Credit: Mark Chilvers / Balham Library
Great Big Green Week offers companies the opportunity to work with communities to take practical action to benefit the environment, writes Helen Meech, executive director of The Climate Coalition
Green businesses are good at the hard stuff. They invest in supply chains, publish sustainability reports, set science-based targets and retrofit their buildings. They do the work that genuinely matters.
But have you considered where and how you can show up where your customers, employees and communities actually are?
The Great Big Green Week offers that opportunity. It's the UK's only mass moment for nature and climate, bringing communities together across the country to take visible, practical action for the environment. The organisers are expecting two million people to take part in 2026.
In terms of the audience at these events, they are often those who don't routinely engage with ‘green' initiatives, with the 2025 evaluation showing that a third of participants had never been to a climate or nature event before. In addition, research from Climate Outreach shows that 74 per cent of people across the UK consider climate change important. They care about clean air, green spaces and the future their children will inherit.
These are not people who are disengaged or against the idea of sustainability. They simply had not previously found a way in, and Great Big Green Week, which meets people where they are, gave them one.
Given that green businesses spend considerable time and energy communicating with people who already share their values, there is, potentially, a new layer of your audience attending these events.
Businesses get involved in Great Big Green Week in a range of ways.
Co-op will mark Great Big Green Week by encouraging over seven million of its members and colleagues to take part in community events, bringing Great Big Green Week directly into the high streets and neighbourhoods where its customers and colleagues live and work.
GoodGym sessions will take place across the country as part of a new 'Workout for the Future' campaign, offering free and accessible sessions where people can run, walk or cycle to local community projects and take part in environmental activities.
BT will once again light up its iconic tower with the Great Big Green Week Logo. Faith in Nature is hosting an event. Better Business Network hosted a business webinar and are doing four business breakfast events. Water Plus and Bloomsbury Publishing are also seeing the benefits of supporting Great Big Green Week through their communications.
Others will open their doors to their community or staff will organise events such as clothes swaps and pollinator planting, showcasing their green credentials on the same day as other local events are happening. We know some businesses enable staff to volunteer time to support community actions, or attend local events. Overall, it's a ready-made opportunity to open your doors to your existing and potential customers.
Many of these business-led actions don't require big budgets or dedicated events teams. However demonstrating commitment to sustainability during a national moment shows that its more than a line in an annual report.
This matters more than it might seem. Trust in business on environmental issues remains fragile, and consumers are sceptical of green claims they cannot see evidenced in the real world. The businesses best placed to build lasting credibility are not necessarily those with the most ambitious net zero targets but those whose communities can see them taking action alongside everyone else.
There is also a staff engagement dimension that is easy to underestimate. Employees at green businesses often choose to work there because they care about the values of the organisation. Giving them a meaningful way to connect those values to the place they live, whether through a volunteering day, a community event or a partnership with a local group during Great Big Green Week, builds loyalty and pride in a way that an internal comms campaign rarely achieves.
The practical barriers to getting involved are low. Events can be as simple as opening your doors for a community talk, running a staff litter pick, partnering with a local school or hosting a discussion on a topic relevant to your sector. The infrastructure already exists, the national moment already exists and the audience is already there.
What businesses often tell us is that they want to do more community engagement but struggle to know where to start or how to attach it to something meaningful. Great Big Green Week solves that problem. It provides a shared frame, a national audience and a ready-made reason to act that goes beyond your own brand.
The green transition will not be won on targets alone. It will be won when enough people across the UK can see it happening around them, in their high streets, their workplaces and their communities. Green businesses have a role to play in making that visible, and the opportunity to do exactly that happens every June.
Helen Meech is executive director of The Climate Coalition.
To find out how your business can get involved in Great Big Green Week 2026, visit greatbiggreenweek.com.
