Supporting our communities

Actions we’ve taken

Climate Change Quarterly Newsletter

We have a quarterly climate change and sustainability e-newsletter which provides subscribers with up-to-date information on what the Council is doing to act on climate change, information on other environmental initiatives in the borough, and top tips for being more sustainable in everyday life. To sign up to the newsletter and receive other periodic updates on the Council’s climate actions, complete the Subscribe to climate change updates online form.

Subscribe to climate change updates

Climate Change Communications Plan

The Council’s annual Climate Change Communications Plan aims to encourage positive behavioural changes amongst the boroughs populations related to climate change and sustainability. 

The first Climate Change Communications Plan was approved at Corporate Management Committee on 21 March 2024 (Opens in new tab) and focussed on anti-idling and food waste. As part of these campaigns, the Council launched the ‘Be a Stop Idol’ campaign. Through our work with primary schools on this campaign, Stop Idol assemblies were delivered in four schools to an estimated 1200 students, with a total of 580 students entering poster competitions in total. Winners were selected in each case and banners of the winning entrants presented back to the schools to be displayed in a suitable location. 

On 20 March 2025, the Council’s Corporate Management Committee (Opens in new tab) approved the annual Climate Change Communications Plan 25/26 focussed on the development of two Environment Champion Networks for Runnymede: one internal staff network and one external community network. The aim of the Environment Champions networks are to promote more environmentally conscious communities, expand and improve knowledge transfer within networks, and support the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities. In addition, this network will enable the Council to improve engagement with communities on environmental action and contributions to the development of Council strategies, extend the reach of Council initiatives, and provide additional environmental ambassadors, internally and within the borough. The report taken to Corporate Management Committee and the approved Communications plan can be viewed in the below documents:

Great Big Green Week

For the last 3 years, Runnymede Borough Council has been involved in Great Big Green Week a national initiative which celebrates community action to act on climate change and protect the environment.

Each year, the Council seeks to join forces with its communities to raise awareness of climate change and encourage further action. At Corporate Management Committee on 25 September 2025, we provided a full evaluation of 2025 and agreed to again support, promote, co-ordinate, provide assistance, and participate in the Great Big Green Week 2026 from 6 to 14 June. Stay up to date with all things Great Big Green Week on our dedicated Great Big Green Week pages.

Runnymede Junior Citizen

In November 2024 and 2025, the Council’s Climate Change & Sustainability team attended Runnymede Junior Citizen at Thorpe Park. Across two weeks, the team were able to engage around 800 year six students from schools across the borough on climate and environmental issues, while helping them to imagine a healthier, happier future for our planet.

In 2024, this was done through using Climate Dice, an engaging storytelling dice game that inspires players to reimagine a better life on planet Earth. Hundreds of stories were written about climate action and encouraging sustainability, and some of the best can be read current Junior Citizen stories.

In 2025, we used Forestry England’s ‘Tree Trumps’ game, modelled on the popular Top Trumps, to teach students about different species of trees that grow in the UK and some of the incredible facts about them. Did you know that the Douglas Fir can live for 1000 years? That the Sitka spruce can grow up to 100 metres tall? Or that the Silver Birch acts as a home for up to 334 species of insect? This game is downloadable for free from the Forestry England website if you’d like to play at home.

LoCASE promotion to businesses

The Low Carbon Across the South and East (LoCASE) programme was supported by the European Regional Development Fund to provide a free business support programme to SMEs in the South and East. The aim was to help businesses to become more competitive and profitable while protecting the environment and encouraging low carbon solutions. 78 businesses in Runnymede enquired about the funding, with 15 being awarded grants, of which 13 were claimed totalling £112,036. It has been estimated that 124 tonnes CO2e will be saved across these businesses per annum.