The idea
Our project will help people become more self-sufficient by offering exciting workshops that teach practical skills. We will also establish a solar powered community shop to sell their products & those made by other local entrepreneurs & artisans.
Environmentally friendly workshops will include up-cycling, food preserving, raw vegan & vegetarian cooking, urban food growing & plant propagation courses designed to help people reduce waste, reuse, recycle & up-cycle, and get creative!
Participants will benefit from enterprise support sessions to grow their business ideas & network with like-minded individuals.
The Calthorpe Living Lab builds on our innovative, closed-loop demonstration in Central London where we:
Grow a wide range of foods;
Harvest produce to create nutritious meals in our community café;
Digest food waste to create renewable biogas & liquid fertilizer;
Use the fertiliser to enhance plant growth; &
use biogas for cooking and heating indoor growing space in winter.
What we'll deliver
- A refurbished community kitchen
- A solar powered community shop
- Up-cycling, creative arts and crafts courses
- Raw, vegan, vegetarian cooking courses
- Preserving, fermenting and making sauces courses
- Herbal remedy-making courses making tinctures, infusions, poultices courses
- Grow your own sustainable enterprise courses
Why it's a great idea
The courses will provide qualifications and increase employability as well as teaching people new skills, promoting sustainable living, reducing isolation and bringing like-minded people together. Our closed-loop example will become a seed bed for new sustainable enterprises to support the local economy and create a blueprint for others to follow.
Calthorpe is perfectly placed to engage a diverse audience with over 30,000 visitors a year, including young and older people, those with mental/physical challenges, migrants, students and a wide range of ethnic minorities
We live in a time when urgent environmental pressures affect everyone, independent of age, income or ethnicity. People are increasingly aware of the need to eat healthily, look after the environment and reduce waste, the proposed workshops and solar powered shop will offer fun, inspiring ideas to achieve those goals in ways that save money, encourage creativity and empower the community.
Steps to get it done
- Create a renewably powered shop for products made by course participants and local artisans
- Recruit course participants through marketing and publicity
- Deliver a range of courses
- Renovate the kitchen
The Calthorpe Project's unique organic circular demonstration offers the perfect opportunity to engage and inspire people from all backgrounds around creative sustainability. Seeing the closed-loop cycle in action makes it easier for people to grasp and understand ecosystems, our dependence on natural resources and how we can manage them more sustainably.
The courses will translate these ideas into practical everyday solutions and the shop will provide a channel through which entrepreneurs can reach their audience.
Our courses and community cafe connect people, make people feel less isolated and feel more part of their community..
