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St Peters CoE playground
School
Reducing Waste
Published: 25/06/2025
News
Spring Term sees School Shops bubbling with business

The sun has been shining at the start of Spring term for our second wave of 15 School Eco Refill Shops across Greater Manchester, helping them to open their shops in school playgrounds and create a real buzz for their small business.

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Visit to Octopus, busy room
Energy
Published: 25/06/2025
News
Planning for heat pumps with Octopus and MCS

With recent updates to national heat pump policy and guidance, planners from across Greater Manchester came together to discuss the updates, share best practice and unlock barriers to heat pump deployment.

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Snippet Chicken Coop Parohial Primary School
School
Reducing Waste
Published: 24/06/2025
News
Schools across Greater Manchester awarded eco grants to champion climate action

Young people will be at the forefront of sustainability projects as 29 schools across Greater Manchester receive grants of up to £2,000 for climate and waste reduction initiatives. The scheme, launched in October 2024, aims to empower pupils to bring their eco-ideas to life and drive real change within their communities.

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People behind the Wellington School project
Energy
Solar PV
Published: 24/06/2025
News
GMCR 2025 – Community Solar Share Offer

Greater Manchester Community Renewables (GMCR) has launched a share offer to raise £250,000 by 20 July to fund solar arrays on 3 schools and a leisure centre, find out more…

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A person is dispensing liquid from a pump dispenser into a clear glass bottle.
Reducing Waste
Published: 16/06/2025
News
Celebrate World Refill Day and help shape a more sustainable Greater Manchester

World Refill Day is a global campaign led dedicated to tackling plastic pollution by making it easier for people to live with less waste.

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Manchester City centre sky shot
Homes & Workplaces
Published: 10/06/2025
News
A practical guide to learning for decarbonisation at the city-level

GMCA co-funded PhD Researcher Harry Barton, has published a tool for empowering city decision-makers for city-level decarbonisation based on her work with the GMCA Low-Carbon Team

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Bryony O'Connor stood next to Bolton Waste Vehicle
Reducing Waste
Published: 10/06/2025
News
Bolton Communities Helping to Reduce Food Waste

The Bolton Food Waste Toolkit is a community-inspired and designed toolkit that is the end product of two years of development and testing out in the community. The idea originated from ‘how can we bring communities together around climate change’ as part of Bryony O’Connor’s PhD.

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Aerial view of Manchester cityscape with modern skyscrapers, mid-rise buildings, rail tracks, and ongoing construction.
Environment
Published: 06/06/2025
News
Greater Manchester named on 2024 CDP Cities ‘A List’ for climate action

Greater Manchester has been recognised as one of the top-performing cities in the world for environmental transparency and action, earning a place on the 2024 CDP Cities A List.

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NW Energy Effiiciency Awards Team Photo
Retrofit
Homes & Workplaces
Published: 21/05/2025
News
GMCA Retrofit Team Win Regional Award

Representatives from the GMCA Environment Team, scooped up the ‘Regional Council or Local Authority Body of the Year’ at the North West Energy Efficiency Awards 2025 for the second year running!

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DETERMINER Team Photo
Retrofit
Homes & Workplaces
Published: 21/05/2025
News
DETERMINER Project Launch

DETERMINER is an ambitious EPSRC/IAA knowledge exchange project delivered in collaboration with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA) focusing on lowering the embodied carbon footprint of home retrofitting and new build homes projects.

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A group of people stands smiling behind a table filled with freshly harvested vegetables in a vibrant community garden.
Nature
Published: 12/05/2025
News
Mayor’s nature fund looking for more great green ideas in Greater Manchester

The latest round of the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s ‘Green Spaces Fund’ has re-opened for applications. 

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Open Homes Event 2025
Retrofit
Homes & Workplaces
Published: 30/04/2025
News
Open Homes Event 2025

Sign-up for the Your Homes Better Open Homes Event 2025 – Saturday 28th June.

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Take action…

To make a big change, we must all take small actions. Becoming greener and making an impact is easier than you might think. We have put together a range of blogs, articles, toolkits and checklists to help you make a start.

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Although we set out with a simple mission to reduce plastic waste, we’ve quickly realised that it’s just one piece in the sustainability puzzle. One of the biggest, but most easily attainable actions we can achieve is to look at where our goods come from and reduce the carbon footprint needed to get a product from manufacturer to consumer. Many of the products we stock are made by local, independent manufactures, who provide us with a wide range of things from reusable face wipes, wax food wraps, face coverings, soap bars, plant pots, kitchen cloths/sponges and butty bags.

Carl from Lentils and Lather

Our aim is to start changing the habits of families in Greater Manchester by getting them to ‘borrow’ rather than ‘buy’ brand new toys. We’re making sure that toys can be reused again and again by children who need and want them – and they are not just sitting in a cupboard or under someone’s bed.

Kim from That Toy Thing

The best part of upcycling is that old furniture is often better made than the equivalent flat-packed furniture we get today and with a little bit of time, love and care, you can create a completely unique piece of furniture for your home that no one else will have. I also love that these pieces of furniture have a history of their own and through transforming and updating them we can breathe a new lease of life into them.

Hannah from Tread Softly

The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is providing a further boost to the ambitions of the Great Manchester Wetlands Partnership to create a thriving, inspirational and connected landscape. It supports the recovery of wildlife through habitat creation and improvement as well as community recovery through providing opportunities for local people to develop skills, knowledge and beneficial connections to their local natural environment.

Jo Kennedy, Coordinator of the Great Manchester Wetlands Partnership

The reason I signed up to the Green Homes Grant scheme was two-fold, selfishly the measures will add value to the properties and make them more valuable in the future. But more importantly it benefits the tenants, keeping them warmer and prevents problems like damp and condensation. Ultimately measures like external wall insulations should keep tenants happier and ensure they remain in the house for longer.

Neil, Rochdale property owner

We used to think we didn’t have enough time to shop on our local market because we were working; how wrong we were?  We discovered it is an amazing place to shop for plastic free. We swapped tea bags for tea leaves and coffee jars for beans which we buy from The Market Grounds on Ashton Market – well worth a visit as the homemade cakes are delicious. All the stall holders have been amazing, not one of them minds us taking our containers to be filled with meat from the butchers. We get our bread, cheese, fruit and veg from the market too.

Julie from Ashton-under-Lyne

Kat Mulhall, Events Manager at Victoria Baths Trust in Manchester

Although becoming carbon neutral is important to our organisation, it’s a lot of work for a small team to put the measures into place. The Journey to Net Zero course has given me practical, step-by-step advice that has made it easy for me to lay the foundations for our organisation to be able to take action and achieve our goal of becoming carbon neutral.

Kat Mulhall, Events Manager at Victoria Baths Trust in Manchester

Kat Mulhall, Events Manager at Victoria Baths Trust in Manchester

The Business Growth Hub has given us focus and extra knowledge. They’ve helped us form the base to grow sustainably and work efficiently as a team while making us conscious of our environmental impact as a business.

 

Ollie Birchall, Founder of Nutri Bar

I’ve not really been a cyclist throughout my life, more of a runner to be honest. And certainly not commuted. But I just thought if I’m going to change, surely now is the moment to change. I’m feeling the personal benefits of doing it. You just feel better when you come into work. It clears your head. There are benefits of cutting congestion, cleaning up the air. Everyone benefits when people cycle.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester

We think our water fountain is INCREDIBLE, it’s the perfect place for people to ‘refill’ and help themselves to any of the free edibles we’ve got growing in Market Place. We’re so grateful to all the organisations that helped make this happen. Alongside the plastic free motion that was passed by council and helped us achieve our first Surfers Against Sewage objective and in turn our Plastic Free Community status, it shows real commitment in reducing plastic waste and supporting our community.

 

Pete Fillery, Plastic Free Rammy and Incredible Edible Ramsbottom

I guess I’ve always been what you would call a conscious consumer. I’ve always detested plastic bags, all of my skin care products at home are plastic-free, vegan, and sustainable. My toothbrush is made of bamboo, there’s no plastic anywhere in the house. Everything in the salon has to be vegan – that was the first rule for me. We started with one brand of haircare products that was vegan, organic, and Fairtrade, but the distributor in the UK was wrapping all of the deliveries in plastic, and it felt really needless, so we ditched them.

 

Rachael, Gronn eco-salon in Bury

Although becoming carbon neutral is important to our organisation, it’s a lot of work for a small team to put the measures into place. The Journey to Net Zero course has given me practical, step-by-step advice that has made it easy for me to lay the foundations for our organisation to be able to take action and achieve our goal of becoming carbon neutral.

 

Kat Mulhall, Victoria Baths Trust, Manchester

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