Saturday 27 September – Sunday 2 November 2025
York Environment Week will be returning in 2023 for its 4th year, running from Saturday 23 September to Sunday 1 October. Our Call for Events will be launched on Thursday 8 June, for all groups who would like to get involved.
We have partnered with York CliConnect, a project funded by York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI) at the University of York, for this event and hope to see you there!
Click here to visit the event page and reserve your free ticket.
York Environment Forum has been looking at whether it is possible to lead a York Environment Week for 2023. On Tuesday we decided there needs to be a Core Group of at least six people. And we need to recruit this team by the end of February.
Below is information about what the Core Group tackles to organise YEW. The Core Group members are not paid for their involvement but some members may be able take on the role as part of their paid jobs. Anyone motivated to join in can put themselves forward, no need to be a member of York Environment Forum. From start to finish it takes about seven months to run YEW.
One decision the Core Group will make is about dates. Being realistic YEW23 would be in the second half of the year, and not at the same time as the Great Big Green Week in June.
If you are interested please get in touch by 28th Feb. As we need to cover the range of tasks also include a list of what skills you can offer related to the outline below.
You can also contact the Chair of York Environment Forum if you are not quite sure and would like a discussion or have a particular question.
Outline of Core Group tasks.
We have had three York Environment Weeks so far, and it would be great to have number four, but this depends on having an effective team, Hoping you can help or can find someone who can.
Many thanks,
York Environment Forum.
Reply to: info@yorkenvironmentweek.org.uk
direct email to Chair: yorkenvironmentforum@gmail.com
The YEW website is: yorkenvironmentweek.org.uk
A Passion for the Earth was the theme of the Green Christian event at St Luke’s in Clifton, on 10 September, preceding YEW 22 and reflecting the range of ideas and actions for people and planet that we are offering. Billed as ‘a day of discussion, stalls and worship to encourage our communities, build common cause for creation and inspire ambitious change’, it led to many reflections and ideas for ways forward. Stalls on offer during the refreshment breaks were varied too: from energy and food-growing advice to global justice and fair trade. Some of these groups will be back on Sunday 25 September at St Nicks and some will be running their own events during YEW. It’s good to see opportunities among our events to join some dots through networking among different groups.
Similar diversity is reflected in this letter from the Climate Coalition to the new PM. It has been signed by over 100 different organisations, urging her to ‘put the interconnected climate, nature and cost of living crises at the top of the agenda’. It refers to a vision for ‘a country and a world where children walk to school breathing fresh air instead of dangerous fumes, and their parents think about the future with hope instead of fear.’ They say that this needs ‘brilliant engineers, builders, farmers and local people across the UK to be supported to roll out the solutions to make our homes warmer, our transport cleaner and cheaper, and to restore our natural environment.’ Signatories include faith groups, NGOs, TUs and many more – the organisations and actions are even more varied than the participants in York Environment Week!
That said, we really have done our best to include a range of groups and activities in YEW22. You can get stuff repaired with Repair+Share at St Thomas’s Church Hall on Lowther Street, on Saturday 24 September, learn about climate science on different dates with Climate Fresk and about investing for the environment on Monday 26 with YorWealth. For energy-saving tips you can go online with Zero Carbon Yorkshire on Monday 26, or meet York Energy Advice (and a sheep?!) in person at York Explore on Tuesday morning 10.30-1. There are chances to learn about growing food with Edible York and protecting pollinators with Bishophillbillies. You can also find out if trees are the new coal with Axe Drax on Monday 26, meet rebels from Extinction Rebellion on Tuesday and join an online discussion about Climate Jobs on Thursday 29 September with York TUC. Towards the end of the week, you’ll find eco-crafting with TCV at Wild Friday on 30 September, and urban walks to Leeman Road’s Green Spaces with YoCo on 1 October, and to Meet York’s Remarkable Trees with York Bike Belles on Sunday 2 October. Apologies to groups left out of this selection, of course, and there is more to come because YEW is running alongside two more festivals.
You can find more walks in the Walking Festival, and some events related to the environment are happening during the 50+ Festival. The latter includes the York Mosque Walk and Talk event starting at 1.15 on 25 September at York Mosque on Bull Lane. There will be a talk about Islam and pro-environmental behaviour by Water Consumption researcher and PhD candidate Lina Khattab), a walk to St Nicks Environment Centre, a panel discussion among participants from various faith groups and none, and refreshments at 3pm. Booking is advised by email (rasha.salah.ibrahim@gmail.com).
Once more, York Environment Week has lots of different events to offer. We have many groups in York doing our best to tackle the climate and ecological emergency so plenty to choose from.