He helps run an “Eco-Check” scheme at school, visiting classrooms at lunchtime to check which teachers have turned off lights and computers and measuring the power consumption. This check is followed up with a name and shame at school assemblies, whilst good teachers are given certificates and encouragement to do more. There are awards for staff who have done the best, and booby prizes for those who have done badly.

At school, Zach is on the eco board, and has been involved in tree planting exercises, a project looking after sheep on school land and numerous other tasks. He also attends external events on the school’s behalf.

His mum is very supportive “the scheme is hilarious, whenever I go to parent night they’re petrified of him, dread him coming in – they know they’re being monitored. He’s not scared to come forward, he’s not scared of who he is. He has no qualms about standing up in assembly and naming and shaming the teachers.”

She said “He’s one of those kids, whatever he does to the max, he gives up his own time, puts his whole heart in to it. I’m really proud of him.”

Zach will be interviewed as a nominee for head boy, although some staff may not be so sure, his mum says “teachers tell me “we hate it when we see your son, it makes us worry!”

Looking to the future, Zach wants to emulate Richard Branson and start a travel company, albeit one with a twist. He wants to own his own eco travel company, ensuring that all his holidays are environmentally friendly.

She first came to Sussex from Sydney in 1992 and was horrified at the lack of recycling facilities and the ignorance surrounding waste. Thinking that it is better to be part of the solution rather than add to the problems – she has for years been promoting reuse. Since 2007 has voluntarily run and promoted an online community group (GreenCycleSussex, formerly BrightonFreecycle ™) that facilitates the reuse of unwanted goods amongst locals. Membership is currently about 16,000.

GreenCycleSussex is part of Freegle. Cat was integral in the creation of Freegle in 2009 and is an elected national representative. Freegle is a UK-based network of 252 local reuse groups with almost 1.1 million members-all giving and getting stuff for free thus reducing landfill fodder.

Cat voluntarily does the national Freegle promotion and has got the concept of “local free giving” featured on mainstream TV; local and regional radio; in local, national and international newspapers and magazines; and in every imaginable online site.

She is currently working on projects with WRAP, Lewes Priory School, and a national energy company and is busy setting up a nationwide Freegle group for music festival-goers. She has been invited to make a seminar presentation at the National Recycling Waste Management Conference – where she hopes to inspire Local Authority managers, corporate strategic planners and government officials to embrace and support community reuse initiatives like GreenCycleSussex.

Cat dreams of community composting and reuse becoming mainstream activities; and is always striving to help change attitudes and behaviours locally and afar – so we won’t need to build more incinerators in the future!

He started attending Eco Club because a friend did and says: “I didn’t really think much of eco stuff before I went but then I thought it was quite fun. There’s lots of digging and outdoor work, I like that. So I got into it a bit more and started going every week and now here I am.”

Liam’s affection for gardening and manual work has lead to a wider interest in sustainability. He is taking an environmental science GCSE and considering carrying it on to A Levels. Through the Eco Club he has attended parents evenings selling recycled paper notepads, raising £80 for the Brian Foster Centre of Environmental Education. He also runs two recycling-based games at the summer fair to help teach others about reusing and separating waste before chucking it in the bin. Liam is a member of the eco-committee, a student council working to improve the ecology around and sustainability of the school, and is the eco representative on the school council.

Environmental education co-ordinator Rob Sandercock says: “The eco club seems to have clicked for Liam as he has attended most weeks for the last four years. He has a dry and quirky sense of humour that has lifted my spirits on many a miserable day. He took on the recycled pad project as his own and spent a number of evenings selling them to parents at parents’ evening. He has also come to all the Woodland working days we have throughout the year and where he has actively helped manage the woodland.”

The community farm, now over 10 years old, is split into growing fields, woodland, gardens and a sales yard, with each part of the social enterprise acting as a hands-on training ground to help adults facing exclusion or barriers to independent living.

One of the most unique aspects of the venture is that it allows those involved to see their work, and the produce cultivated, through from plot to plate. Much of the food grown at Nourish’s farm is used as ingredients at the 20/20 café at the East Brighton Community Mental Health Centre, providing a rewarding working environment for its members and helping to cut down on food miles.

Work in the cafe, including everything from food preparation and menu planning to customer service, also counts towards vocational qualifications such as NVQs, offering service users a real leg-up for future employment opportunities.

A rightly popular venture, Nourish is well-connected within our local area, counting the Food Partnership Brighton and Hove (B&H), City College B&H and B&H Business Community Partnership among its partners, and seeks to give back to the community wherever possible.

Local businesses, which in the past have included American Express, The Argus and Ink Fish, are encouraged to use the farm for team-building exercises, inspiring better working practices through tasks that range from weeding to installing irrigation systems. And the Nourish team is currently creating a range of platters, sandwiches and snacks for meetings and events from locally grown and prepared food, sourcing as much of the ingredients as possible from within Sussex and the community farm.

www.nourishcic.co.uk

Firefly Solar powers many charitable, eco-friendly and free community-based events, demonstrating the benefits and versatility of solar power. They have worked with many organizations and events such as Brighton & Hove City Council, Gay Pride, Brighton Carnival and the Fringe Festival.

Firefly has proven that renewable power sources are a viable alternative to diesel, helping to change people’s behaviour and energy usage.  Every new project presents a different set of challenges which are resolved in-house. The company has developed a series of new generators and is constantly expanding and developing new products. Recently they have begun to offer a bespoke off-grid solar design division.

They have worked with NGO Computer Aid International to create a series of Solar Powered Cyber Cafes which are being distributed in Africa. These are fitted out within converted shipping containers and are fully insulated and furnished with electric lighting, desks, chairs and PCs, offering people in Africa who live without mains power or internet connectivity the chance to use the internet for the first time. The first of these Solar Cyber Cafes has recently been shipped to Zambia.

Other build projects include the conversion of East Sussex County Council’s Rethink Rubbish bus’ electrics to run on solar and the design and build of a mobile solar phone charging unit that provides a phone charging service for festivals with the profits going to charity partner Solar Aid.

www.fireflysolar.co.uk

The term Earthship refers to a building – typically a house – that is completely off grid. It has three main goals: to be built using sustainable and recycled materials; to rely only on natural energy sources; to be affordable to for the average person with no specialised skills to build.

The Stanmer construction is made from recycled car tyres in a rammed earth wall, and sustainably sourced timber. It has adobe walls. A large, south facing glazed area maximises passive solar gain, and a solar hot water system on the roof provides hot water. Electricity comes from solar PV and a wind turbine. All water is harvested from the rain, grey water is treated with planters and black water treated with a reed-bed system, and it is the only building in the country with a licence to turn grey water into drinking water. Composting toilets means all human waste can be dealt with sustainably.

It now acts as a community centre for all those working at Stanmer Organics, a venue for courses and it is available for hire for weddings or conferences. Monthly tours give everyone the opportunity to have a look around, learn about low carbon living and get inspired.

www.lowcarbon.co.uk/earthship-brighton

Over the years the challenges have been numerous, with each initiative taking huge effort and planning. The restoration of a signal box, for example, took a staggering seven years to complete.

The crowning glory of the whole project, however, is the Linklater Pavilion, a centre for the study of environmental change.

Placed at the entrance of the nature reserve, the £630,000 centre has been built through voluntary fundraising in difficult financial times.

The building itself has photovoltaic solar panels, a sedum roof, a ground source heat pump and it’s own water supply. It is built on stilts to withstand the frequent floods faced by the area, and using only local and sustainable materials.

It’s the planned usage of the building that is most inspiring, however. Named after the late Peter Linklater, who led a public inquiry into the proposed concreting over of the whole site, the pavilion will be a community centre for environmental education. It will allow the Railway Land Trust to continue their work preserving and researching the land as well as helping the local young people connect with their environment. It is to be an archive of transition from our current society to a more sustainable one. And it will act as a base for adults with learning disabilities to work alongside schools.

It’s creation has been no less than epic, with floods, delays, sewage works and even manpower pressures caused by the the 2012 Olympics seeing the cost of the project rise from an initial £250,000 for the first plan in 1997 to a whopping £750,000 in 2008.

John has been at the forefront from the beginning, driving the project with an iron will and keeping going where many would have given up. He says: “We are still fund-raising for fitting out but we expect to take possession of this magnificent building in mid June.”

www.railwaylandproject.org

Ann says: “I wanted to make big reductions in the carbon impact of our house, and couldn’t until we moved to Lewes. I wanted a plainer, more modern house also – the appearance is important. Moving to a smaller 1950s house enabled this. I want to make changes to prepare for peak oil and reduce climate change. I felt I had waited so long, and so wanted to do the maximum we could.”

The work on her house has taken around five years, although Ann has been active in environmental work for four times as long. Her overarching philosophy is to seek a balance between enjoying life and doing what seems logically required.

She says: “I don’t feel at all right if I sense my activity is seen as nagging, or if anyone feels guilty. I think we just have to be examples of getting on and doing things, and say why when asked.”

Energy saving measures in her house includes extensive insulating, glazing and draught proofing as well as a solar hot water and photovoltaic system, and the ultimate aim is to be zero carbon.

The conservatory was made using locally coppiced chestnut, which will regrow quickly and provides a sturdy, beautiful building material. The conservatory – or sun space – also acts as a heat sink, passively warming the rest of the house.

A wood burning stove helps the solar panels heat the water supply, and a rainwater recycling system has been installed to conserve the precious liquid.

Renovations came in at around £100,000, but Ann is very aware this isn’t within reach of many people. The house is an example of what is possible and what could be normal in the future. She says: “Enjoy life now. Have a vision for a good future. Keeping that in mind is better than dreading a bad one.”

The environmentally friendly cleaning company was set up just two years ago, but in that time it has grown into a busy, successful operation, showing that both business and ethics can exist side by side. Not only do books full of regular customers keep them busy but the Green Mop model is now being offered out as a franchise opportunity.

So how did the whole thing start? Racheal decided to leave her job in IT to do something completely different. When looking around for a new challenge, two thoughts happened to coincide. Unlike the rest of the housework-hating world, Racheal loves cleaning. She also began realising that, as an allergy sufferer, her symptoms were considerably relieved when she started using eco-friendly products. And as if by magic, Green Mop was formed.

Green Mop’s mandate means that everything they do is necessarily as environmentally friendly as possible. While other cleaning companies offer green cleaning as an option, at Green Mop it is standard – and there’s certainly no option for ungreen cleaning!

All employers get around on scooters, bicycles and on foot. Everything they take with them has to fit in a backpack, so regular customers know they must own larger items, like a vacuum cleaner or mop.

Racheal also runs a regularly updated blog offering information and advice on everything from keeping a greener home to thoughts on running an ethical company.

Find out more about Green Mop on their website

http://www.greenmop.co.uk/

A committed environmentalist, Richard could not bear to see such appalling waste on such a huge scale, so he started sowing the seeds of what became one of the UK’s first successful community recycling organisations; Brighton and Hove Wood Recycling Project.

Every day, B&HWRP’s team rescues around one tonne of timber from rotting in landfill, and then they go on to make wonderful things from the wood. Their shop – The Wood Store – is full of interesting items, some made from ‘waste’ wood, some funky second-hand items, all kinds of unusual, historic and beautiful pieces – plus good reusable timber that is simply useful, practical, and cheap.

B&HWRP is not only environmentally-focussed, it also provides a huge resource for training and work experience for disadvantaged people, offering a supportive environment to learn new skills and develop confidence, empowering and enabling people and helping them move onto gainful employment.

B&HWRP has also blazed a trail in social enterprise by helping create an informal social franchise, inspiring and assisting in the formation of 25+ further Wood Recycling Projects across the country, all saving resources and creating jobs.

This all sounds like the work of a large well-funded charity, but amazingly, it’s not. B&HWRP has a small team of long-standing, highly committed staff who keep the business running self-sufficiently – with no outside grants or funding – purely by hard graft and unwavering self-belief.

The results: a non-profit green business that’s innovative, sustainable and highly productive; offering great benefits to the community, the economy and the environment.

www.woodrecycling.org.uk