Community action/Sheffield
The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Sheffield.
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| Location | Sheffield, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 53° 22' 50.39" N, 1° 28' 12.82" W |
News
Co-ops looking to change the world, town by town, thenews.coop (Nov 03, 2025)
- New Sheffield ad ban shows how councils can act on harmful advertising, adfreecities.org.uk (Mar 19, 2024)
- West Yorkshire moor brought under community ownership, thenews.coop (Oct 30, 2025) — Bridestones Moor, near Todmorden, will be managed by a CIC led by local ecologists, naturalists and residents
- Campaign launched to buy waterfall beauty spot, BBC News (Jul 17, 2025) — Campaigners say the community is ready to take responsibility for the future of the ancient woodland and waterfall
- Yorkshire enters drought after driest spring in 132 years, theguardian.com (Jun 12, 2025)
- One in nine new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024 were constructed in areas that could now be at risk of flooding, according to new data., theguardian.com (Feb 18, 2026) — between 2013 and 2022, one in 13 new homes were in potential flooding zones.
- Hedgerows the 'unsung heroes of the countryside', BBC News (Feb 16, 2026) — A group of Kent volunteers is aiming to provide vital habitat for wildlife by planting about 3,800 yards (3,500m) of hedgerows in the countryside this year.
- 'Serious climate breakdown' warning over filthy rivers and flooding, BBC News (Feb 15, 2026)
- Geothermal could replace almost half of the EU’s fossil fuel power, grist.org (Feb 10, 2026)
- I developed an app that uses drone footage to track plastic litter on beaches, theconversation.com (Jan 21, 2026)
- Europeans overwhelmingly support the social economy, poll finds, thenews.coop (Dec 12, 2025) — 93% of Europeans think businesses should be guided by social economy values, such as focusing on social and environmental goals, redistributing profits, and operating with democratic governance structures
- Introducing Katcha: An African Democratic Innovation Network, demnext.substack.com (Feb 19, 2026)
- The planet’s other forest crisis, latimes.com (Feb 19, 2026)
- ‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics, theguardian.com (Feb 19, 2026)
Networks and sustainability initiatives
- Opus independents, not-for-profit social enterprise based in Sheffield. "We work with citizens, communities, neighbourhoods, business, voluntary groups, cities, campaigns, research institutions, infrastructure organisations and governments to address the entangled ecological, social, economic, political and cultural crisis we collectively face.", added 18:06, 18 July 2023 (UTC)
- Transition Sheffield - May 2016: Transition Sheffield has closed down but the websites have been archived
Each week 3 different short videos from across the UK or world.
Community action/Surrey, Community action/West Midlands, Community action/North East England / ...This week's featured Global videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism
UK and international events
UK events
Mar 13 - 29, 2026 (Fri - Sun) — Great British Spring Clean and Great Big School Clean, Keep Britain Tidy call to help improve local environments, keepbritaintidy.org- Mar 16 - 27, 2026 (Mon - Fri) — Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel, cycling, walking and scooting challenge for schools from Sustrans, bigwalkandwheel.org.uk
Global or international events
- Feb 02, 2026 (Mon) — World Wetlands Day, Feb 2, annually, worldwetlandsday.org
- Feb 20, 2026 (Fri) — World Day of Social Justice, Feb 20 each year, un.org
- February 21 - March 1, 2026 (Sat - Sun) — Real Bread Week, annual, international celebration of additive-free bread and the people behind its rise, sustainweb.org
2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events
Sheffield video
Community involvement
- Cooperation Sheffield, "The core of our strategy is People's Assemblies", added 22:00, 25 November 2025 (UTC)
- It's Our City Sheffield, added 10:44, 10 March 2020 (UTC)
Food activism
- ShefFood, Sheffield's food partnership. Cross sector partnership including community organisations. added 12:06, 5 October 2021 (UTC)
- Food Hall, food reclaimed, city centre
- Grow Sheffield
- Heeley City Farm
- Lower Walkley Community Group
- The Real Junk Food Project Sheffield, non-profit social enterprise saving food from being wasted and making it available to the people of Sheffield
- Sheffield Organic Growers, cluster of independent organic growers, based on a 12-acre site in Moss Valley on the edge of Sheffield
Community energy
Towards sustainable economies
Regather, trading cooperative based in the Little Sheffield
Community resources
Citizens data initiative
- Sheffield City Council Open Data, added 16:11, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
Arts, sport and culture
Sustainable transport activism
The Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation (S&SY) is a system of navigable inland waterways (canals and canalised rivers) in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Chiefly based on the River Don, it runs for a length of 43 miles (69 km) and has 29 locks. It connects Sheffield, Rotherham, and Doncaster with the River Trent at Keadby and (via the New Junction Canal) the Aire and Calder Navigation.
Wikipedia: Supertram (Sheffield)
Cycling activism
For cycling, although hilly, Sheffield is compact and has few major trunk roads. It is on the Trans-Pennine Trail, a National Cycle Network route running from West to East from Southport in Merseyside to Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire and North to South from Leeds in West Yorkshire to Chesterfield in Derbyshire. There are many cycle routes going along country paths in the woods surrounding the city.
Open spaces
Sixty-one per cent of Sheffield's entire area is green space, and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park. There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, which is estimated to contain around 4.5 million trees.
Maps
- A Greenground Map of Sheffield, theoutdoorcity.co.uk, added 16:37, 23 July 2021 (UTC)
The Peace Gardens are an inner city square in Sheffield, England.
The Gardens themselves front onto Sheffield's gothic town hall, not to be confused with Sheffield City Hall (a concert venue), or the Sheffield Old Town Hall at Castle Market.
News archive
- What are the neighbourhoods of Sheffield and why are they crucial to the city's emerging future? We're finding out, nowthenmagazine.com (Nov 23, 2023)
- Sheffield’s Opus Network is the very ideal of a CAN - making media, doing business and connecting to a planet of ideas, The Daily Alternative (Jul 13, 2023)
- An ordinary hope helping to power communities across Britain, ucl.ac.uk (May 23, 2023)
- Fringe Farming Report Reveals Green Recovery Potential, ShefFood (Mar 18, 2022)
"I wanted ordinary citizens to feel like they owned the chamber". A mindful review of ex-Mayor of Sheffield Magic Magid's The Art of Disruption, Mar 26, 2021...thealternative.org.uk
- Urban land could grow fruit and veg for 15 percent of the population...sheffield.ac.uk, Mar 17, 2020
- A new approach to Sheffield's street trees, Dec 13, 2018...@Sheffield Newsroom, Sheffield City Council
- Urban Agriculture in Little Sheffield, Mar 22, 2017...reconomy.org
Sheffield is on a quest to be the fairest city of them all – here's how it's doing, May 9, 2016...@ConversationUK
- Death of the high street? Rise of the DIY grassroots community venue... February 6, 2016...citygirl92blog.wordpress.com
- Sheffield: The beauty of small in a region getting bigger, December 10, 2015...sheffield.newstartmag.co.uk
- University of Sheffield Commits to Divest £39m From Fossil Fuels, November 30, 2015...blog.peopleandplanet.org
- Foundations for a fairer city, September 30, 2014...livingwithrats.blogspot.co.uk
- Hundreds Get On Their Bikes to Demand #Space4Cycling in Sheffield, May 20, 2014...Great Gas Beetle
News sources
- Now Then, a magazine for Sheffield. Independent, award-winning citizen journalism since 2008, added 18:08, 22 April 2024 (UTC)
About Sheffield
Past events
- Sheffield Environment Weeks
- Mar 27 - 28, 2019, Wed - Thu Feeling Good in a Green City festival
- Feb 16, 2017, The Platform - 'Sheffield Re-imagined 2017: A Manifesto for a Better Sheffield
- May 24 - 26, 2014, Sheffield Food Festival
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. The population of the City of Sheffield is 584,853 (mid-2019 est.) Sheffield is the second-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region and the third-largest English district by population. The metropolitan population of The city of Sheffield is 1,569,000.
The city is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines, and the valleys of the River Don and its four tributaries.
| Authors | Phil Green |
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| License | CC-BY-SA-3.0 |
| Cite as | Phil Green (2014–2025). "Community action/Sheffield". Appropedia. Retrieved February 26, 2026. |