Since 2010

Envirolution history

15+ years of community climate action.

From free festivals in Manchester to community assemblies, environmental education and grassroots projects, Envirolution’s story is made by volunteers, neighbours and the organisations working alongside them.

Our story · projects & archive

A community making room for change.

Envirolution began with a question: what if climate action could feel joyful, creative and rooted in community? A local eco-festival became a meeting place for volunteers, artists, educators and community organisers.

Since 2010, members and volunteers have delivered free, inclusive festivals in Manchester and shared ideas through workshops, assemblies, partnerships and events beyond the city. Today, Envirolution is a registered Community Benefit Society and environmental co-operative.

This is a record of that work, not a list of upcoming events. Dated milestones follow below; projects without confirmed dates have their own place in the archive.

Understand Envirolution’s co-operative approachExplore historical partners and funders
The story in time

From the park to a wider conversation.

The festival years, a moment to listen, and new ways for communities to take part in climate decisions.

  1. Festival beginnings

    Free festivals. Shared possibilities.

    Envirolution’s festival story begins in Manchester in 2010. Free and inclusive, the festivals welcomed people of different ages, backgrounds, circumstances and cultures into a shared space for environmental ideas.

    At Platt Fields Park and across Manchester, the programme has brought together workshops, talks, world music, solar-powered stages, wellbeing activities, market stalls, community food and children’s games. Hands-on climate education sat alongside celebration: a chance to discover local projects, meet people and try something new.

    Volunteers made that space possible, from planning and programming to decor, welcoming participants and clearing up. The festival was something people helped create, not simply an event to attend.

    The public festival history dates from 2010. Co-founder Bob Walley’s biography recalls involvement beginning in 2009; neither date is used here as a legal incorporation date.

    Explore the festival photographs
    Photograph from Envirolution’s festival collection
    From the Envirolution festival archive. The photograph’s year is not recorded in the gallery; it is not labelled as the 2010 festival.

  2. Historical research

    Impact Assessment 2020

    During the challenging events of 2020, Envirolution volunteers wanted to reflect on how the group was doing and how it could make more of an impact going forwards.

    Envirolution teamed up with PhD researchers at the University of Manchester’s Collaboration Labs programme. The research involved interviews with more than 40 people who had attended Envirolution events, delivered workshops, run stalls or volunteered with the organisation.

    The project was recognised through the University of Manchester’s Project Excellence Award. It remains part of Envirolution’s historical evidence base for community climate engagement.

    This account describes the 2020 assessment. It is not a measure of current performance or a new impact total.

  3. Manchester

    Manchester Community Assembly on Climate Change

    In 2021, Envirolution coordinated Manchester’s first community assembly on climate change, involving 106 participants from across the city.

    People came together to learn about food and agriculture, transport, fashion and retail, buildings and energy, then worked together on solutions that were relevant and appropriate for Manchester.

    Participants also put forward the issues they felt needed to be addressed by Manchester City Council, businesses and national government. These were presented as a mandate to City Council representatives at the final event.

    The assembly brought local experience into Manchester’s climate conversations and net zero planning. It continues to inform Envirolution’s approach: climate action should be locally grounded, community-led and designed around real people’s lives.

    Read the archived assembly story
    The historical Manchester Community Assembly film. Watch the assembly film on YouTube.

  4. Glasgow · COP26

    Sharing community approaches at COP26

    Envirolution delivered presentations and workshops at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, sharing methods for engaging more people in positive action on climate change.

    Community engagement and climate education were at the centre of this outreach: taking approaches developed through participatory work into a wider conversation.

    Explore other documented outreach and collaborations
    Projects beyond Manchester Manchester roots.
    Ideas shared in Glasgow.

    COP26 is one part of a record that also includes facilitator training in Aberdeen and volunteer-led education at festivals. These are documented activities, not a claim that every project is still running.

  5. Back in the park

    A return to Platt Fields Park

    After the disruption of the pandemic, Envirolution Festival returned to Platt Fields Park in 2023 with workshops, talks, music, activities and food.

    The return renewed the festival’s focus on bringing Manchester’s communities together around practical climate action. Connections with Platt Fields Market Garden also linked the festival to food growing and permaculture.

    Revisit the 2023 festival highlights

    This is a past festival, not an upcoming date. Visit current event information for the status of future plans.

    Platt Fields Park, home to Envirolution festivals in Manchester
    Platt Fields Park, the festival’s Manchester home. Archive image; the photograph’s date is not specified.
Undated project records

Local roots, ideas shared further.

Alongside the dated milestones, Envirolution’s archive records collaborations in Aberdeen, festival outreach and practical growing work back in Manchester.

The exact years of these activities are not specified in the public material. They belong to the history, but are not presented as a sequence of later events or as current programmes.

AberdeenCommunity organising & shared skills

Supporting community assemblies

Envirolution worked with North East Scotland Climate Action Network to help train community assembly facilitators and deliver workshops on community engagement, including the value of Envirolution-style festivals.

The collaboration and support helped inspire Envirolution Aberdeen. It reflects a practical exchange of skills and approaches, rather than simply taking a Manchester event to another city.

Explore the Manchester assembly that informs this approach
Green GatheringFestival outreach & hands-on learning

Making climate education part of the gathering

Envirolution has supported festivals and events across the UK through plastic awareness campaigns, food-growing sessions, children’s changemaker activities and volunteer-led climate education. That record includes support for the kids’ area at Green Gathering Festival.

These activities brought environmental learning into spaces where people were already playing, meeting and making things together.

Explore today’s environmental learning games
Back in ManchesterPlatt Fields Market Garden

Growing change in a familiar place

Envirolution’s history includes partnership and practical growing work connected to turning an underused bowling green into a thriving permaculture and community food space.

Working alongside Platt Fields Market Garden connected festival visitors with food growing and practical examples of community-led environmental change. It brought the conversation about climate action into the soil, food and shared spaces of everyday life.

Read the April 2025 reflection on festivals, assemblies and growing
Historical partners & funders

The network around the work.

Envirolution’s history is also a history of working alongside others: co-operatives, climate organisers, local authorities, community organisations, food projects, funders and volunteers.

Read about the co-operative behind the projects

The public record includes work with and support from:

  • Co-operatives UK
  • Manchester Climate Change Agency
  • MUD / MUD Kitchen
  • Manchester City Council
  • Big Lottery
  • Lush
  • Unicorn Grocery

This is a historical record, not a confirmed list of current partners or funders. The source material does not consistently specify each organisation’s role, the dates of support or funding amounts.

Those connections helped bring different parts of the community into the same conversation. They are preserved here without implying continuing funding, endorsement or a current agreement.

Ask the team about historical collaborations
People make the history

What stays with us.

Behind the stages, workshops and assemblies are people finding confidence, friendship and the chance to try something new.

Paul Mitchell, Dawn Kendall, founder Matt Rowe and Dan Gibbon Walsh describe skills in event planning, public speaking, bid writing and community organising, alongside the friendships and sense of possibility that grew through Envirolution.

These excerpts are personal reflections from the archive, not current role descriptions or promises about future outcomes.

Read all four volunteer stories

“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.”

Paul Mitchell · Volunteer reflection
Read Paul’s full account

“It gave me confidence in public speaking, bid writing and event planning, volunteer organising... You name it really!”

Dawn Kendall · Volunteer reflection
Read Dawn’s full account
The photo archive

More than words on a timeline.

Step into Envirolution’s festival and community collections. The gallery holds the photographs alongside this written history, with filters for festival, community, project and team material.

These images come from the existing archive. Individual dates and the people pictured are not identified in its captions, so the photographs are not assigned to specific milestones here.

Photograph from the Envirolution festival archive collection
From the festival collection. View the original photograph.
Another photograph preserved in Envirolution’s festival collection
Another view from the festival archive. View the original photograph.
Photograph from Envirolution’s community archive collection
From the community collection. View the original photograph.
Explore the Envirolution photo archive
Past experience, present participation

From 2010 to what comes next.

Our history keeps bringing us back to the same idea: people need space to learn, share skills and act together. Festivals, assemblies and growing projects have given that idea different forms.

Today, Envirolution is rebuilding volunteer capacity and developing environmental education and digital tools. You can play and test the games, join the co-operative, bring your skills or help shape future events. Check the Events page for the status of plans rather than relying on an archived invitation.

Volunteer with EnvirolutionBecome a £1 memberExplore climate gamesSee current events and plans
Support Envirolution’s workStart a conversation with the team