Groups

Burngreave Clean Air Campaign

Burngreave Clean Air Campaign is a community environmental group whose members are residents of Burngreave which aims to raise awareness about the illegal levels of air pollution in our part of Sheffield and to bring about changes to improve air quality. We regard air pollution as a public health emergency which kills 500 people in Sheffield alone each year. Air pollution has been linked to diseases as diverse as childhood asthma, maldevelopment of children’s lungs and brains, heart disease, diabetes, cancers, spread of viral infection and dementia. We monitor local air quality monthly.

Although we are a local group, we are aware that toxic air kills millions around the world each year and that it is closely linked to the climate emergency. Our emphasis is on working with local people by holding stalls at local festivals, fairs and on the streets, organising petitions and protests. We also cooperate with local schools and other organisations including Sheffield Climate Alliance. We work with our local councillors, MP and media outlets. We send out regular emailings to our supporters and also have Burngreave Clean Air Facebook page. We have supported a number of students from the University of Sheffield with their projects from the departments of planning and journalism. We support improvements to public transport and to active travel as means of reducing motor traffic which is responsible for most of the toxic fumes in our area. We are always pleased to hear from people in Burngreave and beyond and so we look forward to hearing from you!”

Climate Communications Hub

The Climate Communications Hub is a supportive and welcoming forum for people interested in developing their skills in communicating about climate change. We are a voluntary group whose aim is to encourage ‘climate conversations’ whether at college, at work, at home, or in public spaces.

CycleSheffield

We campaign for a cycle friendly Sheffield where anyone can choose to make their journey by bike. We want cycling to be inclusive and easy, not limited to the quick and the brave.

DECSY – Development Education Centre South Yorkshire

DECSY promotes education for a just and sustainable world. We are an independent and highly experienced development education centre working across South Yorkshire since 1984 to promote a global perspective in all levels of education. Global Learning is an approach to education that increases understanding of complex global issues and how these affect and are affected by our everyday lives. Global Learning seeks to encourage learners to look at the values of equality, human rights, justice and environmental sustainability. It uses active learning methods to promote enquiry and critical thinking skills and provide support and opportunities to develop non-violent problem-solving skills.

Volunteer roles include research for specific projects, project evaluation, developing teaching resources, fundraising. For a volunteer application form contact: info@decsy.org.uk

Extinction Rebellion Sheffield

We are a group of people in Sheffield taking part in the international Extinction Rebellion movement.

This is a group aimed at promoting non-violent direct action & civil disobedience for action on the climate & ecological crisis.

Actions include creative and dramatic demonstrations, protests, council lobbying, music, community democracy and rewilding projects.

Food Works

We are building a more fair and sustainable food system for Sheffield.

A third of all food produced globally is wasted. We don’t think that is right. It’s not good for people and it’s not good for the planet. We need to do better.

Our aim is to be the first city in the UK with zero food waste.

#ThinkGlobalActLocal

Every Mouthful Matters

• INTERCEPT: Our volunteers rescue surplus food from accross the region seven days a week.
• GROW: We grow sustainable produce right here in Sheffield.
• REPURPOSE: Groceries, meals and artisan products are available to all at our food hubs

Foodhall Project

We are a utopian food project, creating a space for open, public food sharing. We imagine alternative ways we can thrive together by creating food sharing economies, developing systems for cross societal engagement and hosting events and activities. We also have a food delivery project.

We are always looking out for new volunteers. Please fill out the volunteering form on our website.

Frack Free South Yorkshire

Frack Free South Yorkshire is a single issue community group set up in response to the threats posed by unconventional gas and oil extraction, often referred to  as extreme energy.

We are non political and welcome all members of our communities in the South Yorkshire Region and beyond.

It is our intention to organise and oppose unconventional Gas, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of rock, in South Yorkshire and beyond. Until regulations and guarantees are given to ensure that there will be no negative effects on our environment, livelihoods or health.

We support any organisation whose aims are to oppose any type of unconventional gas or oil exploration.

We call on the government to legislate to ensure that all companies involved in the business of unconventional gas extraction are required to carry out full environmental impact assessments prior to any exploratory drilling taking place.   

Volunteering Opportunities:

Maybe you know that almost the whole of South Yorkshire, including Barnsley is now licenced to be fracked, but do your neighbours?

Frack Free South Yorkshire (FFSY) are launching a new campaign to raise awareness of fracking in our region and we   want you to get involved.
“The biggest hurdle we face is raising awareness of the fracking licences that now cover people’s homes in South Yorkshire,” says David Burley of FFSY. “Many people don’t know that the government has granted licences to explore for shale gas in nearly every town and village in the region, as they weren’t consulted.

“We have printed 30,000 leaflets and would like people to help us to deliver them. You can do as little or as much as you like. We believe that people deserve to be informed and just delivering to your own street would help us to raise awareness.”

If you would like to get hold of some leaflets for your neighbourhood, local group, club, friends or family, please contact  

doyourstreet@gmail.com.

Friends of the Earth Sheffield

Friends of the Earth are part of an international community dedicated to protecting the natural world and the well-being of everyone in it.  Our national campaigning group leads campaigns, provide resources and information and promotes real solutions to the environmental problems facing us all.  

With the support of the national team, local groups, such as Sheffield Friends of the Earth, work collaboratively to address the climate, environmental and ecological issues facing our particular areas.

We are committed to 

• A peaceful and sustainable world based on societies living in harmony with nature
• Each generation enjoying an environment that’s getting better; a safer climate, abundant nature, healthy water, air and food.
• A growing and diverse network of people coming together to transform our environment into one which is flourishing, sustainable and socially just 

Join us to find out more about the issues that face us here in Sheffield and what we can all do to address these.  Any engagement, big or small, is welcomed! 

Sign up to our database here to keep updated, or check out our website and social media.

Good Food Barnsley

Building a better Barnsley where everyone has the right to the food they need to thrive.
Our aims are:
– Promote healthy and sustainable food to the public
– Tackle food insecurity and diet related ill health
– Build community food knowledge, skills and resources
– Promote a diverse and vibrant food economy
– Transform catering and food procurement
– Reduce waste and the ecological footprint of the food system

We are able to connect potential volunteers with local organisations with foodbanks, FareShare Yorkshire, and other organisations such as those working with youth groups and the elderly too across the borough of Barnsley.

Green New Deal UK, South Yorkshire

We’re building a movement for the Green New Deal – an ambitious national plan to tackle climate breakdown while creating a fair society that works for everyone. In the GND UK South Yorkshire hub, we’re committed to work collaboratively with people from diverse communities, groups and organisations across South Yorkshire to create a vision of what a Green New Deal would look like locally, and campaign together on the practical steps to make it a reality.

We are allied with and committed to the 5 principles of Green
New Deal UK, which works to:

1. Totally decarbonise the economy of the United Kingdom within 10 years

2. Create millions of new well-paid, secure, unionised jobs across the country

3. Transform our economy so the financial system serves the needs of people and planet, with an accountable and democratic government in the driving seat.

4. Protect and restore vital habitats and carbon sinks, including forests and wild areas, and ensure the provision of clean water, air, green spaces and a healthy environment for all.

5. Promote global justice by supporting all peoples and countries to decarbonise quickly and fairly, in line with timeframes set out by science.

GNDSY meet on alternate Wednesdays from 6-7.15 pm. We’d love new people to join so please email us greennewdealuksy@gmail.com or call Joan on 01142 498613

We collaborate to organise events and to lobby local politicians and institutions. New members are always welcome, bring your skills and connections whatever they are.

Sign up to our database for updates and to support GNDSY:
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/join-the-movement-for-a-green-new-deal-3?source=direct_link&

Read the report on our Feeding South Yorkshire event here.

Greener Practice

We are a group of GPs, medical students and others, who recognise that the climate crisis is the leading public health issue of our generation. The group’s aim is to engage our primary care community towards Greener Practice: actions that improve the health of both people and planet.

1. Improves health now – e.g. Active travel reduces air pollution and provides exercise related health benefits. Sustainable diets reduce chronic disease. Spending time in nature through green prescribing has known mental and physical health benefits.
2. Protects future health – e.g. through mitigating health threats from the climate crisis such as extreme weather events, heat stress, vector-borne disease, food shortage, air and water quality etc.
3. Reduces health inequalities  – The climate crisis disproportionately affects the poorest in society and so addressing it reduces this impact. Addressing fuel poverty is an example of where health inequalities and climate change are simultaneously addressed. Another example is through supporting community resilience.
4. Improves workload and costs – e.g. through improved patient health, reduced prescribing/procurement costs, reduced energy use.

Greentop Community Circus Centre

Our mission is to promote excellent circus that inspires young people, strengthens communities and develops artists.

Values that underpin all our work:

Quality: Just as we strive to hone incredible skills, we strive for quality in everything we do.

Participants: Circus is our passion, so we create and deliver it with care and appreciation of our participants and audience  

Sustainable: The Green in Greentop reflects our founders’ aspiration for working as part of a wider natural world. We are making a future where Greentop is financially, socially and environmentally sustainable.

Safe: We provide a safe space for people of all abilities take physical risks, be ambitious and innovative

Collaborative: We work collaboratively – reaching out across the city, across artforms, activities, cultures and sectors.

Volunteering

As a charity, Greentop is always looking for volunteers, and this is a great way to develop yourself. You can volunteer in rigging equipment, sound engineering, lighting, event organising, working with children, work in the community, running a charity, marketing, admin and more.

If you would like to explore further how you could join our volunteers please contact info@greentop.org

Heeley City Farm

Heeley City Farm is a busy Urban Farm with 20 Local Food Growing Project Sites across Sheffield. Volunteers learn about organic growing and promote sustainable farming methods. Our 150 animals are all registered Rare Breeds, and our land management projects promote biodiversity and the protection and enhancement of natural assets and green spaces.

Our Energy Centre on site promotes Renewable Technology and sustainable ways of heating our homes and saving energy, reducing carbon emissions. Our education and training programmes support 100+ learners a year, all carrying out practical work that tackle climate change.

We currently have around 125 volunteers doing gardening/food growing, help in our Garden Centre/Plant Nursery, help our Health and Wellbeing groups activity and show people around our Energy Centre. We have 12 different volunteer roles registered with Voluntary Action Sheffield’s VC Connect Database.

Hope for the Future

Over the past six years Hope for the Future has been working to equip communities, campaigners and groups across the country to communicate the climate emergency with their local politicians. 

Our vision is to see communities and their elected representatives across the UK come together to take decisive action on climate change. We have a proven track record of engaging with MPs from across party lines on the issue of climate change. 

If you want to see your MP and local council doing more to stop climate change, we are here to support you. Whether you are a seasoned activist or someone who has never engaged with politics before, we exist to help you effectively communicate the climate emergency with decision-makers across the UK. We support anyone from climate campaigners, academics, faith communities, local groups, NGOs and individuals to have their voices heard on climate change.

Volunteers can enquire here: HFTF Volunteer Enquiry Form (google.com)

Opus Independents

Opus believes we can live in a place where everyone works to make things better for each other. ‘Better’ to us means fair, diverse, accessible, independent and heard.

We work with a cross-section of independent, community and voluntary sector organisations whilst directly reaching over 150,000 people a year through live events, broadcasting and publishing in Sheffield and beyond.

Opus projects connect us to each other and to music, arts, culture, ideas, action and conversations that will make change. They broadly sit under four headings: Community Media, Active Citizenship & Participatory Democracy, Independent Trade & Local Economies, and Transformative Arts Experiences.

We are passionate about supporting ‘upstream’ solutions to social, political, economic and environmental concerns. We recognise that this is a long-term and systemic approach to social change — that’s why we create platforms which champion social causes, independent businesses, not-for-profits, emerging talent, active citizenship and community participation.

Opus pus also incubates campaign groups which we believe have the potential to radically change the world we live in for the better, like UBI Labs; undertakes research projects in collaboration with other third sector organisations, like Cohesion Sheffield; and holds organisational trustee and board positions with Voluntary Action Sheffield, Cohesion Sheffield, Sheffield Climate Alliance  and Healthwatch Sheffield.

Regather

Regather is a community food business working to create a values based community food system, where land is more productive, food is fair & better quality, money is retained in the local economy, health & environment are improved and people are involved with how their food system, from local to global, can be changed for the better.

If you are interested in volunteering, please email info@regather.net outlining your skills, interests, how much time you would like to make available and your contact details and we will get back to within a 5-10 days. Thanks.

River Stewardship Company

A social enterprise that engages and connects with volunteers, communities and schools through a programme of activities linked to commercial contracting work that improves the ecology, accessibility and flood resilience of waterways and landscapes in the Sheffield region.

Inspiring, Empowering and Connecting Communities.

Riverlution is a programme of activities, delivered by River Stewardship Company, to engage and connect with volunteers, communities and schools. We deliver events and offer skills and support to enable people to enhance their local waterways. This doesn’t just contribute to the environmental legacy we strive for – it creates lasting connections between people and the places that matter to them.

Rotherham Climate Action

Whether it’s recycling or signing a petition, everyone has their own journey on making a difference.

We aim to give you the tools and motivation to do so in order for our planet to become a better place for future generations through local action.

Get in touch via the links below to find out how you can get involved.

Schools’ Climate Education South Yorkshire

Learning for a sustainable future.

We support students, teachers and schools on their climate education journey. From reducing carbon emissions in their school to moving on in society as active citizens with respect for the world environment.

Schools’ Climate Education South Yorkshire (SCESY) is a voluntary group, set up in the summer of 2019 to organise schools’ conferences in the South Yorkshire region around the central theme of the climate emergency.

One of the concerns highlighted by studies and surveys was that the curriculum, particularly in the secondary school sector, needed reforming to properly reflect the climate emergency. The purpose of these conferences is to raise the profile and celebrate the work of schools in addressing the climate emergency.

If you would like to volunteer, please email admin@scesy.org.uk – let us know about your relevant skills, knowledge or interests, how you would like to get involved and your contact details. Thank you.

Sheffield Greenpeace

Who we are – a movement of people who are passionate about defending the natural world.

Our vision – a greener, healthier, and more peaceful planet, one that can sustain life for generations to come.

Our mission – tackling the Climate Emergency, defending biodiversity, and fighting the causes of environmental destruction.

Our campaigns – Food & Forests, Protect the Oceans, Sustainable Transport, Renewable Energy and Green Recovery.

Work with us – to bring about change by:
• Education through our Speaker Programmes and Events
• Petitioning and lobbying politicians and institutions
• Raising Awareness at local Events
• Taking peaceful direct action
• Raising Awareness at local Events Volunteers assemble climate action starts right here, right now!!

We have many different volunteer roles available.

Political Lobbying Network – contacting local MPs and councillors
Events Coordinator – organising local events
Welcome Coordinator – recruiting and retaining new members
Social Media Coordinator – managing and publicising our platforms
Local Press Coordinator – managing press releases
Street/Online Campaigner – promoting our campaigns
Speaker – giving online and in person presentations

We provide full training and support for all the above roles.

Sheffield Renewables

Sheffield Renewables was formed by a group of volunteers in late 2007. We are committed to improving Sheffield’s environmental sustainability. We aim to harness local enthusiasm, knowledge and skills by creating an energetic and committed social enterprise. We want to fund, develop, own and operate renewable energy schemes in a way which brings benefits to both the city and its people.

You may already have noticed that change is in the air. All sorts is happening; whether it is to do with transport, buildings, energy, food or lifestyles. Some changes are small, others are big – but together they add to a growing momentum, driving Sheffield towards a low carbon future.

There are many ways for us all to play our part. Getting involved with Sheffield Renewables as a volunteer, supporter or and investor are just some of them.

We have a strong volunteer ethos. We benefit enormously from the enthusiasm, commitment, skills and experience of our volunteers. In return we offer interesting, challenging and rewarding opportunities for local people with different backgrounds, abilities and experience.

Volunteer opportunities are currently limited, but you can enquire here for more information: Volunteering at Sheffield Renewables – Sheffield Renewables

ShefFood – Sheffield’s Food Partnership

ShefFood is the Sustainable Food Places member and cross-sector food partnership for Sheffield – working towards a more sustainable food system for Sheffield & South Yorkshire.

If you would like to volunteer, please email info@sheffood.org.uk outlining your skills, interests, how much time you would like to make available and your contact details and we will get back in touch within 5-10 days. Thank you.

South Yorkshire Fossil Free

South Yorkshire Fossil Free! (SYFF!) is a local campaign group and part of the global Fossil Free movement. Our aim is to persuade public bodies in South Yorkshire to divest their holdings in fossil fuel companies and to reinvest that money in green technologies and investments that promote a green recovery, using a mix of lobbying and creative actions.

Since 2014 we have been targeting South Yorkshire Pension Authority (SYPA) which holds funds in excess of £9 billion – about 5% of the fund is in fossil fuels and mining companies. In September this year SYPA made the exciting announcement that they will become carbon neutral by 2030, the first major UK fund (or is it the first UK local government pension fund?) to make that commitment. So our aim now is to monitor and encourage SYPA’s progress in reducing its carbon exposure and to work with activists targeting the other pension authorities in the Border to Coast Pension Partnership (BCPP) of which SYPA is a member.

During lockdown, we are meeting online via Zoom. We are a friendly group and welcome new members – if you are interested in joining us, or simply keeping up-to-date via our emails (not frequent we promise!) please get in touch on the email address below. And don’t forget to have a look at, and like, our Facebook page too.

STAG – Sheffield Tree Action Groups

5,500 of Sheffield’s street trees have been chopped down in the last five years – another 12,000 will go over the next 20 years.

STAG is a non-party political ‘umbrella-group’ of local tree action groups that have sprung up citywide. Healthy trees are being ‘replaced’ as part of the ‘Streets Ahead’ highways PFI contract, run by Amey Plc on behalf of Sheffield City Council.

Although renewing street trees is vital work, to cut down so many in such a short space of time is ecological vandalism. What we want is an expert-led approach to the management of the city’s street trees, for the long-term benefit of Sheffield’s people and our natural environment.

Help save Sheffield’s ‘urban forest’ – say ‘no’ to felling healthy trees.

Read more about getting involved here: Get involved | STAG – Sheffield Tree Action Groups (savesheffieldtrees.org.uk)

Sustrans

We’re the charity making it easier for people to walk and cycle.

We are the nations leading advocate for active travel. We believe in a society where the way we travel benefits our health and the environment. We lead by example and inspire others to adopt an active travel lifestyle. We have a strong active travel culture requiring all our staff to use sustainable forms of transport.

Sustrans is a national organisation, but you can view their Yorkshire-based volunteering opportunities here: Volunteer vacancies – Sustrans.org.uk

The Bare Project

The Bare Project is a theatre and interactive arts company, happily based in Sheffield. We have been making work together since 2012. Our form changes: sometimes it’s a script and a stage, other times an installation and, at other times, a conversation. But right now we’re thinking about planting trees. We’re worried, but trying to keep it light. We’re reaching out a hand.

Often our work is co-created with communities, outside traditional theatre spaces, and we have performed in workhouses, empty shops, in Victorian factories and along canals. Often our work is informed by ideas and research from philosophy, psychology and politics (…maybe because two of our core team members are also social scientists). How we approach each new piece, in terms of where it might take place, its form, and potential collaborators, are always informed by the themes and questions posed by the project.

Waste Less South Yorkshire

We provide advice and guidance for people across South Yorkshire about all things recycling and waste reduction. We are a passionate bunch ready to provide simple, yet innovative solutions to reduce food waste at home.

We aim to promote recycling across South Yorkshire, encourage a reduction in leftover household waste and save people money!

Get in contact here: Contact the team | Wasteless South Yorkshire (wasteless-sy.co.uk)