Our Mission
The Green House will support our community’s move towards local & global sustainability by:
- Offering a physical ‘hub’ that can provide a focus for a wide range of community services and events
- Providing clear, factually accurate information and guidance on sustainability issues
- Encouraging all to reduce, reuse, and recycle
- Advising on sustainable living and providing practical and cost-effective solutions
- Supporting environmentally positive behaviour
- Developing and spreading these services across the community in response to demand.
Governance
We are a ‘Community Interest Company’ (CIC). This means we are a not-for-profit company. We are not affiliated with the St Albans District Council, but have good links with them – our objectives are very much in line with the Council’s sustainability and community policies. We are also working in close collaboration with Sustainable St Albans, the leading sustainability charity in the district.
We have three Directors who are legally responsible for the company and a Steering Group who guide the direction and decision-making of the organisation. The Steering Group is supported by other volunteers who have a particular interest or expertise. We also have a growing list of ‘potential’ volunteers – those who would like to be involved when we move from planning to operations!
FAQs
Basics
A community hub for those living and working in the St Albans district. The hub will be a focal point for promoting a more sustainable lifestyle, reducing our carbon footprint and increasing biodiversity.
The Green House is run by a group of St Albans residents. As time progresses and the project matures, we will review our organisational arrangements to make sure everyone in the community has an opportunity to guide how the project develops, if they are interested in becoming more involved.
We have had lots of ideas and suggestions about what will go in the hub. To begin with, we will focus on three main things: • An information zone including up-to-date advice on sustainability and an eco-library. • Specialist recycling point for hard-to-recycle items and information on reusing and recycling. • Talks and events so that people can get advice on, say, greening their home, making their garden more biodiverse, and taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. We also plan to serve tea, coffee and homemade biscuits and cakes to keep people sustained when they visit!
We will keep our website updated with our latest news. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Insta. Or why not sign up for our newsletter?
We are looking for a City Centre site as a focus for our activities which will be open to visitors at different times throughout the week. We may use other locations for specific activities, but we want to create a fixed physical home for the project.
This will depend on the availability of suitable premises, but we hope to have a presence in the city centre within the next few months.
Funding and affiliations
Our start-up funding has come from donations and a small grant. When we have confirmed premises for The Green House, we will set-up a Paypal funding account so that individuals who would like to support us can easily contribute. As we become further established, we will be looking for grants from organisations who support our type of endeavour.
We are a ‘Community Interest Company’ (CIC). This means we are a not-for-profit company. We are not affiliated with the St Albans City and District Council, but have good links with them. We also work closely with Sustainable St Albans – the leading sustainability charity in the district:https://sustainablestalbans.org
We want to make it as easy as possible for people to live greener lives, so we are happy to work with any organisation that shares our goals. One role of The Green House will be to signpost people to resources and organisations that can help them.
There will be a variety of ways over the coming months. Please sign up to our newsletter so we can keep you updated.
Volunteering
Once open, we will need volunteers to help with a range of roles and responsibilities such as looking after the eco-library and helping to run events, to serving cups of tea and cake and maintaining displays. The development of The Green House will be guided by the skills, enthusiasm, and interests of those who become involved.
Please e-mail your details to us at info@thegreenhousestalbans.org and we will get in touch.
Please e-mail your details to us at info@thegreenhousestalbans.org and we will get in touch.