Repair, regenerate, revive! Communities across the Highlands and Islands have been coming together to learn how to repair their stuff. With consumption accounting for 26% of out total UK emissions every year (Office for National Statistics), repairing our old items rather than buying new is a great way to tackle climate change and save money. Read on to discover how the Repair Revolution is spreading across the Highlands & Islands and how the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub supports repairs.

Happy International Women’s Day to all women across the Highlands & Islands! The climate crisis is diverse, and needs a diverse effort to work towards a solution. Read our latest blog to meet the inspirational women who are trail blazing Climate Action across the Highlands!

Across Orkney, Jane and her team have created a network of community fridges to reduce food wastage and encourage a sense of community. The 3 fridges are located in Kirkwall, Stromness, and Dounby Primary School, so accessing a fridge is possible for the whole of Orkney. Throughout the day and evening, volunteers collect unused food from shops to stock up the fridges - they then weigh the food available each night and publicise this on their website. In a single night they can have over 100kg of food to share! By establishing community fridges across Orkney, Greener Orkney have created opportunities for sustainable eating with a community sense, and through this they spread the message of climate action, inspiring change.

In Thurso, Socially Growing is living up their name - community growing! At the heart of the town they have 2 Polycrubs which inside are thriving with different fruits, vegetables and even herbs. A team of volunteers maintain the greenhouses, and they have created a space not only for growing, but an inclusive space for anyone to get work experience or some green support. Socially Growing was works hand in hand with Thurso Community Development Trust, and the two work to ensure they are ‘ethically enterprising’, and keep the community at the centre of their roles. The greenhouses also support Socially Growing’s retail shop, which is filled with local produces and sustainably baked goods. By creating a welcoming space in Thurso for people to not only learn about growing food, but themselves too, they are accelerating progress.

Maree and her Polycrubs are showing their Shetland strength, by creating a growing facility durable enough to last even a Shetland winter. Polycrubs utilise waste pipe from the salmon industry; Maree and her team clean the pipes and upcycle them into create polycrub hoops, which are sent our with their kit to build a Polycrub. Polycrubs are popping up all across Scotland, allowing more people to grow their own food - increasing food security. The creation of Polycrubs have already saved over 100 miles of pipe from ending up in landfill - Maree and her team’s ingenuity is is inspiring.