Open again: Maidenhead’s Repair Café gives people’s broken or worn-out possessions a new lease of life! See people like yourself rebuilding, repairing and recycling things that might otherwise be thrown away. Opening again on 8th July, in our ECO Action Hub.
Please register here if you wish to bring something for repair to reserve your time-slot: Or feel free to email the Repair Café team on repair.maidenhead@gmail.com.
We open from 10:00 to 15:00. Repair skills available at this next event include:
small electrical items (excludes microwaves and large items)
Come to the ECO Action Hub for one hour of workshops from 1100 to 1200 Saturday 15th July 2023. Get your family all involved in understanding how you all can be more eco-aware and climate friendly in what you eat and how you live as a family every day.
Why come?
Join in our kid-friendly workshops on ‘grow your own’, and on bio-diversity in the garden.
Discuss with families there what works best and what you can each do to make a difference.
With activities for you all to create and take-home meaningful mementos to make a difference now: grow your own beans or cress, or origami animals of species at risk.
What will the workshops cover?
Activity one – eat local to save carbon and packaging: understand as a family the significant contribution that transport and packaging make to ‘food carbon’ and what can you all do?
Activity two – eat in season to save carbon: hear about the carbon reduction benefits from eating food in season where possible, and what can families do together to help?
Activity three – reduce local biodiversity loss: see how much biodiversity loss has already occurred in the UK and how we can help to begin to reverse the trend.
What else do I need to know?
Please book your ‘free ticket’ for this event on Eventbrite on this link: Eventbrite Link
Workshops will start at 11:00 but please come before and look around the Hub from 10:00
We also have our Kids’ Clothes Swap here in the Hub that day – check it out and swap!
Book now: Saturday 1st July from 10:00 – 13:00 in the ECO Action Hub: Climate Fresk
You can’t fix what you don’t understand – luckily, the Climate Fresk turns climate science into a game! Played by over 1M people worldwide, this collaborative workshop allows you to understand the essential issues of climate change in order to take action.
Based on IPCC reports, you’ll learn how the climate functions – as well as the consequences of its disruption. Whether you’re a novice or an expert, you’ll learn a lot in just three hours.
This is how it works:
The workshop is based on a 42-card game. Each card represents an element, a cause or a consequence of climate change.
In teams, guided by facilitators, you have to find the cause-effect relationship between the different components of climate change. Collective intelligence will get you from one set of cards to the next!
This step-by-step reconstruction provides keys to understand the complexity and develop an overview of climate change.
All you need to bring is your joy, energy, and willingness to learn! Just make sure to arrive on time so we can start the workshop with the whole group, and plan to stay for the full 3 hours (there will be a short break in the middle).
Book now: secure your spot – Click the ‘Take Part’ button here: Climate Fresk
Tickets: offered at £10, £5, or free depending – best considered as a donation which we welcome but no donation is also fine.
Kids grow quickly and keeping them in clothes that fit can be a financial challenge.
Swapping means you can upgrade their wardrobes for just a few pounds. And EVERY TIME you swap any unwanted piece of clothing you extend its lifecycle and reduce its carbon footprint!
Come to our ECO Action Hub Kids’ Clothes Swap in collaboration with animal army on Saturday 15th July. Help reduce clothing waste, and get “new” clothes for your kids!
is donating a collection of starter stock to help get the Swap going: Follow animal army on Facebook and Instagram to see their collection.
You can also find this event and the ECO Action Hub on Facebook here.
Here’s how it works:
Drop off: Friday 14th July (10-4) or Saturday 15th July (10-12): Drop your clean and gently worn (no tears, stains or missing buttons please) child-size clothes at the ECO Action Hub: Unit 5-7, Nicholson Centre Atrium, Maidenhead SL6 1LB.
Take your tokens and keep them safe as you’ll use them to “buy” the clothes at the swap. Join the Fun For Families event or just look around at all the eco tips while you’re there!
Saturday 15th July – The Swap
12:00 The swap opens so get there on time for the best bits
All swappers leaving the swap with 1 or more items are required to donate £3 to the Eco Action Hub and animal army, (both non-profit organizations committed to fighting climate change). Anyone who doesn’t find something they or their children love, does not pay and can keep their tokens for the next swap event.
Extra Tips:
Wear clothes that are easy for your children to take on and off: we have fitting rooms to try on everything and lots of mirrors
Give yourself time to browse and shop slowly so you find something you love
Bring your own shopping bags to take home all your “new” clothes
Bring a water bottle or grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the swap
Don’t miss out: come to our Kids’ Clothes Swap Saturday 15th July!
Please read our short interview with ECO Action founding volunteer Sam Gibbins, who is running stages 331, 332 and 333 (Cookham to Windsor) on July 8th, and don’t forget to come and cheer her on!
What is the Running Out of Time Relay?
Running Out of Time is a 2,661km relay from Ben Nevis to Big Ben. There are a total of 366 stages, with stages ranging from 2-30km long. The relay runs from sunrise to sunset for 32 days and travels to 30 counties.
What can YOU do to support the runners and the planet?
Select one or more of the planet pledgesfrom the Running Out of Time website! There are over 30 to choose from.
Come and cheer on Sam and other runners / cyclists / walkers on the day!
Sign up as a Batonbearer yourself!
Interview with Samantha Gibbins, who is running in the colours of ECO Action
Why do you personally care about climate change?
When I finally opened my eyes to the real scale and severity of what our world could look like in one generation, especially on our current trajectory to 3oC+ of warming above pre-industrial levels, I was terrified. From an individual point of view I’m scared of how me and my family could be impacted, but I’ve seen that the future I fear is already a reality for millions of people in developing countries. I care about mitigating and adapting for climate change because I’m in a position where I can do something. Every person making a difference counts. Every 0.1oC we can prevent matters.
Of all the issues we’re facing today (climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, plastic pollution etc.) which one is most important to you and why?
Categorising these as separate issues is misleading as they are all so intricately connected and dependant on one another! I think that many people feel more comfortable thinking of these separately as it maybe feels easier to approach each issue independently and ‘tick off’ once solved. With this in mind, I think the biggest challenge is to shift people’s mindsets. We need more empathy in the world and appreciation of nuance to help us come together and work together with all of our differences. Because, however clichéd, it is together that we can make the biggest difference.
Which of the 32 pledges are you taking?
I’m “getting to my relay stage greener” with numerous trains, I’m going to “attend a local event for the Great Big Green Week”, and I’m “joining others in my local community to take positive action”!
Who is cheering you on?
The family contingent and some ECO Hub members!
What inspires you?
How many incredible people are working to make our world a better place. There are so many small scale and community initiatives dotted about, and so many people who are passionate about this when you start looking and getting involved. The ECO Hub is a perfect example of this – Climate Emergency Centres are dotted around the country; community energy projects are working to provide renewable energy to local areas (I can think of Maidenhead, Marlow and Reading doing this!); and local people are petitioning for our natural spaces to be protected or even better, rewilded. All of this gives me hope and inspires me to keep working for a better future.
World Refill Day: A global day of action to prevent plastic pollution and help people live with less waste. A world-wide movement to inspiring action, and show the world is ready for a refill and reuse revolution!
Last year we reached more than 100 million people globally with wide coverage by the press in UK and abroad. Popular campaign ambassadors are Bonnie Wright, Dominic West, Petrice Jones, Bianca Jagger and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Come to the event at ECO Action Hub – Filling Good will show you how affordable it is to refill vs shopping in the supermarket, show you eco cleaning tips and offer some samples of food from the shop!
