About GBGW

"A NATIONAL WEEK OF EVENTS CELEBRATING ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE"

The Great Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature.

Every year, people come together to unleash a wave of support for action to protect the planet. Tens of thousands of people in every corner of the country celebrate the heartfelt, brave, everyday actions being taken to stand up for nature and fight climate change.

In 2024, Great Big Green Week will take place between 8th and 16th June.

The first Great Big Green Week took place in September 2021, and was the largest event for climate and nature ever seen in the UK. Over 5,000 events celebrated how communities are taking action to tackle climate change and protect green spaces, and encouraged others to get involved too.

Communities came together once more in September 2022 to show how people everywhere are ready and willing to take action to tackle climate change. Over a quarter of a million people got involved, and national organisations, institutions, businesses and media outlets joined in, ultimately putting pressure on the government to up its game on climate change.

GBGW in bedford

Following on from the success of several previous Bedford Sustainability Week events taking place online in 2020/2021, Bedfordshire Climate Change Forum decided to take it further and run a Great Big Green Week in Bedford.

Cory Walker, who is the main coordinator for the week got involved through the running of the sustainability weeks, and also is the local community lead for Plastic Free Bedford and Refill Bedford (Amongst a lot of other environment work!)

So from 18th until 26th September 2021, we got together to organise the first of many Great Big Green Weeks here in Bedford.

We did not have much time to prepare, however we had a fantastic schedule of over 20 different events and activity related to tackling climate change or other key environmental issues. 2021 was a big year due to the COP26 summit which took place after GBGW.

Great Big Green Week returned for 2022 from Saturday 24th September until Sunday 2nd October, and in Bedford , we had over 30 events and activities taking place throughout the week.

The 2022 Great Big Green Week in Bedford was a huge success! We managed to get some coverage of the events taking place on Bedford Radio, BBC Three Counties Radio , Greatest Hits Radio , BBC Look East , Bedford Independent, Explore Bedford, and much more!

In 2023, Great Big Green Week in Bedford happened between Saturday 10th until Sunday 18th June, with a total of 37 various events and activities taking place throughout the week!

Great Big Green Week in 2024

Great Big Green Week is returning in 2024 from Saturday 8th until Sunday 16th June, and once again in Bedford, we are looking to organise another week of action, activities and events.

We hope to have lots of events once again, some familiar ones as well as new events that reinvent the wheel a bit and reach new people.

We are a small team of environmental activists wanting to draw attention to the dawning realisation that humanity is on the brink of fighting for our very lives due to the climate emergency.

Please join us for a week of environmental education and find out how you can help people and the planet survive.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at any of the events that have been organised for the week whether that be online or in the town centre.

GBGW Bedford In Numbers - 2024

10 Events and activities taking place throughout the week

(Updated on Friday 19th April 2024)

Whats On