In Our Nature’s latest updates | Spring 2024

Find out how we’ve been helping people across Manchester to reduce their carbon footprint, learn new skills and save money over the past few months, and how you can get involved too!

Supporting Manchester’s residents to take action

We’re supporting and delivering community climate projects across the city centred around food, getting around, nature and growing, homes and buildings, energy, and the things we buy and throw away.

Food

With our support, FungALL kicked off a series of mushroom growing workshops in their community hub, diverting waste from landfill and teaching people about the benefits of localised food production.

Start growing your own mushrooms at home with this handy video guide!

We provided The Den in Chorlton Park with a community fridge in their café and are supporting them to have a new compost system in their community garden to help them reduce their food waste.

We also teamed up with Ngwafu Tansie, chef and owner of gwafuvegan to share delicious plant-based West African dishes with young people and their families in Gorton. Find out more.

**The results are in from the Big Moston Food Club!**

70% are now wasting less food
65% told us that they have saved money since taking part
25% now eat less meat
58% now eat more fruit and veg
(Results from 20 surveys out of the 90 residents who took part.)
**Find out more.**

Want to give it a try yourself? Check out our climate-friendly food tips by clicking here.

Getting around

Local residents celebrated the launch of St Margaret’s Centre’s new bike shelter, it is hoped that the bike shelter will encourage more people using the centre to leave their car at home and cycle instead, reducing car use in the area.

Manchester Bike Kitchen launched their new bike hub to loan out refurbished bikes to local residents in Wythenshawe.

Flavours from Manchester started their first group outings to help people in north Manchester become more confident with using public transport to explore the city.

**Flavours from Manchester won the 2024 Be Proud ‘Taking neighbourhood climate action’ award for their Go Green project supported by In Our Nature last year!**

Ready to ditch the car? Explore Manchester and beyond with our low carbon travel tips.

Nature and growing

Community growing sessions began at Crumpsall and Cheetham Hill allotments, after a new path and raised beds were installed to make the space more accessible to users. Find out more.

Resident co-design sessions got underway to improve green spaces in Harpurhey, Gorton and Abbey Hey, with a focus around food growing and composting.

The In Our Nature community garden display at Castlefield Viaduct that we planted last summer (with thanks to Sow the City and support from Wates Family Enterprise Trust) is looking bloomin’ beautiful!
**Find out more about the garden and the link between nature and climate action.**

In Whalley Range, we’ve been working with residents to help them get gardening in their alleyways to help their community be more climate resilient. We’ve run workshops on how to build a planter from pallets, how to create a drought resistant planter and an expert Q+A session from local alleyway experts.

Green with envy? Give it a grow with our climate-friendly planting tips.

Homes and buildings

The Carlton Club celebrated the completion of their new low-carbon air ventilation system with an information sharing event for residents and local businesses. Find out how they did it.

Climate action starts at home, check out our top tips to get started.

Energy

Walking Mums Club began their walk and talk sessions; bringing new parents together to discuss climate action and implement changes at home, from reducing waste to low carbon weaning recipes.

Future Direction CIC started their workshops to help people with learning disabilities and complex needs save energy and money at home through useful tips and tricks, such as making their own draught excluders.

Had a lightbulb moment? Take a look at our tips to reduce your energy use.

The things we buy and throw away

NEPHRA set up their recycling hub to collect plastic waste previously being sent to landfill.

In Cheetham Hill we partnered with the Wai Yin Welcome Centre and Stitched Up to deliver a 10-week sewing machine workshop. Find out how the residents got on here.

Ready to put throw-away culture in the bin? Discover how you can make the most of your stuff.

Helping individuals and community groups to act

Our Resource Hub is filled to the brim with planet-friendly tips, real-world advice, and stories we love to help you take climate action.

This spring, we also hosted three more Meaningful Community Action webinar events and delivered bespoke coaching sessions to community climate leaders. Our Community Learning Hub has 29 individuals signed-up and accessing bespoke courses in their own time. Sign-up to further events in the Meaningful Community Action series by clicking here.

Want to help shape the change you want to see in Manchester?

As part of our Community Coalition, there’s lots to get involved with - from events, to networking opportunities and influencing city wide policies.

Head to our Eventbrite page to explore the latest opportunities to get involved