfect New Year’s Resolution VEGANUARY is a straightforward concept: challenging non-vegans to eat a vegan diet for the whole month of January. It’s the ideal New Year’s resolution for anyone interested in adopting a kinder and healthier way of living. And best of all, with all the […]

Swap, don’t shop: Find fun ways to refresh your festive wardrobe the sustainable way

Christmas is a time of joy but also a time of overspending and overconsumption. But this year could be different, starting with your wardrobe. What if this festive season, you bought nothing new to wear?

Before you panic about party season, hear me out. The fashion industry produces 100 billion garments annually, yet we wear items an average of just seven times before discarding them according to The Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Meanwhile, recycling that glittery party dress isn’t the solution we imagine – mixed fabrics are virtually impossible to separate and recycle effectively.

Stress Awareness Week: finding balance through everyday choices 

As Stress Awareness Week (3 to 7 November) begins, Sussex Green Living says concern about the environment is becoming part of the pressure many people feel in daily life.  Many worry about our changing weather, plastic pollution, air quality and the loss of biodiversity. These concerns have become part of the background to modern living, […]

Filtering Out Microfibre Pollution

Did you know your daily diet might include a helping of plastic? Microplastics have been found in honey, sea salt, bottled water, and even human blood and lungs. While they may be “micro” in size, their impact on health and the environment is anything but small. We can’t see them, but they’re everywhere. Every time […]

Repair Starts Here

Across Sussex, people are proving that repair is not a thing of the past but part of the future we need to build. From Storrington to Horsham, Lewes to Brighton, Repair Cafés show what a circular economy looks like in everyday life: people coming together to fix broken things, share knowledge and stop waste before […]

Refilling Hope in a Throwaway World

It isn’t easy to make time for change. Between work, family and the daily scramble of modern life even simple acts of care can feel like luxuries. Yet at the refill station in Chanctonbury Leisure Centre I watched someone carefully scoop oat powder into a reused container and it made me pause. In that small, […]

Grain and Flame – Recycling Comes of Age

by Keir Hartley The sustainability movement has achieved great things in the last decade. “Repair”, “recycle” and “reuse” are words that everyone uses now, from businesses and TV shows to repair cafés across the country including the ones run by Sussex Green Living. Dare we hope they’re here to stay? The evidence suggests so, as […]

Batting for Change: Repair and Reuse Take Root in Local Cricket

In a small workshop in Haywards Heath, cricket bats are being restored to life. Barney Morris, better known as Barney Bats, repairs around 50 damaged bats each week. After a busy weekend of matches, his workbench can resemble a triage unit as bats arrive in need of care and attention. Morris, who runs the cricket […]

A Simpler Way: Life With Refills

Once I figured out how to make refill work in my life, it’s become something beautifully simple. I’m lucky to have an organic shop nearby that stocks seasonal fruit and veg, refill options for pantry staples, toiletries and household cleaning, as well as kombucha on tap and fresh herbs. It’s a place I actually enjoy […]

New refill service coming to Storrington this July

Sussex Green Living is excited to announce that a new dry-food refill service will be coming to Storrington this summer. The service will launch on Wednesday 23 July at Chanctonbury Leisure Centre and will run every fourth Wednesday from 9am to midday alongside the UK Harvest food hub. Local residents can bring their own containers […]

The Trouble With Sustainability

by Amanda Law, the Brighton Socks Company  Having coffee with an old friend in Brighton’s North Laine recently, the conversation quickly, and inevitably, turned to the climate crisis. Many of my conversations do these days, especially when discussing my small business, the Brighton Socks Company. My friend and I agreed, without question, on the need […]

Children’s Gardening Week, butterflies and beautiful salads

24 May – 1 June 2025 www.childrensgardeningweek.co.uk www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/nomowmay by Marianne Lindfield – Climate Action Engagement Officer, SGL Children’s Gardening Week arrives as May gives way to June, when the garden has found its stride and everything is stretching into summer. It often falls during half term, which makes it the perfect time to step outside […]

Let it grow: the case for messy gardens and living soil

by Elle Runton. Deputy Trustee Sussex Green Living. It would be fair to say I’m not yet a gardener. My grandfather had a smallholding, and my uncle just lays his thumb on a plant leaf and it blossoms at his touch, but I’m embarking on a learning journey—with some success. My local Sussex nursery-bought raspberry […]

Dogs and Wolves

Dogs and Wolves: Saving nature in Lewes where dogs are behaving like wolves!  In Lewes, dogs are on a mission to help the environment, and they’re doing it by acting like wolves! A long time ago, before wolves disappeared from the UK in the 1760s, they travelled across large areas every night, sometimes covering over […]

How Affordable are Affordable Homes?

How Affordable are Affordable Homes? We’ve heard a lot recently about housebuilding. Horsham District Council’s new Local Plan is now with the Government appointed inspector. Meanwhile, central government is promising to double the number of new homes built each year, which could potentially mean a lot more building in our District

Preparing for Spring: Flowering Food for our Hungry Pollinators!

Preparing for Spring: Flowering Food for our Hungry Pollinators!  As we head towards autumn, it’s time to think about spring planting and preparing our outside spaces and Pollination Education Stations (PES) for the coming year to give our pollinators the best chance of survival during the winter and provide them with rich, nutritious food sources […]