Meet the 26 projects bringing Greenlight to life across Edinburgh this year

From mushroom forests and community gardens to cargo bikes, sewing skills and neighbourhood planning, 26 community-led projects are getting underway across Edinburgh with support from this year’s Greenlight Fund.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been introducing the groups, organisations and individuals behind them. Together, they show just how many different ways communities are responding to the climate and nature crisis - growing food, sharing skills, creating space for nature, reducing waste, rethinking how we travel and helping people shape the places they live.

Now that our announcements are complete, here’s a look at what’s coming to communities across the city.

Chosen by the community

This year, projects applying for more than £5,000 went to a city-wide community vote. More than 500 people voted across 22 shortlisted projects, with three projects selected for funding.

Gorgie Farm – Expanding access, engagement and learning at Gorgie Community Farm
Funding will help more people access and get involved with the farm, creating new opportunities for volunteering, learning and practical activity at this much-loved community space.

Bikes for Refugees – 100 Free Bikes for Mobility & Freedom
Bikes for Refugees will repair and refurbish 100 bicycles for refugees and people seeking asylum, providing access to sustainable transport alongside greater independence and freedom of movement.

Edinburgh Tool Library – Choose L.I.F.E. (Leith Improvements For Edinburgh!)
Free workshops in Leith will bring people together to transform reclaimed materials into useful things for Edinburgh’s greenspaces – building practical skills while getting more people involved in hands-on climate action.

A huge thank you to everyone who explored the shortlisted projects and took the time to vote.

23 more projects taking action across Edinburgh

Alongside the community vote, 23 projects received Greenlight awards of up to £5,000 – supporting ideas at different scales and in neighbourhoods across the city.

There’s a strong thread of food, growing and sharing skills running through this year’s projects. Fresh Start (Scotland) will bring folks together through food growing in North Edinburgh, while Grow2Eat, a collaboration between Leith Walk Police Box and Settlement Projects, will provide free compost, resources and growing advice for people with or without a garden.

Edinburgh Food Project is creating a community garden alongside its Craigmillar foodbank, while the Community Foundation for Planetary Healing will offer free growing and cooking workshops. Rhyze Mushrooms is creating an outdoor ‘mushroom forest’ to demonstrate low-input shiitake growing, and Starcatchers will bring families and babies together to grow food, connect with nature and co-create a climate-positive cookbook.

Across the city, projects are also creating more space for nature, biodiversity and community connection. North Edinburgh Arts will bring local people together to boost biodiversity in its garden, Corstorphine in Bloom will support climate-ready planting, and Friends of Meadowfield Park will work with local schools and the wider community to protect and improve biodiversity.

Teens+ (Capella) students will help create habitats and enhance biodiversity at Jock Tamson’s Gairden, while The Green Team’s Neurospicy project will create safe nature-based spaces for neurodivergent young people.

Repairing, reusing and moving differently

Greenlight is also supporting practical ways to use resources differently and work to reduce waste.

Edinburgh Open Workshop will run a free Alterations Club, helping people develop the skills to alter their clothes and keep them in use for longer, while Remode Collective will share sustainable sewing skills with teenagers and young adults.

BANZAI Bikes will develop its Weekend Wheels Community Hub, creating more opportunities to access bikes, while CaDi Couriers Ltd will build on its work around sustainable deliveries.

Jessie Lindsay and Bee Asha, working with the support of 2050 Climate Group and its Leaders Network, are developing the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Services Directory, connecting creative producers with more sustainable services and suppliers and exploring how Edinburgh’s festival and cultural sector can reduce its environmental impact.

Creativity, community and changing the bigger picture

Some of this year’s projects are using arts and creativity as a way into climate action.

Art Walk Projects’ Resilient Seed will bring planting workshops and seed walks to Portobello, building knowledge and confidence around locally resilient plants. Art Buds Collective’s Earth Stars will work with young people in Bingham, using creativity to explore nature and imagine a more sustainable community future.

Active Inquiry will use Legislative Theatre to explore how the rules and systems around us could change to support climate action, while Edinburgh Can B’s Edinburgh SOUP will bring people together over food to hear, support and fund community ideas for a more inclusive, fair and environmentally sustainable city.

Other projects are looking at change on a neighbourhood and city-wide scale. Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council, Merchiston District Community Council and BANZAI will work with communities across South Central Edinburgh through Sustaining Our Neighbourhood in 2040, exploring how neighbourhoods can prepare for a changing climate.

Edinburgh Community Food will develop a community-led Food Systems Partnership, supporting work towards longer-term food systems change across Edinburgh, while Edible Estates will take forward its Edinburgh Community Led Climate Adaptation Programme.

The announcements may be finished, but the projects are just beginning.

Greenlight isn’t only about getting projects funded. It’s about what happens next – the people who meet, skills that are shared, things that get built and grown, and ideas that become part of communities across Edinburgh.

So while this is the last of our Greenlight announcements, there’s plenty more to come.

Over the coming year, we’ll be following these 26 projects as they develop and sharing their progress, stories and learning. We’ll also keep you updated on opportunities to volunteer, join a workshop or event, learn something new or get involved with a project near you. Make sure to sign up to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram to stay in the know.

Thank you to everyone who applied and congratulations to those receiving Greenlight funding this year. We’re really excited to work alongside you and see what happens next.