Sussex Green Living

Students Put Repair and Sustainability into Practice

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What if, before replacing something that stops working, we asked: Can it be repaired?

Repair does not have to mean being an expert with a toolbox. It can mean finding out whether something can be fixed before buying a replacement, learning a simple skill, asking someone with experience for help or visiting a local Repair Café.

Sussex is fortunate to have a community of volunteers making this possible. Sussex Green Living launched West Sussex’s first Repair Café in Horsham in 2017 and has supported the development of many others. There are now 19 in West Sussex bring people together to share practical knowledge and give broken household items another chance. Read more

Alfomedeiros

Do More by Doing Less in your garden this Winter 

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We used to find comfort in a tidy garden, but for many people that has changed. As summer fades they no longer reach for the rake, secateurs and garden bags. They know that leaving the garden alone is not neglect, it is good sense.

What we used to view as untidy, we now know is often a winter lifeline for Sussex wildlife. Fallen leaves provide shelter for beetles, spiders and other invertebrates. The insects sheltering among autumn debris are part of the intricate web that keeps nature’s food systems thriving, providing food for birds and other wildlife, while the survivors of winter will return to pollinate flowers when the growing season begins again. By removing all the detritus, we may unknowingly remove their homes, and lives, too. Read more

Community Wellbeing Garden

“The Community Garden is Nature’s Samaritans!”

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Gardening and particularly gardening in a group can bring many wonderful benefits to all, regardless of health, age or circumstance. We’ve invited Kate Green from Petworth’s Community Wellbeing Garden to explain.

Kate, is the founder of the charity, a wheelchair accessible therapeutic garden which has been running for 21 years. She is a permaculture designer and teacher, and has designed, set up and run various gardens (school, elder care, market) as she finds joy in re-connecting people with nature through community projects. Read more

Sussex Green Living

Weather, food prices and the case for growing your own

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Unpredictable weather is putting pressure on food production, with smaller harvests and higher prices making food security an increasingly important issue for households and communities.

Heavy rainfall followed by heatwaves, with almost three quarters of England & Wales still officially in drought, the weather has severe impact on UK agriculture, leading to smaller produce, stressed livestock and higher prices. Read more

Sussex Green Living

Second Hand September – First Choice is Second-Hand!

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Although we are a tiny country, of all the countries in the world, only the massive USA is worse than us in terms of wasting clothes! 

Even cheap fashion has a secret cost, and it’s a surprisingly big cost if we consider how and where clothes are manufactured, by whom, how they’re transported here, how many times they’re worn, and where in the world they are taken before being dumped or burned!  Read more

Food waste collection truckBiffa

How our food waste creates green energy

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By now, those of us living in the Horsham area are becoming familiar with putting out our food waste every week together with either the general waste bin or the recycling bins. After three months, the take up is already around 60% which is notably above the national average. It is very much hoped, as the habit settles in, this percentage can be significantly increased. Read more

Picture of detail on the new mural GS Creative Photography

New youth project highlights care for local ecology in Westergate

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Students from Ormiston Six Village Academy have unveiled a massive (40m) new mural along with dynamic new signs for local bins, as part of a project they have designed to increase respect for the natural world in their area.

Developed with input from the whole school community, the project supported a number of students in Years 8 – 10 to work with two commissioned artists – selected by them – to create art interventions in the school’s local Westergate village intended to inspire greater respect for the natural world locally. Read more

Swap plastic for a Reusable CupPexel

Going Beyond Recycling Towards Less Plastic

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Sussex Green Living is appealing to the public to keep going with a plastic free life in 2026 and beyond. 

Why is recycling plastic not enough? While some of the plastic we recycle is turned into new products, much of it is exported or incinerated. Although energy recovery from burning plastic is often counted within waste management, plastic is made from fossil fuels that took millions of years to form, so burning it is not a sustainable solution. The biggest climate impact, however, comes long before plastic reaches us. According to the OECD, around 90% of greenhouse gas emissions from plastics occur during production and manufacturing.   Read more

Bees Needs Award 2026RHS

Sussex Green Living receive the Defra National Bees Needs Champions Award from Nature Minister Mary Creagh at RHS Wisley

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At Sussex Green Living, we are delighted and honoured to have been recognised at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) National Bees Needs Champions Awards at RHS Wisley on 14 July. Our Pollination Education Station (PES) Trail across Sussex received national recognition for its contribution to supporting pollinators and educating communities about the vital role they play in our environment.  Read more

How to help butterflies thrive

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Sadly, of the UK’s 59 butterfly species, 33 have been in decline in recent years, with favourites like the once common Small Tortoiseshell on the brink of disappearing altogether in parts of southeast England. But there are lots of ways we can all help our butterflies thrive. You can get involved by volunteering with a local conservation group such as Wild About Warnham, or your local branch of Butterfly Conservation. Or why not take some simple steps to make your garden more butterfly-friendly?   Read more