Sustainable Bristol

Bristol’s Green History

Posted on 06 December 2011

The environmental campaigns, organisations and community action that have taken root in Bristol over the last forty years give the city a special place in the history of the UK’s green movement.

I’m biased of course, and not because I have played a big part in that history, because I haven’t. No, I’m biased because the current exhibition of the work of the Schumacher Institute to document that history has chosen to include a quote from me in foot high letters on an eight foot wall.

But declaration of personal interest aside, over 100 people were interviewed for the Bristol’s Green Roots project, a heritage lottery funded project of the Schumacher Institute to document the history of the environmental movement in Bristol.

A year in the making, the project’s archive which will now be stored with Bristol Record Office, contains publications, leaflets and promotional material from early environmental groups in the city including Bristol and Avon Friends of the Earth, the Urban Centre for Appropriate Technology (now Centre for Sustainable Energy) and Windmill Hill City Farm.

The project co-ordinator, Emmelie Brownlee, has brought together the stories in a publication called Bristol’s Green Roots. There is also an exhibition at The Create Centre, including the afore mentioned quote, which tells some of the stories collected.

Emmelie says “the amazing thing about this project is the incredible wealth of organisations, initiatives and community groups that have developed in Bristol over the last forty years. The project looks at the successes, set-backs and achievements of Bristol’s environmental movement, and how local people have worked tirelessly for decades to protect and develop local green space, local food movement, the city’s public transport, cycling provision and recycling.’

The exhibition is at The Create Centre (free entry) until spring 2012, and the publication is available from The Schumacher Institute, Foyles Bookshop in Cabot Circus, the Arnolfini Bookshop and Blackwells on Park Street.