Second Eco Living Festival at Lion Yard

The second Eco Living Festival will take place at the Lion Yard Shopping Centre on July 6.

The theme of ‘How to Achieve a Low-Impact or Zero Waste Lifestyle @Home’ will be explored in fashion installations, a bathroom/kitchen eco-hack, presentations and workshops “to provide attendees with practical ways to achieve a much more low-impact lifestyle that doesn’t harm our planet”, says founder and producer Caroline Shaheera Asante.

“Continuing on the back of the Eco Living Festival’s success at Lion Yard shopping centre last year we are delighted to be hosting the Eco Living festival for a second year,” says Roger Allen, Lion Yard’s centre manager.

“Sustainability is high on Lion Yard’s agenda, and this year’s line-up of events will be fundamental inspiration on small changes we can make to our lives here in Cambridge to support the planet’s welfare. We are proud to be working with Caroline and the eco-living team to encourage and communicate the Zero-Waste lifestyle message to our community.”

“This year, we are creating the first pop-up eco-lifestyle advice centre in a temporary retail space provided by Lion Yard shopping centre," says Caroline. "This space will be converted into an eco-community space, in which our eco-expert speakers will deliver free-to-attend consumer-facing talks, workshops and masterclasses to inspire greater environmental choices of consumption and provide attendees with practical ways to achieve a much more low-impact lifestyle that doesn’t harm our planet.

"Over the past 18 months, consumers everywhere have become much more aware of the environmental consequences our collective throw-away consumption habits have caused."

The line up of eco-talks and workshops includes:

- Make your own Eco Beauty products and Men’s Grooming Workshops plus give-aways

- A programming partnership with LUSH Lion Yard

- Anglian Water’s Keep It Clear campaign talk reveals the hidden plastic within toiletries

- The Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) will inform consumers on eco-swap feminine hygiene products which save money and do not pollute our rivers and oceans

- Turn crisp packets, sweet wrappers and garden soil bags into eco-bricks

- Learn Vintage Zero Waste Kitchen skills by making reusable cloth food wraps and other items that preserve food without plastic

- Find out what is recyclable and what is not with Recycling Champions.

The event will also feature an exclusive "ocean waste dresses" installation by eco-fashion designer Linda Thomas. Four designs will be on show:

Wave of Waste: This dress is 22 metres long and is made from 100 dumped surf bodyboards found on three Cornish Beaches in 2017. The boards were collected by Keep Britain Tidy and Beachcare SW.

99 Dead Balloons dress and cape: The 99 balloons used in this dress were collected during several community #2minutebeachcleans from shorelines around the UK.

The Ghostnet dress: Made from a Ghostnet (old fishing nets no longer attached to fishing vessels), this dress represents the Ghostgear which floats dangerously in the sea.

The Pantyliner dress: Made from a cargo spill of material found off the coast of Cornwall pulled from the sea in 2018.

Event sponsors include Anglian Water, Lush and the Women’s Environmental Network.