Shining a Light on the Landscape of Sustainability

We recognise that this past year has been hard for many, so with this in mind, we’d like to promote some other incredible initiatives working to create stronger, cleaner, and more sustainable communities. Each month we will be promoting a location that is home to one of our repair cafés, celebrating the many other inspirational, forward thinking organisations that strive to make Wales, and the world, a better place.

This month we are showcasing the city of Swansea, the home of Dylan Thomas, breath-taking coastal views, the iconic urban nightlife of inner city Wind Street, and an incredible passion for social inclusion and sustainability.

Swansea Community Farm
As the only city farm in Wales, Swansea Community Farm is connecting people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds through the joys that can be found in all aspects of farm life. This organisation has flourished over the past 20 years nurturing their animals, allotments and gardens, but also their volunteers, building confidence, skills and well-being whilst championing sustainable living and biodiversity. Fully utilising their 3.5 acres of space, Swansea Community Farm offer educational, training, and volunteer opportunities to their local community, whilst also creating fun events providing the chance for play alongside work.  One such event posted on their Facebook page combines play with educational and training aspects, and you can watch live as their young people practice their herding skills on ducks, guiding the animals around an obstacle course of their own design! Who said never work with kids or animals huh?

To find out more about Swansea Community Farm and any upcoming events or how you can volunteer, visit their website here.

Swansea Community Fridge
Goleudy, meaning ‘lighthouse’ in Welsh, are a housing charity based in Swansea, on a mission to prevent homelessness and provide housing and opportunities to those in need. As a part of this mission, Goleudy run Swansea Community Fridge, a project designed to support those experiencing food poverty, whilst keeping sustainability at the heart of their approach. The Community Fridge operates by asking supermarkets, retail and restaurants to donate any surplus food that would otherwise be sent to landfill, so it can find a more meaningful home in the hands of people experiencing food poverty, who can visit the fridge and take what they need. Highlighting the demand for this project, Goleudy emphasise on their website the incredible difference they have made in their short time running it, stating within the first year of this offering, they have ‘diverted over 12 tonnes of food from landfill’ and have helped ‘over 100 people per week’.
Like so many, Swansea Community Fridge have had to adapt during the pandemic, whilst the fridge is still open, they are now distributing pre-prepared food parcels with produce from the fridge, and have also set up a Community Pantry, stocking cupboard and hygiene products, and dispensing these goods in the same pre-prepared way.

If you would like to find out more about Swansea Community Fridge, including how you can volunteer, you can visit Goleudy’s website here.

S.T.O.P.P
Swansea Takes on Period Poverty (S.T.O.P.P) is a group established to alleviate the pressures of period poverty, and doing so in a sustainable way. Since being awarded funding from Swansea Council as a as part of the community element of the Welsh Government’s Period Dignity grant, S.T.O.P.P planned to create a ‘Reusables Roadshow’, and take it on tour around various local community locations, to present the reusable sanitary products, and explain how they work. However, as the pandemic began this option seemed no longer viable, so instead, S.T.O.P.P have been busy finding other ways to promote and distribute these reusable products, and have now successfully distributed more than 500 packs. Tasking themselves with the assignment to make Swansea a ‘Period Positive’ city with the support of periodpositive.com. S.T.O.P.P aim to make menstrual products freely accessible from community locations and public facilities such as libraries, schools and community centres, whilst entering into a political campaign to abolish the ‘tampon tax’ and achieve a no cost solution to this issue, that for some, can become an overwhelming financial and emotional burden every month.

To find out more about S.T.O.P.P Swansea, you can visit their website here.

The Environment Centre, Swansea
The Environment Centre in Swansea provides a community hub where people can learn how to create a more sustainable life for themselves and their city. Located on Pier Street, but serving the wider community of Swansea and beyond, their ethos is all about sharing the knowledge and skills needed to enable positive change, inspiring action to tackle environmental and sustainability issues. Boasting a Green Shop, an annual Green Fair, an Urban Garden and an Information Hub, The Environment Centre has everything you need to become a clean, green, environmentally aware machine. You can drop by and visit Swansea’s first Refill Station to collect your cleaning products and toiletries, or pick up some Fairtrade foodie bits whilst browsing their selection of crafts on sale from local artisans. Tired from all that shopping? Sit and take a breather in the Urban Garden, a relaxing green area where you can take some inspiration from what has been achieved in a small urban space with a little imagination. Feeling inspired? Check out how else you can make positive change in the Information Hub, where you can read all about the many incredible ways we can, as individuals, change the world!

For more information on The Environment Centre in Swansea, and how to access their services, or how you can volunteer there, visit their website here.