Seed Harvesting
2025-10-22 13:00 - 15:30 UTC | Rowntree Park, Terry Avenue, York, YO23 1JQ
Join us for a series of fun, hands-on sessions exploring Rowntree Park’s wildflowers and pollinator plants. Learn how to collect, clean, and pack seeds while discovering their vital role in supporting bees, butterflies, and biodiversity. No experience needed — just bring enthusiasm and enjoy connecting with nature and community!
Ideally, the sessions will follow on from each other but can be done individually. Meet underneath the Rowntree Park Reading Café.
Donations accepted towards Friends of Rowntree Park – the charity that helps maintain and improve Rowntree Park.
Event suitable for ages 18+. Booking is required and can be done here.

York! Get to grips with the Planetary Boundaries @ Patch
2025-10-22 15:00 - 18:00 | Patch York, Terry Avenue, The Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, YO16FA, United Kingdom
Perhaps you’ve got your head around the climate crisis? Or the ecological crisis? It’s already a head scratcher.
The Stockholm Resilience Centre have identified 7 other earth systems that we need to be aware of. They call these “planetary boundaries.” They highlight the rising risks from human pressure on nine critical global processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth.
Explore them in this systemic and collaborative 3-hour workshop.
Suitable for ages 15+.
Booking is required and can be done here.

Nature in the City - Games to Grow Greener and Wilder Urban Spaces
2025-10-22 15:00 - 18:00 | Sustainability Clinic, Market Square, University of York, Sustainability Clinic, Market Square, University of York, York, YO105DD
Discover two innovative board games exploring nature’s place in urban life. Come experiment, discuss, and reflect on how small choices shape our shared environments:
Set in the city of Bangalore, India, Birds in the City helps you connect with nature and understand the links between urbanisation and bird diversity.
Set in the city of York, UK, Urban Labor-a-tree challenges you to grow thriving treescapes that meet diverse community needs.
Can your team design the greenest, wildest neighbourhood? Outplan the rest and reshape your city together.
Suitable for anyone aged 14 years+.
Booking is required for this event and can be done here.

Heritage & the Environment @ York Minster
2025-10-23 13:00 - 14:00 | York Minster Works and Technology Hub, 4 Deangate, York, YO1 7JA, United Kingdom
A walking tour of the York Minster precinct taking in the projects established in its Neighbourhood Plan, including its new Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills and Estates Management, focused on work to protect its heritage estate, craft skills, and the environment, such as renewable energy initiatives and combatting damage caused by increased rainfall. The tour will appeal to those interested in heritage but also with a concern about our rapidly changing environment.
Suitable for ages 18+
Booking is required for this event and can be done by email to works@yorkminster.org
Blue badge parking available on Deangate

Convening the convenors: connecting climate & green networks across York
2025-10-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Patch York, Terry Avenue, The Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, YO16FA, United Kingdom
Do you work on a project that connects groups doing climate & environment work in York? You might be sharing resources, fostering collaboration or convening networks.

Three networks – York Climate Commission, York Environment Forum & York CliConnect – invite the organisers, business owners & initiatives that bring people together on climate & environment.

There is great stuff going on; some overlap, plenty we could cross-pollinate, some duplication we could avoid & maybe some gaps we could address.
No minimum age restriction. Booking is required: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1559464854359?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Groves Repair Café
2025-10-25 09:30 - 12:00 | St Thomas’s Church Hall, Lowther Street, York, YO31 7ND, United Kingdom
This is an opportunity to get your broken household items fixed for free – from toasters to teapots, electronics to egg-timers – and to get clothing and fabrics mended. A chance to save money on buying new whilst reducing waste and being part of York’s growing circular economy.
Suitable for all ages, under 16s to be accompanied by an adult.
This event is free but donations are welcome. Any donations made will be used to support the continuation of the Repair Café.
Booking is not required.

Solar Skylines: Building a greener energy future for York
2025-10-25 13:00 - 15:00 | Marriott Room, York Explore Library, Marriott Room, York Explore Library, Library Square, Museum Street, York, YO1 7DS, United Kingdom
Join YCE to design York’s energy future – one building at a time!
Come along to talk about the different ways we can make York’s energy system cleaner and greener, and design your own part of a sustainable future for our city. In this interactive session, we’ll be creating a vision of York’s energy skyline together – building a collage of what the future could look like, and talking about how we can make that vision a reality, from individual energy saving to the community energy transition.
No minimum age requirement. Booking is recommended. Reserve your tickets: https://buytickets.at/yce/1787526

Celebrate Apples
2025-10-25 13:00 - 16:00 | The Dormouse, Clifton Park Avenue, York, YO20 5PA
In an orchard with many trees we are picking apples and gathering windfalls. Some of these will be turned into juice with our onsite equipment.
The Edible York team will guide participants in safe and happy picking and juicing. All kit provided, bring your own bag and/or bottle, and wear suitable outdoor clothing.
Children need to be with an adult. Any donations will contribute to future fruit picking eg buying more tools and kit.

'How We Made It Through'
2025-10-28 18:30 - 20:30 | Friargate Quaker Meeting House, Friargate Quaker Meeting House, Friargate, York, YO1 9RL, United Kingdom
A celebration of our community thrutopia creative writing project. ‘How We Made It Through’ invited people to create stories from the future where we’ve made it through – hence ‘thrutopia’. Over thirty individual entries were received, in media ranging from prose to poetry, & from collage to needle felting.
Learn about the project design and how it can be easily replicated; listen to readings from the anthology; an option to buy your own copy; & reflect on what thrutopia can look like in your own locality.
No minimum age requirement.
Copies of the book will be available for a donation.

Cli-mic Night
2025-10-28 19:00 - 21:00 | Spark York, 17-21 Piccadilly, York, YO1 9PB
In the fight for a better future, community and storytelling are just as important as action. So we invite the people of York to come together, share stories and imagine alternatives.
Join Extinction Rebellion York for a relaxed evening of climate-themed poetry, music, comedy and more. Share your creative work with a friendly crowd or just come along to listen and connect.
If you would like to perform, please fill out this short form: bit.ly/4esBx1c. If you are just attending, then booking is not required.
Suitable for ages 12+

Climate Change, Extreme Heat, and Public Health
2025-10-29 09:30 - 12:00 | Priory Street Community Centre, 15 Priory Street, York, YO1 6ET
York Climate Commission’s Health working group are hosting this session to help those working with at-risk groups or vulnerable communities to explore climate risk and adaptation planning for extreme heat.
Attendees will hear expert advice on how to plan for extreme heat and have the chance to be involved in an interactive workshop. Groups who might find this session helpful include (but are not limited to): the third sector, charities, private businesses, public health organisations.
No minimum age restriction.
Booking Required. To book email carbon.reduction@york.gov.uk

CANCELLED - Lowfield Green Housing Cooperative | Open Day
2025-11-01 11:00 - 13:00 | Lowfield Green, Restharrow Road, York, YO24 3FT, United Kingdom
UPDATE – THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED
Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances, the green housing open day scheduled for November 1st has been cancelled. Watch this space for updates, as the organiser hopes to reorganise in the new year.
The first 14 households have just moved in!
As part of York Environment Festival we invite you to our very first open house.
Come and visit York’s first co-housing project, 10+ years in the making. Whether you’ve been following the long journey so far or have just heard about us, come along.
Get a tour of the site, including our communal outdoor area as well as a tour in one of the homes built to a really high Passivhaus standard. Hear from residents about the early days of living together.
Booking required. Please book here.
Children must be accompanied by adults.
Meet on the green.

The Ant that Ate the Internet – and other stories from a green and hopeful future.
2025-11-02 10:30 - 12:30, 2025-11-02 13:30 - 15:30 | Marriott Room, York Explore Library, Marriott Room, York Explore Library, Library Square, Museum Street, York, YO1 7DS, United Kingdom
Come join Minnie and Alfred, environmental time-travelling optimists from 100 hundred years in the future where humans, huge insects and nature thrive.
Hear how Tansy Beetles became bigger than the Millennium Bridge, what it is the Slug of Poetic Justice whispers and why the Emotional Support Mosquito has a kind and considerate hum. Share your stories, explore sensory storytelling boxes and assert your hopes for a bright green future in words and doodles too.
Suitable for all ages.
To book tickets, please visit: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/exploreyorklibrariesandarchives/1848649
To facilitate access if required, please contact hiya@stephenleehodgkins.net

#talkingclimate: A toolkit for more effective conversations
2025-11-02 14:00 - 16:00 | Micklegate Social, 148-150 Micklegate, York, YO1 6JX
Climate change can be a difficult topic to bring up with your friends, family or colleagues. It can generate eye rolls, fact throwing and even arguments. It can be lonely if you feel like the only one worrying. But bringing up climate change in conversation can also be a very powerful thing we can do. So join us for a two hour workshop to build up a practical toolkit, based on Climate Outreach research, to practise talking about climate change with your friends, family and colleagues.
Age restrictions: 16+
Please book through this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talkingclimate-a-toolkit-for-more-effective-conversations-tickets-1519693005689
