Get involved at ZERO
We want to empower our volunteers to get involved and drive the direction of ZERO and have exciting things that they do while in ZERO. We’d like to invite our volunteers to join the projects that interest you and help take ZERO to the next level.
Our projects are split into six areas. Click an area to see the projects, or scroll down to browse all of them.
Climate Communication
Climate Communication Affinity Group
How we talk about climate change is critical to the success we have in tackling it. And as it turns out, we’ve all been doing it wrong! Narratives around ‘future generations’ reinforce a lack of urgency in peoples’ minds, and doom & gloom approaches are proven to de-motivate people. Positivity breeds action, and finding a way to balance the reality of the climate crisis with the potential to avert the worst of it is what we’ll be trying to do in this group.
Things to get involved in:
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Help to create & deliver a comprehensive climate communications strategy
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Get carbon literacy training
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Research the latest work on effective engagement strategies
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Get out into the community, LISTEN, learn, and engage to help build collaborative climate action locally
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Become a peer to peer ‘messenger’ who can help people in your demographic make the contagious behaviour changes that spread climate action
If you want to help is all become effective climate communicators then email Ben on ben@zerocarbonguildford.org
Green Read Share
The Green Read Share is a library of climate and environment books available for the public to borrow. We would like to expand the library with new books and produce topic guides to indicate where people should start and continue learning about specific topics as well as linking in to online resources.
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If you would like to get involved, please contact Sam (sam@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Schools & Youth Groups
The schools and youth group is responsible for engaging the next generation of environmentalists. We do this via arranging visits to Zero by schools, scouts/guides and other groups and tailoring their visit to focus on specific topics relevant to their age and interests. We also engage with schools for specific campaigns that Zero is running and get the message out.
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If you would like to get involved, please contact Steph (steph@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Climate Cinema
The Climate Cinema runs regular showings of films relating to the climate and/or environment in some way. In the past we've had up to around 50 people attend our showings, which we run upstairs in ZERO. We have a great projector and sound system which makes ZERO a really cool place to watch a film.
Things to get involved in:
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Researching and choosing films to show
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Emailing film creators/distributors to get a license to show the film publicly
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Creating promotional material for the showings (posters/social media posts/videos etc)
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Planning for our post-showing group discussions
If you're interested in getting involved with the Climate Cinema, contact David (david@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Climate Quiz
ZERO runs a semi-regular quiz night with some general knowledge, and some questions that are loosely climate/environment related. It's a fun evening, and a great way to get people into ZERO who may not usually come.
Things to get involved in:
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Coming up with questions for the next quiz
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Coming up with new exciting rounds for the quiz, like picture rounds or music rounds or anything else you can think of!
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Creating promotional material for the showings (posters/videos etc)
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Maybe even trying your hand at being Quiz Master!
If you're interested in getting involved with the Climate Quiz, contact David (david@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Energy
Green Your Home Zone
In the depths of ZERO, you will find the Green Your Home Zone: our physical display of information, tips and technology to help the community in all things home energy.
It is currently in a ‘semi complete’ state, with the beginnings of what could be a fantastic and engaging display, and we already have plans to make some of this happen!
Things to get involved in:
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Researching information (tips, technologies etc.) that can be displayed
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Researching resources (websites, apps, tools, organisations) which we can point people to
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Designing and building display elements
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Preparing information for volunteers to help them communicate the displays
If you're interested in getting involved with the Green Your Home Zone, contact Olivia (olivia@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Community Energy
Community energy can mean so much - communities getting together to buy energy efficiency solutions, bulk purchase energy, generate their own electricity, share knowledge and information… We are exploring what it means for us, with the help of Community Energy South, who are providing mentoring and guidance. We are in the early stages, but have big aspirations to install renewable generation infrastructure and bring together actionable advice for Guildford residents as to how to decrease the impact of their home.
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What can you do?
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Join the team! Once we get a little further, this will need lots of planning, marketing, coordinating, strategizing - you could be part of that team!
If you're interested in getting involved with the Green Your Home Zone, contact Olivia (olivia@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Environment
Biodiversity
The aim of the biodiversity area is to promote and encourage the work being carried out in Guildford to tackle the threat of biodiversity loss in our Borough. The biodiversity zone in ZERO is on the right hand side on the ground floor behind the stage. The zone includes a map of the area, centered on Guildford, which has been produced by the Guildford Environmental Forum in collaboration with the Surrey Wildlife Trust. It shows areas of countryside that have specific designations (eg Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s)) and links to local projects, which show examples where local groups are improving the local biodiversity.
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Specific displays in ZERO currently include Chitty’s Common, Dragonfly Conservation, Merrow Residents Association, Pewley Down Volunteers, Pewley Meadows, RHS Wisley, Rosamund Community garden, RSPB Guildford, Surrey Hills AONB and the Unstead Nature Group. You can find out where these groups are located, the history of the organization, how they are improving local biodiversity and how you can make contact if you wish to find out more or to volunteer.
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Things to get involved in are:
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Providing or helping with new displays that will publicise examples of local biodiversity success stories such as the swift nest box project.
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Updating and refreshing existing displays, working in collaboration with the group that provided the original displays and helping to creating new interactive displays
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Helping with display information on Guildford’s progress in implementing its decision to become an Pesticide and Herbicide-free Borough.
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Helping to monitor the stock of brochures and other publicity materials and topping-up from stock as necessary.
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Volunteering to help any of the above biodiversity projects or initiating new projects.
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If you are interested in finding out more or getting involved with the biodiversity section of ZERO, please contact Adrian by phone on 01483 222687 or e-mail to adrian@lampcottage.net.
Air Quality
ZERO has been working with the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) at the University of Surrey to bring their expertise in Air Quality to ZERO. We are cooperating with them on several fronts. BUT, what we’re currently working on is a live air quality display to show the public what the air quality is right HERE, right NOW. We’re using a GCARE air quality sensor which we’ve installed on the outside of the building. We’ve got a display in the window to catch the public’s attention as they pass by, and in the next stage we’re going to build an interactive display using a large touchscreen TV to go inside ZERO. If you’re interested in air quality, and/or have software skills, this is the project for you!
Things to get involved in:
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Helping to build and improve our interactive air quality display
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Helping to figure out how we communicate air quality to the general public
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Suggesting and working on any other future air quality project
If you're interested in getting involved with the ZERO Air Quality team, contact David (david@zerocarbonguildford.org).
Wey Water Watchers
Interested in water health? Waterways are the life force for all ecosystems and there are no climate problems that don't include water! We're testing water quality on the River Wey! Every month, we're conducting water quality sampling for water chemistry (with results in the field, right away). By collecting baseline water quality, we can understand what's normal and help make evidence-informed decisions for our river. It's just one part of water stewardship we're setting up. The water testing in Guildford will be combined with efforts upstream in Guildford and Liphook so we'll get a better snapshot of our river's health.
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Things to get involved in:
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Join us once a month as a water quality leader or as a volunteer in a team.
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Become part of a citizen science project to clean up the Wey and make St Catherine’s bridge are a designated wild swimming spot
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Set locations, record and input testing data liaise with testers at other points on the Wey
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Be part of a friendly & enthusiastic team, and discuss results over a delicious coffee back at ZERO after a testing session!
If you're interested in getting involved with Wey Water Watchers, contact Kat at kat@waterrangers.ca. Keep your eye on our events page for the next session.
Circular Economy/Waste
Community Fridge
Our Community fridge (CF) saves perfectly good food which is about to be thrown away by local supermarkets, and distributes it for free to our lovely local community, helping to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill. We want to encourage everyone to come and take the food freely - the goal is to reduce food waste emissions.
Our CF is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1030pm to 4pm.
We have received £4k of funding from the Co-op, supported by the Community Fridge Network, to set up the Community fridge and we currently have regular donations of food from Waitrose, M & S, Aldi and the Co-op.
There are two roles currently which require volunteers on Tuesday and Thursday mornings:
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Collection of food from the supermarkets (car needed)
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Helping inside Zero to weigh and display the food, ensuring that high food hygiene standards are maintained (fridge temperature, cleanliness, good food handling, allergy awareness)
Both roles require a limited time commitment - about an hour (food collection) up to 1.5-2 hours (inside Zero). The Thursday “Inside Zero” role does include a collection of food by trolley from M & S which is quite fun!
You can choose to help on a week-by-week basis by signing up to shifts on our volunteer system, Better Impact. We also have a What’s App group of fridge volunteers to make sure that no food collections are missed that week.
We need help on Tuesday and Thursday mornings - and we would be grateful for whatever time you can contribute.
We run quarterly induction/training sessions to understand how the CF operates and what food regulations have to be observed.
Please go to our website for our Volunteers Section and on that page, scroll down and choose “Community Fridge Volunteer - Apply for this role”
For any questions or offers of food from supermarkets, please do not hesitate to contact Julie: (julie@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Library of Things
The Library of Things is a relatively new community project dependent on a growing number of enthusiastic volunteers. If you are passionate about the idea and have a little time to spare, we’d love to have you on board!
What can you do:
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Librarian of things
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Want to meet new people and solve problems? The librarian of things keeps the library running every week. You’ll look after customers, care and maintain things, and help keep us all organised.
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Item repairer
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Give things a second lease on life and share your knowledge with the community. If you’ve any experience with PAT testing, that’s a big plus!
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Behind the scenes
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Help us behind the scenes to build our community with awesome marketing and events, keep our processes and finances tight. Or, go rogue and propose our next adventure!
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One-off volunteer
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Got another cool skill you want to share? Maybe your hours change like the weather. Don’t worry. Provided you have some vision of what you want to do, we’re always open to supporting causes that further our main objective
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If you’re interested in getting involved, contact Tom (thomas@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Terracycle
Zero collects hard to recycle items to send to Terracycle. In order to send it away we need to ensure it is correctly sorted, as the rules are quite complicated, and then weighed. It is best to do this little and often so even a small amount of time can be helpful.
If you're interested in getting involved, contact Mark (mark@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Vertical Farming
It is really something to watch a small (3-5cm) seedling turn into a full plant in just a few weeks. On top of that, you can get about 3 times the amount of food using about 10% of the water & space as traditional farming, weeds aren’t an issue, & any pests are relatively easy to take care of without using chemical pesticides. You just need water (dechlorinated), the right pH and nutrient level (checked weekly), and possibly electricity for the lights if you aren’t getting enough natural UV for the tower. There is a chart & guideline sheet in the Cafe section of ZERO to help accomplish these tasks. It is important to recognize potential problems like the common insects you have to check for, mold or excess algae growth, yellowing leaves, & even signs of over-/under-watering; and, of course, know how to solve those problems if they arise. And eventually the plants need to be replaced, so it’s important to know how to start seedlings in the substrate material. All that work pays off when you can harvest fresh produce on nearly a weekly basis.
If you would like to get involved, please contact Steph (steph@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Waste
We all produce rubbish and we want to minimise what goes to landfill. The waste group will be responsible for creating displays within Zero and organising events and campaigns around waste reduction, reuse and recycling. There currently isn’t much activity in this area so any ideas are welcome!
Change The System
Sustainable Business Network
In partnership with the University Of Surrey we are excited to announce that we will soon be launching a local Sustainable Business Network! The official launch will be in August, but we have funding to run a pre-launch phase between now to the end of July.. Business makes up 25-30% of emissions in the borough, and there is appetite among SMEs to take urgent steps to build resilience into their companies, so finding the most effective ways to help them decarbonise, whilst improving sustainability throughout their operations is a key challenge.
Things to get involved in:
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Champion existing sustainability initiatives locally, to help encourage other businesses to do more, and help customers identify the most sustainable businesses to use
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Develop pathways for businesses to implement which help make dramatic reductions in emissions and improve sustainability. Root out the red herrings and help businesses find the most effective tools for decarbonisation
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Develop mechanisms which encourage start ups, social enterprises etc who are focused on sustainability to choose Guildford & Surrey as a home
To volunteer for the Sustainable Business Network contact David Stokes (david.stokes@zerocarbonguildford.org)
Active Travel & Transport
E-Cargo Bike Trial Scheme
We've partnered with Electric Bikes Guildford to offer a try-before-you-buy scheme for electric cargo bikes. We have one of their bikes in the window of ZERO, but more work is needed to get the scheme off the ground.
Things to get involved with:
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Help decide how the scheme will run, in conjunction with Electric Bikes Guildford
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Create some promotional material for the scheme, like posteres and videos
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Take the bike to local events to promote the scheme
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Help keep the bike in great condition
If you're interested in getting involved with the E-Cargo Bike Trial Scheme, contact David (david@zerocarbonguildford.org).
ZERO Bike Station
We'd like to make it easier to cycle to Guildford town centre. Whilst we can't go build cycle paths on our own, we can make ZERO a useful place for cyclists. We'd like to create a bike rack in ZERO for people to leave their bikes when they come to us. But more than that, we'd like to have a bike work-stand next to it, and provide some tools and supplies so that people can make emergency repairs to their bike if they get stuck in town with a flat tire (for example).
Things to get involved with:
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Design and build our bike rack/work stand with our resident carpenters
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Plan out the tools we need, how we'll keep them secure whilst still making them usable
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Create some promotional material for the Bike Station (posters/videos)
If you're interested in getting involved with the ZERO Bike Station project, contact David (david@zerocarbonguildford.org).