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NEWS & BLOG
01 May, 2025 - By Nita Gula
Going Green!
The issue of climate change in London is neither new nor distant. With increasing heat waves, flash floods and rising living costs driven by environmental pressures, these challenges are being felt across communities, but not equally. Refugees, asylum-seeking people, and migrants often face the hardest impact due to housing insecurity, limited access to resources, and already precarious living conditions. Hence, environmental issues are deeply interconnected with social inequality. It is vital that climate action includes and uplifts those most at risk.
This is why West London Welcome is going GREEN! We have a series of new environmentally sustainable practices and initiatives to address climate injustices more effectively.
The cycle of food production, consumption and waste is responsible for around 30% of global carbon emissions. What’s more, approximately ⅓ of all food in the world goes to waste. However, solutions often begin at the local level. The main way local organisations, charities and residents can help is by disrupting this circular economy. Instead of continuing to ‘take-make-dispose’, we can carry out sustainable consumption and production whilst increasing resource efficiency. Sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling are all ways our community can engage in eco-conscious choices.
At West London Welcome, we are partnered with The Felix Project, a charity which saves surplus food from suppliers, and redistributes it. We cook wonderful meals for our community members every week- but we don’t let our leftovers go to waste either. Remaining groceries from the are taken home by everyone, whilst food scraps from our kitchen are composted on-site and turned into rich, natural fertilizer for our garden. What could have ended up in landfill instead becomes nourishment for our plants—and for the people who tend them. Gardening classes and planting sessions with our Director and Founder Joanne MacInnes, alongside our wonderful volunteers Helen, Rick and Rachel, are a chance for members to reconnect with nature, learn about sustainability, and grow herbs, flowers, and vegetables in a welcoming, green environment. This simple composting system is a small act, but it reflects a larger philosophy: nothing is wasted when we work together. Everyone has something to offer, and every action counts.
Creating green spaces not only cools urban areas, it also improves our mental well-being. Each group nurtures their flowers, from seeds until their bloom. With the help of our greenhouse, once our beautiful flowers and herbs have blossomed, members get to ‘cut and come again’; taking various florals home! As a community centre rooted in values of dignity, inclusion, and sustainability, we’re proud to play a small but meaningful role in tackling the climate crisis—starting with something as simple, and powerful, as compost. By turning waste into life, food into learning, and gardens into gathering spaces, West London Welcome shows that sustainability isn’t just about carbon footprints—it’s about care, community, and justice.
As we continue supporting people fleeing war, persecution, and hardship, we’re also planting the seeds of a more hopeful, more resilient West London.
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Nita Gula is a communications volunteer at West London Welcome.