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Community action/Hackney

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Community gardens plot in Clissold Park, part of the successful Growing Communities social enterprise project through which local people can get involved in growing and distributing produce via organic veg box schemes, a farmers' market and a range of urban gardening sites. Attribution: ceridwen

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Hackney.

Location data
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Location London Borough of Hackney, London
Coordinates 51° 32' 55.97" N, 0° 2' 51.61" W
Hackney
London
UK
Europe
Cosmolocal
  • News Amid energy market turmoil, the people taking power into their own hands, positive.news (Mar 19, 2026)
  • News East London is at high risk of extreme flooding – here’s how to limit the damage, theconversation.com (Feb 11, 2026)
  • News The London solar project slashing bills for vulnerable residents, positive.news (Nov 03, 2025)
Read more
  • News London, San Francisco and Beijing achieve ‘remarkable reductions’ in air pollution, theguardian.com (Mar 12, 2026) — Cycle lanes, electric cars and other interventions have helped 19 global cities slash levels of pollutants by more than 20%
  • News East London is at high risk of extreme flooding – here’s how to limit the damage, theconversation.com (Feb 11, 2026)
  • News How a London energy co-op is trying to bring power to the people, thenews.coop (Feb 06, 2026) — We speak to Giovanna Speciale, CEO of South East London Community Energy, about its work towards an inclusive transition
  • News Record-breaking heat and dry spring leave parts of England without water, reuters.com (May 29, 2026)
  • News The English restaurant turning hospitality on its head, positive.news (May 27, 2026) — At a pay-as-you-can restaurant in Stroud, radical hospitality and good food are bringing strangers together
  • News Britain’s green transition should belong to everyone. Why is Labour so intent on stopping us having our say? George Monbiot, theguardian.com (May 27, 2026)
  • News Amsterdam, along with other major European cities, bans public adverts for meat and fossil fuels [BBC], Daily Alternative (May 22, 2026)
  • News How reindeer herds, nature and Sámi culture can thrive when forests are restored across northern Europe, theconversation.com (May 15, 2026)
  • News Rewilding giants: captive elephants rehomed in Europe’s first sanctuary, theguardian.com (May 07, 2026)
  • News Amsterdam, along with other major European cities, bans public adverts for meat and fossil fuels [BBC], Daily Alternative (May 22, 2026)
  • News Solidarity fields in Syria: Reviving local seed production, globalvoices.org (May 21, 2026) — A community garden on Damascus's edge is quietly rebuilding Syria's agricultural memory
  • News How reindeer herds, nature and Sámi culture can thrive when forests are restored across northern Europe, theconversation.com (May 15, 2026)

Networks and sustainability initiatives

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UK and international events

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UK events

  • Event Jun 1 - 7, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Neighbourhood Watch Week, ourwatch.org.uk
  • Event Jun 1 - 7, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Volunteers Week, celebrating and saying thank you to the millions of volunteers across the UK, volunteersweek.org
  • Event Jun 5 - 8, 2026 (Fri - Mon) — The Big Lunch, the first weekend in June every year, everyone is invited, anyone can join in and whatever food people bring to the table is there to be shared, edenprojectcommunities.com
  • Event Jun 6 - 14, 2026 (Sat-Sun) — Great Big Green Week, celebrating communities taking action to tackle climate change and protect green spaces, greatbiggreenweek.com
  • Event Jun 07, 2026 (Sun) — Open Farm Sunday, farmsunday.org
  • Event Jun 8 - 14, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Bike Week, annual celebration showcasing cycling and how brilliant it is!, cyclinguk.org
  • Event Jun 8 - 14, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Carers Week, carersweek.org
  • Event Jun 15 - 21, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Loneliness Awareness Week, lonelinessawarenessweek.org
  • Event Jun 15 - 21, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Better Transport Week, annual, week-long celebration of sustainable transport, bettertransport.org.uk
  • Event Jun 15 - 21, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Refugee Week, refugeeweek.org.uk
  • Event Jun 18, 2026 (Thu) — Clean Air Day, actionforcleanair.org.uk
  • Event Jun 19 - 21, 2026 (Fri - Sun) — The Great Get Together, annual celebration organised by The Jo Cox Foundation, helping unite people, bridge divides, and tackle loneliness, while showing the collective power we have as a community, jocoxfoundation.org
  • Event Jun 29 - Jul 3, 2026 (Mon - Fri) — National Co-production Week, scie.org.uk

UK community action events

Global or international events

  • Event Jun 03, 2026 (Wed) — World Bicycle Day, The bicycle is a "symbol of sustainable transport and conveys a positive message to foster sustainable consumption and production, and has a positive impact on climate." (United Nations), June 3 each year, un.org
  • Event Jun 05, 2026 (Fri)World Environment Day, June 5, annually, worldenvironmentday.global
  • Event Jun 08, 2026 (Mon) — World Oceans Day, June 8 each year, worldoceanday.org
  • Event Jun 12, 2026 (Fri) — World Day Against Child Labour, every year on June 12, ilo.org
  • Event Jun 17, 2026 (Wed) — World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, each June 17, un.org
  • Event Jun 21 and all of June — World Localization Day, worldlocalizationday.org
  • Event Jun 22, 2026 (Mon) — World Rainforest Day, June 22 is World Rainforest Day, worldrainforestday.org

2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events

CDC videos

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Cosmolocal discovery club

Each week 3 different short videos from across the UK or world.

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Future Rural Voices: perspectives on the countryside’s future
Authors: Campaign to Protect Rural England, 2.35 mins.
Date: 2026-05-07
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Local Power, Lower Bills: Up the Energy!
Authors: Community Energy England, 1.38 mins.
Date: 2026-03-10
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Tiree - This is Community Wealth Building
Authors: Scottish Community Alliance, 3.44 mins.
Date: 2025-11-18

Rural sustainability UK, Community energy UK, Community action/Argyll and Bute / ...This week's featured Global videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism

Hackney video

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Communities online

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Shakepeare Neighbourhood and Butterfield Green

Food activism

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Made In Hackney Community Cookery School
Authors: MadeIn Hackney, Aug 3, 2020
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Tackling climate change through food and farming
Authors: growcomm, Oct 20, 2020
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  • Made in Hackney, pioneering eco-community kitchen that offers food growing and cooking classes to groups such as young carers, low-income families, people in care and people with long term health problems. Since launching in October 2012 the team have worked with a number of national and local organisations such as Action For Children, Off Centre, Inspire!, Catch 22 and Hackney Social Services to offer courses to their service users in healthy, affordable cookery skills.

Made in Hackney offer classes which include bread making, healthy baking, preserving, raw foods, family meals for £3, localised versions of international cuisine, home herbalism and even how to make non-toxic natural cleaning products and cosmetics.

Made in Hackney is an eco-community kitchen, all food waste is composted and taken to a local community garden, cleaning products are made from scratch using natural materials, shelves are made from reclaimed scaffold boards and counter tops are made from melted plastic vending machine coffee cups. They also use an ethical bank and renewable energy provider....Made in Hackney Press Release 3rd February 2014

Hackney City Farm

Hackney City Farm is a city farm and independent alternative school in Haggerston in the London Borough of Hackney. It is situated at the junction of Hackney Road and Goldsmith's Row.

The farm was established in 1984 as a community and educational resource and to give borough residents, particularly young people, experience of animals. The facilities at Hackney City Farm include a farmyard, area for grazing, garden and a tree nursery with butterfly house.[1] The amenity encourages children to learn about the natural environment, growing vegetables and caring for animals. The farm is home to a range of animals, including poultry, sheep, rabbits, bees, pigs and a donkey. Animals can be adopted at the farm, and free range eggs are for sale.

Hackney City Farm is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. It runs educational projects, exhibitions, courses in crafts and farm trails, and operates a café, Frizzante, which won a Time Out award for best family restaurant in 2004. In 2008, the cycling shop Bike Yard East opened in the farm, selling cycle products and offering repairs.

In 2015 Hackney City Farm registered with Ofsted as an independent alternative school. The farm has places for up to 10 pupils aged 13 to 17. W

Other Food initiatives

Social inclusion

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Every ward remains among the 10% most deprived in the country, with 47% of children living in low-income households. W

Community resources

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Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle

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Recycling and Waste, information from Hackney Council

Climate action

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  • Zero Emissions Network, zeroemissionsnetwork.com, "multiple award-winning air quality business liaison initiative... helps businesses and more recently, residents in London's City Fringe area save money, reduce emissions and improve local air quality.", added 15:25, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

Sustainable transport activism

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  • Footways, network of quiet and enjoyable routes for walking in London. Free printed maps or follow routes on your phone. Maps include Central London Footways, Camden Green Loop, Hackney Central Footways, and London Nature Trails. added 08:36, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

65% of households in Hackney are car free. W

The Lea Valley Walk is a 50-mile (80 km) long-distance path located between Leagrave, the source of the River Lea near Luton, and the Thames, at Limehouse Basin, Limehouse, east London. From its source much of the walk is rural. The walk was opened in 1993 and is waymarked throughout using a swan logo. W

Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, 550 yards (500 m) north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London. The canal is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) long. W

Cycling activism

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Hackney has the highest rate of commuters travelling by bicycle in London as of the 2011 census. W

Cycle routes in or around Hackney include National Cycle Route 1 W Due to the increase in cycle commuting since the 2005 London Bombings and increasing environmental awareness, the Regent's Canal's towpath has become a busy cycle route for commuters. National Cycle Route 1 includes the stretch along the canal towpath from Limehouse Basin to Mile End. British Waterways has carried out several studies into the effects of sharing the towpath between cyclists and pedestrians, all of which have concluded that despite the limited width there are relatively few problems. W

Urban sustainability

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Play streets, Hackney Council, Hackney Play Association

Biodiversity

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Woodberry Wetlands is a nature reserve and designated Site of Metropolitan Importance on the site of the East Reservoir in Stoke Newington, Hackney. The site opened to the public for the first time in 200 years on 1 May 2016. Covering 4.5 ha (11 acres) and situated close to the Lee Valley, Woodberry Wetlands was acquired as a nature reserve in 2014. The site is owned by Thames Water and run by London Wildlife Trust. W

Open spaces

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Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Hackney, (category) W

News archive

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  • News The London solar project slashing bills for vulnerable residents, positive.news (Nov 03, 2025)
  • News Rewilding sees animals rebound in Hackney Marshes, BBC News (Feb 21, 2025)
  • News ‘I call it botanarchy’: The Hackney guerrilla gardener bringing power to the people, theguardian.com (Sep 28, 2023)
  • News ‘Real’ public engagement must be prioritised for path to net zero to succeed, climateoutreach.org (Sep 05, 2023) — the UPPER Coalition Reports include examples of successful co-designing and collaboration with local citizens, including Camden Think & Do’s programme, Kendal’s Climate Jury, and initiatives in Hull and Hackney
  • News Amazon's e-cargo bikes and walkers to eat into London carbon footprint, newatlas.com (Jul 04, 2022)
  • News More flowers, fewer cars: the rewilders turning parking spaces into parks, The Guardian (Jun 22, 2022) — Across the UK and Europe, the ‘parklet’ movement is gaining pace, transforming dead spaces where cars used to be into pockets of green
  • News Now Building On Planet A, Alternative Editorial (Apr 03, 2022)

Community food systems should be part of the new normal – here's why, New Economics Foundation, Apr 26, 2021...neweconomics.org

Community parklets: Locals invited to apply as council reopens trial programme, Aug 7, 2019...@hackneycitizen

  • This firm is launching the UK's first energy trading community in Hackney, Nov 22, 2017...@CityAM
  • We Went To London's First Zero Waste Shop And This Is What We Found, Sep 13, 2017...sourced.huffingtonpost.co.uk
  • Campaigners demand 'mini Holland' in Hackney after Walthamstow success, Nov 11, 2016...@hackneycitizen
  • Pedal power: kids set world record for annual Bike Around the Borough, Jul 8, 2016...@hackneycitizen
  • Theatre's green dream boosted by cash for carbon-neutral heating, October 22, 2015...hackneycitizen.co.uk
  • Hackney estate's solar project starts 'community energy revolution', October 6, 2015...hackneygazette.co.uk
  • The Edible Map of Hackney, August 30, 2010...Mikey Tomkins

About Hackney

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The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough in Inner London. Hackney is bounded by Islington to the west, Haringey to the north, Waltham Forest to the north-east, Newham to the east, Tower Hamlets to the south-east and the City of London to the south-west. Hackney was one of the host boroughs of the London Olympics in 2012, with several of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park venues falling within its boundaries. W

Page data
Keywords London borough, Library of things
SDG SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 2 pages link here
Redirects Hackney, Hackney community action
Views 55 page views (analytics)
Created March 8, 2014 by Phil Green
Last edit March 27, 2026 by Phil Green
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