Our Purpose

Sussex Green Living educates and inspires ordinary people to live an environmentally sustainable life. We provide ideas and facilitate initiatives that have a positive impact on our planet and our pocket.

What We Do

Sussex Green Living is a multi award-winning charity that provides a network and facilitates initiatives for the benefit of our local community and the planet.  We provide ideas that prove living an environmentally friendly lifestyle, respecting nature and reducing that all important carbon footprint is exciting, energising, saves you money and helps provide more peace of mind to live and enjoy a sustainable future.

We are passionate about connections, communications and education to inspire and empower Sussex people, consumers, communities and businesses to live green, play green and work green.

Our Values

We believe in all living species and are committed to helping ensure they have the opportunity to continue to thrive on planet Earth.

We believe no one is too small to make a difference so we encourage lifestyle changes that will improve the environment for all.

We personally endeavour to reduce our own negative impact on the planet.

We encourage others to respect the planet and to understand how aspects of human behaviour have damaged the environment in which we live.

Our Outreach Initiatives

Sussex Green Hub

A self-funding centre that brings together diverse groups and individuals in the local community to build solutions, relationships and resilience in the face of the Climate Emergency. It is on the last Saturday each month and home to our Horsham Repair Café where volunteers repair electronics, household items and clothes. There is a cleaning product and personal hygiene bottle refill shop, recycling display and advice, plus other local groups.

School & Youth Education

Our education programme focuses on solutions that both individuals and local communities can take with a clear path to sustainable, resilient and thriving futures. We support this with assemblies, lessons, workshops, full roadshows and mentoring for eco councils.

Our Youth Eco Forum, for 14-21 year olds, work on projects and activities in the world of sustainability, to learn, get inspired and take action.

Our programmes address the issue of eco-anxiety amongst young people by offering solutions and actions that can be taken.

Recycling Initiatives

In West Sussex, we recycle 53% kerbside recycling, above the national average of 44% and we believe much of that increase is due to the services we provide.

We have 18 recycling drop off locations across Horsham and the local villages allowing residents to recycle more than just what the local council collects. The ‘army’ of volunteers that work with us in these villages also help residents with council and supermarket recycling advice.

Adult and Community Knowledge Sharing

We offer talks, advice and carbon literacy training to adult groups, councils and businesses.

We regularly attend public community events with a stand, in 2021 we launched our mobile environmental stand (retrofitted 1974 milk float) which sometimes goes out as part of our bigger environmental roadshow. We also have the capability to visit local parishes with a pop-up recycling, repair cafe and refill station.

Mentoring

In 2012, Carrie set up the Terracycle single-use plastic recycling drop off at Wakoos Nursery in Billingshurst and over the last 10 years has supported many of the villages, towns and schools in Sussex to set up single-use plastic recycling drop off sites.

We opened the first Repair Cafe in West Sussex (Horsham Repair Cafe) in 2017 and Jill and Carrie have mentored and supported the development of many other local repair cafes as well as Climate Action Hubs across Sussex.

Collaboration

Working with Horsham Community Fridge, Transition Horsham, Horsham Eco Churches and Community Energy Horsham at our monthly Green Hub allows us to engage with a wide group of people and signpost them to other related environmental and money saving local initiatives.

We actively promote Cost of Living initiatives like Warmer Homes for Horsham District Council and UK Food Harvest for West Sussex County Council through our outreach programmes in the community and schools.

Our Impact to Date

214

School
Education
Days

2.91

Tonnes diverted from
landfill through
Repair Cafe

43,039

Tonnes of
single-use plastic
recycled

Our Aspirations

We have a vision of a future which looks positive, yet very different from today, as communities can be supported to develop thriving village hubs which may involve repair cafes, men’s sheds, exchanges of clothes, books or seeds or even planting community allotments and orchards.

We want to bring a hub just like this to the high street of Horsham.

Building on the success of the monthly pop-up, Sussex Green Hub, we want to establish a Community Climate Hub in Horsham and a number of satellite hubs across West Sussex. The Hub will be open 6 days a week offering support and advice to residents as well as money saving initiatives to reduce our impact on the planet.

Where it all began

When founder, Carrie Cort’s son was 4 years old, she became more and more aware of the damage humans are doing to our planet and the impact this will have on our children. Every country in the world is failing to shield children’s health and their futures from intensifying ecological degradation, climate change and exploitative marketing practices.

Children in the biggest carbon-emitting nations are healthiest, while those with tiny environmental footprints suffer twofold from poor health and living at the sharp end of the climate crisis.

The solutions are all around us. Whether at home, work, school, or while you travel, small changes can add up. We need to make lifestyle changes and take action as individuals, businesses, local and central Government. And that is when Sussex Green Living was born, initially creating a network of families on a greening journey together that has now evolved into Sussex-wide community initiatives and passionate changemakers helping and educating people across the county make a positive impact on our planet for future generations.

About our Founder, Carrie Cort

Carrie’s passion for the natural world and concern for her young son’s future led her to set up Sussex Green Living in 2012.  Since then she trained as a West Sussex County Council Waste Prevention Advisor in 2012.  Then in 2016 she has become a Climate Reality Leader trained by ex US vice president Al Gore and climate specialists.  As a passionate and engaging speaker and workshop leader she is in great demand from schools and community organisations.

Carrie says “I’m just an ordinary person who is on a greening journey and wanting to pass on what I’ve learnt to others.  Let’s all make some simple changes, become more resilient and try to lead simpler, less materialistic and consumerist way of life”.

Organisations and Trusts that Support Us