FAQs

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. We are a new organisation – formed in March 2023.
We currently have a Steering Group who agree the main direction for the project, supported by a group of volunteers. As time progresses and the project matures, we will review our organisational arrangements to make sure everyone in the community has the 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 ideas:
• An information zone – we plan to invite experts to The Green House on different days, so that people can get advice on, say, greening their home, making their garden more biodiverse, taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint.
• A ‘Library of Things’ – where people can loan, rather than buy, infrequently used items.
• A sewing repair service – where people can get items of clothing or other fabric items repaired rather than be thrown away.
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. We want to make sure that a ‘virtual hub’ is available for those who can’t easily access the city centre. We will work with partner organisations to help people navigate access to sustainability and carbon reduction information and services across the district.

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.

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 crowd-funding page 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 to St Albans City and 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 part of the ‘Greener Together’ project:
https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/news/st-albans-city-and-district-council-wins-ps300000-grant-project-improve-environment

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 (such as a crowdfunder page). Please sign up to our newsletter so we can keep you updated.

Once open, we will need a range of volunteers such as volunteers to help run The Green House, and organise and staff different hub activities. The development of The Green House will be guided by the skills, enthusiasm, and interest 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.

A library of things (https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/) is a way of borrowing items you may need for a home or garden project from time to time, such as a sewing machine or hedge trimmer, but don’t need long term or want to purchase. Maybe you are thinking of starting up a new hobby or a have a one-off event happening for which you require equipment. Or you may need an item you don’t have the space to store at home. You will be able to book to hire the item for which we will ask for a small fee. You then return the item for someone else to use.

Our opening hours are not yet confirmed. (We need to secure premises first!). Our provisional plan is that we will open perhaps 2 or 3 mornings a week, and 2 or 3 afternoon/early evenings. We want to make sure that our opening times give everyone an opportunity to visit us at some point during the week, whatever their schedule.

Items from The Library of Things will be available to book either at The Green House, or on-line.