Sustainable Bristol

Bristol’s Good Living Week is here in June

Posted on 31 May 2011

Bristol’s first ever ‘Good Living Week’ is set to burst into life across the city from 10th to 19th June with a series of events celebrating sustainable living and working in the UK’s green capital - see the Good Living Week website for full details.

Good Living Week has been established by Bristol’s Green Capital Partnership and Forum for the Future to provide a focus for sustainable urban living and green businesses. We need to face the future with optimism and forethought, inspiring change and leading by example. We also need to find ways of living that make better use of our limited resources. Bristol has a lot to offer. We also have a lot to learn.

Good Living Week will showcase sustainable city living in Bristol. Here’s the introduction to the week written by Suzanne Savill in the Bristol Evening Post - 

Green will not be a colour but a way of life in Bristol when the first Good Living Week takes place in the city next month.

Sustainable city living will be celebrated with events including a summit on sustainable energy, a locally produced food trail, bicycle workshops, and opportunities to view homes with solar panels.

Organisers are hoping that Good Living Week will be a pilot for an annual event that will help to boost Bristol’s green image, and strengthen the city’s bid to become a European Green Capital.

Darren Hall, Bristol’s Green Capital Partnership manager, says: “It’s about raising the profile of Bristol as the UK’s leading city for sustainable living.

“This can create all sorts of opportunities, ranging from bringing together communities to boosting the local economy.”

Paul Rainger, head of Sustainable Bristol City Region for Forum for the Future – which aims to make the Bristol area the most sustainable in the UK – believes the event could become the green equivalent to the Edinburgh Festival.

“The hope is that Bristol will be able to do for sustainability what Edinburgh does for the arts,” he says.

“This is very much a pilot, and the aim is that the event will develop over the years and there will be more green groups doing their own thing, so that there is a sort of ‘Bristol Fringe’.”

Bristol’s Good Living Week will actually last longer than a week, running from Friday, June 10, to Sunday, June 19. It will be linked to the Festival of Nature on Bristol Harbourside on June 18 and 19.

The event gets its name from a book called Bristol – A Guide to Good Living, which showcases green activities within the city.

It was produced earlier this year by local publisher Alastair Sawday and the Bristol Green Capital Momentum Group, which aims to help Bristol achieve European Green Capital status.

Bristol was the only UK city to be shortlisted as Europe’s Green Capital for 2010 or 2011, and is preparing a new bid for the title.

The Good Living Week events have already been included as satellite activities in an extended European Green Week, and a delegation from the German city of Hannover, led by the city’s mayor, will be visiting Bristol.

The programme has been designed to appeal not only to those already involved in sustainable living, but also to those who are less engaged.

A community hub will be open at the Create Centre, where advice will be given on matters ranging from growing vegetables in front gardens to green volunteering.

A new coffee table style book published by Sawdays, called Bristol: Inspiring Change, will be launched during Good Living Week.

Events during Bristol’s Good Living Week include:

Friday, June 10 Bristol-Hannover Sustainable Energy Summit on innovative energy efficiency and micro-generation solutions.

Saturday, June 11 Live Local Weekend showing how to live efficiently and minimise environmental impact. Including the Get Growing Garden Trail showing 24 local food growing projects, and Green Doors open event showcasing solar projects.

Sunday, June 12 Bristol’s Biggest Bike Ride

Monday, June 13 Conference on Leadership for a Zero Carbon World.

Tuesday, June 14 Green Talk, featuring the city region’s most innovative green thinkers, leaders and achievers.

Wednesday, June 15 Sustainablah: a demonstration of the Bristol’s Creative Industries skills in supporting the green tech sector to achieve job creation and growth.

Thursday, June 16 The Business Case for Sustainability. Workshops exploring how businesses can improve efficiency, in partnership with Sustainable Business Breakfasts

Friday, June 17 Festival of Nature Schools Day, involving 1200 local young people.

Saturday, June 18 to Sunday, June 19 Festival of Nature which is expected to attract 25,000 people. This will include the UK Aware Show, an exhibition of sustainable living that is being held outside London for the first time.