We had a brilliant day at the annual Greening Campaign conference on Sat 15 November. It was a great opportunity for all of the Greening groups across Hampshire to come together again to share knowledge, experience, successes and ideas!
Aims of the Conference
- Opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the campaign and for communities to share experience, knowledge and best practice.
- Explore what the future holds for the Greening Campaign, what communities will need, and what support will be available for Greening Communities.
It’s always so inspiring to spend a whole day with our wonderful greening communities and hear their amazing ideas, achievements and plans!
The feedback from last year’s conference was that communities wanted more time to meet each other, find out what has worked well and what they have learned. So we set aside plenty of time for groups to get together in breakout sessions. Facilitated by our pillar experts, there were brilliant presentations on the achievements from their amazing work on the Space for Nature and Waste Prevention pillars from Greening Shedfield Parish; the work on the community growing space and Cycle of the Seed pillar from Greening Bishopstoke and some top tips and advice from Greening Ringwood on their fantastic work on the Energy Efficient Warmer Homes pillar. There were lots of questions and lots of productive discussion.
The conference was also the perfect opportunity to present certificates and packs from our partner Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library to those communities who have completed the Greening Campaign’s Start UP initiative – a massive well done to Greening Bishops Waltham, Greening Bishopstoke, Greening Denmead, Greening Eastleigh, Greening Silchester and Greening Ringwood!
We were also fortunate to have talks from our brilliant guest speakers from Action Hampshire and Energise South Downs – Community Owned Renewables and we are grateful for the knowledge and support of our partners Garden Organic and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the Greening Campaign Board members. Plus the Greening Campaign talked about the achievements the communities have made over the past 3 years, the support we can offer going forward as well as an overview of the Adaptation resource.
Feedback from attendees when asked ‘What was the most valuable thing you learned from the conference?’ included:
‘ Ideas for initiatives for our community that have worked well in others‘
‘All the great work that communities are doing and seeing the passion that exists‘
‘Being a small part of a bigger project’
‘Finding out about future projects‘
‘Connections with others/ Energise South Downs- very inspiring, Adaptation, Mosquito project‘
‘Shared experiences from other groups‘
‘Didn’t realise the greening campaign stretched so far‘
‘Lots of ideas it is difficult to pick something- lots of really constructive and informative discussion in the cycle of the seed group – Great practical ideas for public engagement from Rob (waste prevention)‘
Conference Agenda
| Welcome, achievements and working with communities | |
| 10:00 | Introduction and Housekeeping plus thanks to our Board: Terena Plowright |
| 10:05 | Welcome and Introduction – What you have achieved in 3 years: Oona Muirhead CBE, Executive Chair of the Greening Campaign Board |
| 10:15 | What happens between now and April 2026 & going forward (feedback) – Terena Plowright |
| 10:35 | Hampshire County Council |
| 10:50 | The importance of reaching out to your community – working with marginalised members of communities: Action Hampshire –Nicky Judd, CEO. |
| Community workshops – breakout sessions | |
| 11:10 | All to move to workshops and grab a cuppa on the way |
| 11:30 | Community workshops: to hear case studies, look at community successes and lessons for the future, and discuss options for being more inclusive of each pillar and community as a whole Space for Nature, Cycle of the Seed, Waste Prevention and Energy Efficient Warmer Homes |
| 13:30 | Lunch and networking |
| 14:30 | Feedback from each Pillar workshops |
| New Partners and programmes | |
| 14:55 | Community Energy – solar rooftops, latest projects and opportunities for communities: Energise South Downs: Catriona Cockburn CEO |
| 15:15 | The Adaptation Resource – Looking at options for resilience in a changing climate with extreme weather: Terena Plowright and Dr Peter Walton, University of Leeds |
| 15:35 | Final words from Terena and Oona |
| 15:45 | Feedback forms |
What a great day it was!
