Get green with GoodGym & Great Big Green Week

GoodGym is green

GoodGym is a community of people who get fit by doing good. GoodGymers run, walk and cycle to do physical tasks for community projects and to support isolated and older people.

By using exercise to positively impact where we live, we make a real difference. GoodGym is committed to becoming the biggest green exercise movement in the UK.

If you like the sound of GoodGym already, head to the website and join a welcoming bunch for your first session. It's completely free to attend.

Great Big Green Week

In just a few years, the Great Big Green Week has quickly become the UK’s largest celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature with over half a million participants last year - and this year should be even greater, bigger and greener.

The theme for 2024 is swapping. Whether it’s swapping clothes, books, skills, knowledge or upcycling, the aim is to minimise waste and get the most from what we already have. GoodGym will be listing myriad sessions focused on swapping between June 8th - 16th in conjunction with Great Big Green Week.

How to get involved

Take part in your Local Green Week between 8th to 16th June, or, set up your own activity and register it, both can be done from the Great Big Green Week website. If you’re eager to make a difference but it sounds daunting, don’t worry. This link has loads of information taking you from zero to climate hero, including coming up with ideas for events.

How about some real world examples from GoodGym?

Clothes swap

York GoodGymers have made a habit of heading to Acomb Community Clothes Swap to lend a hand on the first Saturday of every month. On this occasion the queue was out the door; it was action stations to keep stock rotating and get the new donations out in time.

Skills swap

Simon, the head honcho from Thorlands Gardens in Southwark taught GoodGymers woodworking skills, preventing birds, foxes and other urban wildlife from disturbing their seedlings.

After a brief but detailed demonstration, the team got stuck into some DIY in the sun. Across the 4 GoodGymers taking part we had all experience levels present, including a first time use of a saw for Cherian.

Upcycle

18bn pairs of running shoes are sold each year, that’s more than 2 pairs of new running shoes a year for each individual on the planet, and yet many have no shoes at all. Our friends at JOGON solve this problem by taking unwanted running shoes and distributing them across the globe to those who need them most. This is us at the National Running Show in Birmingham sorting donations after a successful weekend, including a panel discussion hosted by GoodGym CEO, Ivo.

It’s not everyday you can recycle shoes, but plastic is all around us. GoodGymers from Stockport have made a habit of helping a local project displaying innovative ways to reuse plastic waste, most recently they began a mural boasting 250,000 bottle caps.

Knowledge swap

Madiha brought her uncle Afsar, who is visiting from Islamabad, to get stuck in with some repairs to the piglet pen at a local farm in Ealing. An eager volunteer at home in Pakistan, Afsar is also a farmer! Safe to say his expertise was an excellent asset to the team.

The exchange of ideas went both ways however, as Afsar loved the concept of GoodGym so much he wanted to launch GoodGym’s first location abroad in his hometown.

Why now?

By taking action together at the same time in every corner of the country, politicians will be unable to ignore that their constituents care about tackling climate change and protecting nature.

Collectively, we will show decision makers there is a public mandate for policies that create a cleaner, greener, fairer future. The solutions already exist: we need to protect and restore nature in the UK and abroad, swap polluting fossil fuels for affordable renewables.

Want to get green with GoodGym? Find a session in your area