Region: Edinburgh and Lothians

A simple social gathering with facilitators where we can talk about our thoughts and feelings about the climate emergency.

A Climate Café is an opportunity to give ourselves time to sit, perhaps with a hot drink and a slice of cake, and describe our thoughts and feelings about the crises of our ecology.

Climate Cafés are bounded by confidentiality although they are not therapy sessions. We invite you to take part in a warm, hospitable, facilitated conversation where you can reflect on your and others’ feelings without being bounced into action. This is one way of coping with the challenges facing us all.

This Climate Café will be held every second Wednesday of the month at the Salisbury Centre, an inclusive community space just east of the Meadows in Edinburgh. Tea and hot drinks will be available from the Salisbury Centre’s kitchen (small donation suggested), and the facilitators will provide some biscuits and snacks. You are welcome to bring your own too!

More about Climate Cafés

The focus of discussion is participants’ thoughts and feelings about the climate and ecological crisis. There are no guest speakers and no talks, and it is an advice-free zone. You can find out more about it here.

This event is free and anyone aged 18 years and over, from any background, is warmly welcome. Please feel free to share the event with your friends and family.

There is a limit on numbers to ensure space for discussion. If all the spaces are full please do join the waitlist or register your interest in future sessions by writing to us at [email protected].

Milan will be arranging a swap shop, a community-based event where people can bring their pre-loved clothes and exchange them with others. It will provide an opportunity for people to refresh their wardrobes without spending money and promotes sustainable fashion practices by encouraging the reuse of clothing items.  Can come along with families and friends, and have fun, by swapping clothes and accessories.

Milan Senior Welfare Organisation develops and delivers provisions for 50 older people from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi & Mauritian Communities in Edinburgh & Lothian which meet their social, cultural, recreational, language and care needs.

Climate change can often seem like an insurmountable problem, with daunting challenges facing us at every turn. But what if we started focusing on the aspiring narratives of a just and sustainable future? 

Welcome to our event promoting Utopian Futures – a vision of a better world that we can all work towards, together. 

Join us on Monday, June 12th to imagine a future where things turn out okay. During the day, drop in and enjoy artwork, visit with local organizations, play some games, and get creative telling others about the future you imagine. There will also be coffee and pastries! 

Drop In Time is from 1:00pm – 5:00pm

In the evening, watch a live play of a table-top game by experts followed by a long-table discussion on imaginative and practical steps we can take towards building a better world. You will have a chance to play along as you watch and join the discussions as well. All of us play a role in facing and surmounting the challenges ahead. 

Game & Long-Table Discussion is from 5:30pm – 7:00pm

We hope that you will leave this event inspired to take actionable steps towards becoming a good ancestor to future generations. By shifting the narrative towards a positive/hopeful future, we, as individuals, are challenged to imagine what’s possible and strive to take action towards a more just and sustainable future. 

About the Game:

The evening will consist of experts (and the audience) playing a table-top game, Solarpunk Futures, to engage them in a process of visionary social storytelling around the collective struggle required to win our utopia. The game employs backcasting in a “Festival of Remembrance”, whereby Assemblies for the Future play for 45 minutes from the perspective of a future utopia in which they collectively “remember” how their Ancestors utilized Tools and Values to overcome a real-world Challenge.

Join us for ‘The Green Lie’, directed by Werner Boote (2018). Length: 93 minutes.

Watch the film at leisure from the comfort of your own home, on the evening of Sunday 11th or on Monday 12th June, via private online video channel (access details will be sent by email to registered participants). Then join the post-screening discussion at 8pm on Monday 12th June (online via Zoom).

The conversation will be led by Isobel, one of our Young Humanist Scotland Ambassadors.

‘Environmentally-friendly electric cars, sustainably-produced food products, fair production processes….Can our purchasing power help save the world?’

In this tongue-in-cheek two-hander, Austrian director Werner Boote and German author Kathrin Hartmann meticulously unpick some of the most prevalent ‘greenwashing’ myths at play today. They take viewers on a round-the-globe tour of corporate hypocrisy, to the sites of catastrophic environmental disasters and shocking land rights violations, all of which are harming humans, animals and the planet despite the glowing promises of effective self-regulation.

Far from disempowering, however, this exposé of our limited choice as ethical consumers reminds us that our power as individuals does not lie in our wallets but in our actions and behaviours as voters, citizens, and members of our communities.

Watch the trailer here.

Language: English, German with English subtitles.

This is one of a series of films we will be screening as part of our Take One Action Film Club, and everyone who shares our humanist values is very welcome to participate.  Take One Action believes small actions lead to big ones, and that we all make a difference. Connecting individuals through film, creativity and action – for a better world, starting from Scotland.

Knowing how our buildings manage energy, heat, moisture and air movement is fundamental to understanding energy efficiency and successful retrofit and improvement, without the risk of unintended consequences in the longer term. As part of the Climate Fringe, the Edinburgh Building Retrofit and Improvement Collective is proud to put on this hybrid event, with guest speaker Jon Stinson PhD, academic, researcher and Director of locally-based Building Research Solutions Ltd.

There will be an introduction to the Collective before a presentation from Jon on the principles of building physics as applied to successful, healthy, domestic energy efficiency retrofit, followed by a Q&A session. The aim is to give Edinburgh residents an overview of the technical fundamentals to help puzzle through energy efficiency and building performance uncertainties (but without the scary maths). By the end of the session you should, for example, understand the distinctions between unwanted draughts and essential ventilation, and why commonplace foam block internal wall insulation might not be a good idea for traditional (pre 1919) buildings in the city.

We want to help create an educated public able to:understand why energy efficiency is not as simple as blocking every draught and insulating everything;gather the information advisable for making informed decisions;understand when ‘obvious choices’ may benefit from careful consideration or expert advice;ask the right questions and understand when recommendations may be based on poor understanding or insufficient knowledge.

Every building is different and every tenement is more than a collection of independent flats. Fully informed choices on what best to do in a particular property require knowledge of the particulars of that property/building. Generic recommendations given without such knowledge (for example from telephone advice services) are not always the best advice, but individual detailed analysis and advice can be expensive. This presentation will help you advance more confidently.

Please note that because of the uniqueness of every case, the Q&A will not be a ‘surgery’ on what should be done in specific properties, but will answer more general questions and clarify any uncertainty about the technical issues described.

After the event, those present at the venue will be able to mingle and chat/discuss in order to make useful contacts and to meet some of the team behind the Edinburgh Building Retrofit and Improvement Collective. The Collective wants people to be better informed and more confident in considering the issues, as well as to encourage individuals to work in community groups in order to get better results, cheaper, more easily and with less stress.

The presentation will be recorded and made available for future reference. Online attendees will also be able to join the Q&A session.

The venue is not the easiest to find. Details are given on the Quaker Meeting House website: https://www.equaker.org.uk/locationThe Collective wishes to acknowledge the support of funding from the City of Edinburgh Council’s ‘Edinburgh Community Climate Fund’, thanks to the votes of residents of the city.

Join Carbon Copy and Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network (ECAN) at “Edinburgh Community & Climate Connect”. Taking place as Britain’s biggest sporting celebration of climate action and nature – Running Out of Time – reaches Edinburgh; this event will gather some of the city’s best eco-conscious voluntary organisations in the Life Church Hall, less than half a mile from beautiful Holyrood Park.

The event will kick off with a keynote presentation by none other than Dr Heather “The Weather” Reid OBE, former BBC Scotland weather reporter and passionate climate educator. You’ll also get an opportunity to learn more about Running Out of Time, and even to hold the baton!

You can:

• Learn more about different ways to make a difference in your community
• Meet other like-minded people
• Sign-up to volunteer with a brilliant local organisation or campaign
• Get inspired to take more collaborative action to fight climate change and protect the environment

Clean Air Day is the largest air pollution campaign in the UK – taking place on Thursday 15 June 2023.

 Clean Air Day helps to drive a positive shift in public knowledge and action. The day is a chance to find out more about air pollution, share information, and make our air cleaner and healthier for everyone.

The theme for the campaign this year is: Clean up our mind to look after your mind this #CleanAirDay.

 Cleaning up our air is good for us in many ways: it not only benefits our physical health and the environment but can also protect our mental and brain health. The physical health impacts of air pollution – such as asthma, heart disease and cancers – have been recognised for decades. More recently, researchers are beginning to understand how air pollution can affect the brain and the mind.

You can get involved by downloading our free Scottish resources here. We have everything you need to mark the day, such as a social media pack, event pack with posters, banners, and bunting, lesson plans activities for schools, content to help health professionals have conversations with patients about air pollution, and updated resources in Gaelic!

Whatever you do to celebrate Clean Air Day – please let Environmental Protection Scotland know by emailing [email protected]. Remember to also use the #CleanAirDay on social media and tag us at @EPScotland.

This is a unique interactive games night designed to build empathy with climate migrants and encourage discussion around resilience. No experience or preparation is necessary. Players will be led through imaginative scenarios and they can choose their responses and actions.Come along expecting to join in, the imaginative leg work is up to you! Expect a friendly, and thought-provoking evening. Find creative solutions, experience unexpected shifting circumstances and find strength in solidarity with your fellow players. This is a game we’re not playing against each other but with one another, and you might be surprised by how it turns out. You can’t choose the cards you’re dealt but you can choose how you play them. Ever wonder about the future? Well this might even give you a glimpse of what’s to come. Free to participate in, and open to all our members, supporters, and anyone who shares Humanist Society Scotland’s vision and values. This evening is part of the Climate Fringe Festival. Facilitated by Hazel Darwin-Clements, writer, podcaster, project co-ordinator, performer, puppeteer and theatre maker.

Fountainbridge Canalside Community Trust are pleased to be organising the Edinburgh Canal Festival for the second year running and bringing forward some of the traditional elements of past festivals together with some new partners, to make it a real celebration of social enterprise and local community groups that operate on or near the canal, year-round. We’re delighted this year to dedicate one of our zones as a ‘Climate Fringe’ event with a focus on climate and sustainability. Highlights include a pop-up clothes repair workshop from the Shrub Co-op and well as experts from Heriot-Watt University on hand to chat about Past Climates, and how they can help us find out about the massive contribution that tiny fossils have in unravelling past climate change. They have a special microscope to look at samples from the ocean floor as well as and local canal and some kids activities too. Also Hannah from the Edinburgh Seed Network will have some inspiring chat and activities about how important seeds are in building a regenerative culture! Outside the Bainfield Venue, on Fountainbridge Green, we’re delighted to host stalls from other partners including Rhyze Mushrooms and the Cargo Bike Movement!

Our Green Volunteers programme is for young people aged 12-18.  Take part in positive action for the environment, spend time in wild places, learn fire lighting and wilderness survival skills and meet new people. For those aged 14 you can complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award Volunteering or Skills sections. Explore some amazing wild places and get connected! 

Ticket sales close at 10am on the Thursday before each project date.

The sessions all run on a Sunday. Full details of the project will be sent the week prior.

• All sessions involve meeting on site at around 10.00am, pickup at 4.00pm, unless otherwise specified
• Cost of the day is £12, or £4 for low waged households. Please choose the option that is most appropriate for your financial situation. Free places are available; please email [email protected] for more information
• Participants should bring warm and waterproof clothing, a packed lunch and water.

A simple social gathering with facilitators where we can talk about our thoughts and feelings about the climate emergency.

A Climate Café is an opportunity to give ourselves time to sit, perhaps with a hot drink and a slice of cake, and describe our thoughts and feelings about the crises of our ecology.

Climate Cafés are bounded by confidentiality although they are not therapy sessions. We invite you to take part in a warm, hospitable, facilitated conversation where you can reflect on your and others’ feelings without being bounced into action. This is one way of coping with the challenges facing us all.

This Climate Café will be held every second Wednesday of the month at the Salisbury Centre, an inclusive community space just east of the Meadows in Edinburgh. Tea and hot drinks will be available from the Salisbury Centre’s kitchen (small donation suggested), and the facilitators will provide some biscuits and snacks. You are welcome to bring your own too!

More about Climate Cafés

The focus of discussion is participants’ thoughts and feelings about the climate and ecological crisis. There are no guest speakers and no talks, and it is an advice-free zone. You can find out more about it here.

This event is free and anyone aged 18 years and over, from any background, is warmly welcome. Please feel free to share the event with your friends and family.

There is a limit on numbers to ensure space for discussion. If all the spaces are full please do join the waitlist or register your interest in future sessions by writing to us at [email protected].

Our Green Volunteers programme is for young people aged 12-18.  Take part in positive action for the environment, spend time in wild places, learn fire lighting and wilderness survival skills and meet new people. For those aged 14 you can complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award Volunteering or Skills sections. Explore some amazing wild places and get connected! 

Ticket sales close at 10am on the Thursday before each project date.

The sessions all run on a Sunday. Full details of the project will be sent the week prior.

• All sessions involve meeting on site at around 10.00am, pickup at 4.00pm, unless otherwise specified
• Cost of the day is £12, or £4 for low waged households. Please choose the option that is most appropriate for your financial situation. Free places are available; please email [email protected] for more information
• Participants should bring warm and waterproof clothing, a packed lunch and water.