People from all walks of life are coming together to address the climate crisis and inequality, to build a better future. If we act as individuals, it will be too little. But if we act as one big community, it may be enough and just in time.
We are passionate about growing a community ecosystem of residents, schools, universities, businesses, community groups and councils which is responsive to environmental and social injustice. Climate and ecological justice are integral to what we do, as is our mission to help address inequality of opportunity. We hope you enjoy reading this spring newsletter packed with pages of fun projects we hope you will get involved in …
1. Love Your Climate
Last month, in collaboration with Camden Council’s Climate Alliance and as part of our Climate Connectors project, we hosted a fun 'Love Your Climate' event (on Valentine's Day) at which we were joined by 70 secondary school students from 8 schools to advise Camden Council on their priorities for their next 5-year Climate Action Plan. We were amazed by the passion our future changemakers have for addressing the climate crisis. Events like these are important to remind us that meaningful climate action starts locally, by empowering young voices within the community. We left the event more committed than ever to keep youth voices centered in the heart of climate conversations in Camden.
2. The Green Dragons Den
Recently we co-hosted our annual Green Dragons Den event with the CCA and Troup Bywater Anders. We were joined by students from 9 primary schools who pitched their exciting and innovative sustainability ideas for their schools. We heard some amazing pitches and have now fed back to schools awarding them for their exciting projects!
3. Could you help a local climate group?
Hello Camden businesses!
Camden is so lucky to have so many community groups, volunteers and organisations who are busily delivering wonderful climate and ecological projects across our borough. We all need your help!
Are you a Camden business or organisation who could support a local group within a 2km radius of your premises through pro-bono work, financial donations or volunteering? Please reach out, we need your support!
What if all Camden estates and beyond could be planted with Communi-Trees and Beeline Boxes installed on walkways? What if upcycled benches and picnic tables could be built by volunteers? Or nature inspired murals painted on walls to bring residents together to enjoy their greened up estate?
Thanks to our partnership with the amazing KOKO Foundation, we have had another exceptional Communi-Trees season, planting 90 trees (60 of them fruit trees) across 4 estates in Camden. This season we will be employing 11 young people to look after the new trees, plus our orchards at Abbey and Mortimer estates.
Our wonderful KOKO foresters were invited to the House of KOKO for a fabulous pizza lunch, see below for their picture!
Picture credit: CK Morrison
We have also organised pruning days, to upskill our KOKO Young Foresters. Along with this, we have painted murals, created signs for the trees, made fresh apple juice and enjoyed delicious plant-based food cooked by local youth cafe - 1smile4community.
We are grateful to all of the TRAs and residents we have worked with for making this project such a success. We would also like to thank the KOKO Foundation for their fantastic partnership, and we look forward to rolling this out across the borough of Camden and beyond over the coming years.
Our Communi-Trees project, however, is about so much more than just planting - we are wild about community! Behind every green project we co-design and deliver there’s at least 3 months of engagement work. Highlights of this season's campaign included an absolutely packed tree celebration party at Westcroft attended by over 100 residents!
A particularly lovely highlight of this iteration of Communi-Trees was engaging with residents at Sidney Boyd Court Estate. During our doorknocking sessions, we spoke to many residents with rich family lineages at the estate - many going back over 60 years. We were told stories about wonderful community champions which got us thinking, how can we celebrate these people who gave so much to their local community? Our answer to this was handmade wooden dedication signs, which were hand painted by residents and UCL volunteers at our wonderful community celebration event.
As we toured the trees and installed the signs together, they shared stories, laughs, and even a few tears remembering their loved ones.
Our great new KOKO foresters Myles & Malique and the incredible Sidney Boyd caretaker, Abdul - a friend to all!
Another highlight has been our collaboration with UCL. Our thanks to Ram Thapa, Dipika Adhikari and Michael Woodrow for their tireless work in developing this partnership. It is also absolutely necessary to give a massive thank you to the incredible UCL student volunteers, who this round of Communi-Trees wouldn’t have been the same without!
Coming next month… alongside residents and corporate volunteers we will be planting 4 wildflower meadows across Camden estates!
Above: A wayfinding sign!
5. Beeline Boxes
Our next iteration of Beeline Boxes is well underway at Bayham Place! After a 3-month engagement campaign, we are now in production manufacturing 90 bespoke metal boxes which will be filled with an array of herbs, chosen by the residents, and installed. Our Beeline Box project is a new kind of vertical growing - perfect for increasing biodiversity on high-rise blocks.
We co-hosted a lively community event on the 5th April! In response to resident feedback, we're also working on revitalising the communal spaces by designing and building new benches for the estate. Partnering with Msoma Architects and 121 Collective, we'll be using reclaimed materials to fix and create new seating in the estate environment.
We are also looking for corporate volunteers to come and help us to brighten up the estate by painting railings etc. C’mon all of you readers… lift up a paintbrush and join us. It’s social and ecological justice in action. Click on the link to sign up via our volunteering form:
Meanwhile, over at Three Fields Estate, our original Beeline Boxes are thriving! It’s been heartwarming to see residents taking their own initiative to add even more green to the estate as well.
6. Sharing Spaces
Talking about connected communities, whilst our regular Sharing Spaces at Goldington, Ampthill and Templar house (run by wonderful volunteers) continue to thrive, we are excited to announce that we are branching out to help connect and invigorate more communities with our two new Sharing Space projects.
Sharing Spaces - Connecting Your Community!
Would you like to set up a Sharing Space where you live?
Over the next few months, Tuli and Syeda from the Think&Do team will be reaching out to TRAs and residents across the borough, inspiring them to set up a Sharing Space on their estate. Would you like to see one of these spaces where you live? Don’t hesitate to reach out for more information.
We know that every Sharing Space will be different - some may be a one-off summer event, others may run on a weekly basis. We have a tool kit to help, ideas for financing it, and goodies to give away!
For more info on ideas of how it could work for you contact Tuli or Syeda!
What if … libraries across Camden and beyond, set up a weekly Sharing Space and became lively community hubs?
We are thrilled to announce our new collaboration with Camden libraries. Alongside librarians, we will be piloting a weekly Sharing Space every Monday at Queen's Crescent library.
Local residents are already coming forward with so many creative suggestions, whether it be items they can upcycle, skills they can share, community workshops they’d be interested in coming along to…watch this space…! Or better still, pop along on a Monday and join the fun.
The plan is to then roll out to other libraries. Along with our partner, Ashden Foundation, with support from the Kusuma Foundation, we are putting together a steering group of libraries around London who would like to set up a Sharing Space.
Our third iteration of the Energy Savers Club for Winter '25 has now been completed. It has been so inspiring to co-host over 10 events with Camden libraries and the Council Housing dept Energy performance team. The ESC has taken place at libraries across the borough, on high streets, at ThreeFields estate, and at our Sharing Spaces. We have shared energy-saving tips with over 300 residents, helping lower energy bills to help address the cost of living crisis, plus reduce residents' carbon footprint.
A big development in this project has been a request from residents to learn tips on how to reduce black mould in their flats, which seems quite widespread. To this end, we have been handing out dehumidifiers, but this is just a temporary solution.
We look forward to rolling out our Energy Savers Club widely across the borough and beyond this summer. Energy is not just about keeping your home warm in winter, we all use energy in so many different ways in our homes in the summer, too!
Through our Circular Communities project, we're bringing Somers Town together to share, swap, and repair, making our area a place where nothing goes to waste. As part of Camden Council's Future Neighbourhoods 2030 programme, we're hosting six events this year to help people re-think what they are throwing away - and we've already made a start!
Our Swap ‘Til You Drop events saw local residents coming together to swap clothes and household items, proving that one person’s unwanted things can be another's favourite find.
Coming up, we will be co-hosting an Energy savers coffee morning with primary school parents. We will also be setting up a LED bulb swap box where residents can switch halogen bulbs for energy-saving and cost effective LEDs.
Wanna join the fun and install a lightbulb swap box at your school? We can provide you with free LEDs. C’mon be a LEDgend!
We are also looking forward to co-hosting a Circular Community toy share assembly this spring. What could be more important than educating the great minds of future changemakers on the importance of sustainable consumption? We will be running a fun-filled, educational assembly with primary school students to get them thinking about waste through an age appropriate medium… toys! The kids will then put their learnings into action at their summer fair toy sharing space.
Street swap: coming to a street in Somers Town soon! This event is a chance for an entire street to take part in a neighbourhood things swap, leaving out their pre-loved items for others to love!
At our summer Trash 2 Treasure event, run in collaboration with the new Repair Rooms social enterprise, young people will collect discarded small appliances from around Somers Town and document their finds through photography. Skilled repairers will then bring them back to life at a summer Fix-It street party. The before-and-after transformations will then be showcased in a community exhibition.
If you are organising an event which needs catering, don’t forget to order from our Sharing Eats team. Sharing Eats is a social enterprise run by newbie chefs who create affordable, delicious, planet-friendly food, with a Bengali twist! All orders will be delivered with a ‘plantable’ thank you card. Lettuce be friends…! Our puns might be terrible, but we promise you, the food is great!
10. Follow us on Bluesky
On a more serious note, Think&Do has decided to migrate away from Twitter ("X") as a social media platform. We simply cannot stand by and watch the events unfold in the USA, in particular with regards to Elon Musk’s malignant influence. We have therefore set up a new Social platform on Bluesky and we invite you to follow us, and do the same.
.jpg?width=1120&upscale=true&name=Untitled%20design%20(1).jpg)
.jpg?width=1120&upscale=true&name=GDD%202025%20Photos%20with%20permissions.%20Amber%20Alferoff%20(47).jpg)
.jpg?width=1120&upscale=true&name=GDD%202025%20Photos%20with%20permissions.%20Amber%20Alferoff%20(23).jpg)
.jpg?width=1120&upscale=true&name=unnamed%20(9).jpg)
.jpg?width=1120&upscale=true&name=c8cf08bf-8784-44e0-b96b-90b69e1937bb%20(1).jpg)
