We are a volunteer-led environmental co-operative bringing people together through climate action, education and creativity. Rooted in Manchester, our story has grown through free community festivals, workshops, assemblies and shared ideas since 2010.
We believe climate action works best when it is joyful, practical and shaped by the people taking part.
Envirolution brings environmental ideas into places where people can meet, experiment and learn from one another. A festival in a Manchester park, a conversation about the city’s future or a game about renewable energy can all be starting points.
Our free festivals have brought together music, talks, workshops, children’s activities, food and local projects. Alongside them, our history includes community assemblies, growing projects and climate education at events beyond Manchester.
That work is made by people: volunteers organising an event, artists creating a space, educators sharing knowledge and neighbours bringing their own experience. Today, the site offers environmental games and resources, routes into volunteering and membership, and a record of the community work that brought us here.
Envirolution is a registered Community Benefit Society and environmental co-operative. Our purpose is rooted in community benefit: bringing people together around environmental learning and practical climate action.
We are not simply an events business with an audience. The people who take part help make the work happen — sharing ideas, organising activities, contributing skills and building connections between communities. Free festivals and accessible educational resources are practical expressions of that approach.
Membership offers a way to join the co-operative, while volunteering turns participation into hands-on work. Supporter contributions are another way to help sustain the education, community projects and digital tools.
The membership page sets out plans for member decisions and voting through the portal. Ask the team about the current arrangements and approved access when joining; membership and a portal account are not the same thing.
The climate emergency can feel overwhelming. Envirolution’s work makes room for people to understand it, talk about it and try things together.
These themes run through our festivals, assemblies, creative projects and educational work. They are ways of putting our purpose into practice, not just words on a wall.
Envirolution connects learning with participation. The activities take different forms, but each creates a way to explore environmental issues with other people.
We are rebuilding volunteer capacity and developing education and digital tools. For current opportunities and the status of festival plans, use the linked pages rather than relying on old event announcements.
Our festival history combines music and celebration with workshops, stalls, growing activities and climate conversations. At Platt Fields Park, that has included connections with the community food-growing work of Platt Fields Market Garden.
Explore Envirolution events and festival plansGames make room to test ideas and learn by doing. Our free collection explores forests, ecosystems, recycling, energy, home retrofit and climate careers, for self-guided learning, classrooms and community workshops.
Explore our environmental learning gamesThe 2021 Manchester Community Assembly brought people together to learn about climate issues and develop solutions relevant to their city. It is part of our history of putting local experience into climate conversations.
The Digital Assembly learning tool is a separate educational resource, not the historical event.
Read about the 2021 community assemblyBehind every activity are people planning, communicating, setting up, testing and organising. Volunteering can mean helping with an event or contributing to education, content, administration and digital projects.
Find ways to volunteer your skillsThe story is bigger than any single event. Our archive records the festivals, projects and conversations that have shaped Envirolution, and the people who made them possible.
Members and volunteers have brought people together in Manchester through inclusive festivals, creative activities and hands-on environmental education.
Read Envirolution’s full historyVolunteers worked with the University of Manchester’s Collaboration Labs to reflect on Envirolution’s impact, through interviews with people who attended, volunteered, ran stalls or delivered workshops.
This assessment is a record of that period, not a measure of current performance.
Explore the 2020 impact assessmentParticipants explored food, transport, fashion, buildings and energy, and put forward issues for Manchester City Council, businesses and national government to address.
Explore the assembly story and filmEnvirolution’s history also reaches beyond Manchester, including festival outreach, COP26 workshops and support for community assemblies in Aberdeen.
Our historical records include work with and support from Co-operatives UK, Manchester Climate Change Agency, MUD/MUD Kitchen, Manchester City Council, Big Lottery, Lush and Unicorn Grocery.
These are historical relationships, not a confirmed list of current partners or funders.
Envirolution is powered by grassroots organisers, creatives and community leaders. These biographies bring together some of the experiences and contributions behind the organisation.
Biographies are preserved as supplied. References to study, other roles or relative periods such as “recent years” reflect when each biography was written.
Co-founder & co-operative member
He/Him
Bob is one of the co-founders and a cooperative member of Envirolution and has been involved since it all began back in 2009.
He has been involved in climate change awareness and engagement projects since 2004 and an environmental activist for a lot longer! He has managed research and aid projects exploring the impacts of the climate emergency on communities across the UK and further afield in places such as Nepal, Indonesia, Mongolia (as part of The Big Steppe Expedition), Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Islands in the South Pacific and many other areas.
Due to this experience Bob is part of UCLan's Institute for the Study of the Asia Pacific (ISAP) and Co-Chair of the Centre for Austronesian Studies (COAST). He has worked with many international organisations on projects including the UNHCR, UNICEF, WHO, Save the Children and the Red Cross.
He is a lecturer in Community Leadership and International Community Development at the University of Central Lancashire and a researcher in climate change engagement and communication with the University of Exeter.
Before all this Bob studied Illustration and creative and visual arts, using this as a method of engaging communities about challenging subjects such as the climate emergency, social justice, social and protest movements and collective community action.
He has curated exhibitions at venues across the world and has delivered workshops and presentations at over 30 conferences in the UK and globally, including the International UN Climate Change Conferences COP15 in Copenhagen, COP21 in Paris and COP26 in Glasgow. Most recently presenting about Manchester's first Community Assembly on Climate Change for which he was the project lead. He now supports and initiates similar climate assembly projects across the country.
Digital, creative & festival production
They/Them
Gabriel has been a driving force behind Envirolution for over five years, contributing across nearly every facet of the festival's evolution. Their journey began with managing social media campaigns and building the festival's website, quickly establishing themselves as a digital leader within the organisation. Through strategic content creation, digital marketing, and cohesive brand development, Gabriel has played a key role in growing Envirolution's online presence and public reach.
In recent years, Gabriel has fully taken over the festival's digital infrastructure, redesigning and maintaining the website through their creative studio, Alt Production Studios, and laying the foundation for an ambitious future of interactive web-based tools and educational games.
Beyond the screen, Gabriel has been instrumental in coordinating festival production, covering everything from logistics and scheduling to liaising with artists, vendors, and crew. Their sharp eye for visual design and decor brings immersive spaces to life, transforming the park into a vibrant celebration of climate action. Gabriel also contributes to the music programming, helping shape a soundscape that reflects the festival's values of creativity, inclusion, and resistance.
Their ability to seamlessly combine technical skill, creative direction, and strategic thinking makes Gabriel an indispensable part of Envirolution's leadership. Whether solving last-minute logistical challenges or laying the groundwork for digital expansion, their commitment and vision continue to shape Envirolution into one of the UK's most exciting, sustainable, and community-powered festivals.
Creative projects & festival organising
She/Her
Jaqueline has been working creatively with Envirolution for the last six years. She is currently studying Psychotherapy and Counselling at Salford University. With a thirst for ethics, Jaqueline believes that if people consumed and related to ethical brands and people, we would not have to live in this pretend world. To do so would be to unfollow any social media accounts associated with social predators or toxic corporations who support genocide or the violation of Human Rights.
Jaqueline has worked on organizing festivals, reaching out to national and international artists, while promoting an ecological lifestyle, especially to children, through playful creative approaches. A key part of her work has been addressing the housing crisis by advocating for affordable, sustainable alternatives like cob houses, container houses, and mini-houses. She has collaborated with Commoners Housing CIC on this ongoing project.
In her free time Jaqueline sings with the Salford University Choir and the World Music Collective, dances through the streets of Manchester, crochets, reads and explores the world of music production. She is a true believer that real change starts within us and that raising awareness and providing alternatives will help us turn our planet’s state into a better tomorrow.
Friendships, confidence, practical skills and a sense of possibility. These personal reflections from Envirolution’s public record describe past experiences, rather than current roles or promises about future events.
He/Him
"Volunteering with Envirolution was fab. I got to fully dive into projects with lots of autonomy that were not only fun and rewarding but also an outlet for my creativity. As a bonus, I met some fantastic friends for life along the way. Many a time it brought a warm feeling to my belly seeing the positive impact we had — hard work, & rewarding."
She/Her
"I joined the organisation as the volunteer coordinator. I saw an advert online for the volunteer job role and it sounded really really exciting. It involved working with volunteers but also working with events, which ticked some major boxes for me. I went along to an amazing meeting and met Bob, Paul and Matt and just instantly hit it off and became a volunteer coordinator.
I did that role for a number of years and then moved onto running decor with volunteers, to doing all the event planning and all the other paperwork, everything! Just pitching in on every little bit, right to the point of litter picking at the end of festivals. No role too big or too small for any of the directors of Envirolution, that's for sure.
I feel like I was at a point in Manchester where I was looking for something more and I gained an amazing community from Envirolution, some lifelong friendships and a fresh outlook on life. It really helped me to see so much more was possible and broadened my horizons, making me aware of all the amazing people and the amazing things that were happening in Manchester. Definitely a total game changer for me.
I took away a lot of experience from it and positivity, which has helped me go forward in other parts of life and other job roles. It gave me confidence in public speaking, bid writing and event planning, volunteer organising... You name it really! The range of experience from Envirolution are endless and that's why I really do think it's important. I think it offers amazing connections and possibilities and it gives people hope.
You bring so many incredible organisations together and let the surrounding communities know that all this is going on and how they can get involved. And how things aren't just all doom and gloom and how many amazing positive things there are going on out there. Yeah, it really gives you hope.
I would like to see Envirolution definitely continuing in the future. I'd love to see more commitment from the council and the universities, so that it could be more accessible to a wider audience. That's something that we always wanted for it and you know, we tried to move it forward, doing different projects around other areas in Manchester. But we didn't always have the budget and the scope to be able to get out to as many people as we would have liked. I feel like we had a big impact in South Manchester and around the Fallowfield areas, but I feel like we always wanted to do more.
So I would like to see it become something bigger... More of an institution in Manchester. More people to know about it, more people to know that they can get involved, and more people to realise that just by giving a couple of hours to this organisation that they could help put together something incredible."
Envirolution founder
He/Him
"I returned from my post-university travels into a global recession and wanted to do something useful - creating a community-led socially conscious eco festival seemed like a good idea. I was surrounded with creative artists and awesome community activists. My role was to help steer all the wonderful ideas into a cohesive event.
I took on the role of event manager, which involved liaising with the park team, city council and event participants. It meant writing the event manual, dotting all the i’s and crossing the t’s to get the permission. Then having an overview on the day to ensure it all went smoothly.
The most important lesson I learnt was to stay true to your beliefs and to find awesome people to do awesome things with. Through my time with Envirolution I have made lifelong friends. The act of taking on a difficult challenge around an issue that is important to you allows beautiful bonds of friendship to blossom. Practically, I have seen people use their involvement with Envirolution to gain the experience they need to pursue the careers they want - from event management to public relations to social media marketing.
The world needs more Envirolution. It needs more space where people come together to share their concerns, meet great people and dream about creating a better world."
He/Him
"With Envirolution I got to test out and hone a lot of different skills and interests - marketing, social media, event promo - and then the planning of the event and community building - also allowing us to reach out wide and far and feel some unity among so many different community interests.
Being a kind of hub felt like a unique position - having speakers and visitors from MPs to activists and various community leaders at a family-friendly event was something special and I feel very grateful being part of this ethos. I feel happy to have met so many lovely people I call friends even though I since moved to Amsterdam, and seeing it continue is something I enjoy from further away.
It's important that spaces like these - where the space is not leading but encouraging togetherness and group thinking away from echo chambers but with several different overlapping bubbles - brings a different spirit and ideas that can be worked on with support from so many additional networks.
I would love to see Envirolution have the chance to continue - with enough funding to support a new generation of volunteers who have the encouragement and safety net to try new things, to not be afraid to test things out, and to feel the excitement that happens when you create bridges between communities and networks not just in a village or city, but hopefully even further along."
Join the co-operative, share your skills or help sustain the work. Whether you are drawn to events, education, creative projects or community organising, start a conversation with us.