About Us

Bristol Friends of the Earth is an active local group of the international environmental organisation Friends of the Earth. We currently run campaigns on Bristol airport expansion, local food, local transport and sustainable housing. We hold a monthly group meeting plus separate campaign meetings.

If you would like to know more about us, to help us by campaigning or raising money, or want to come to a meeting to see what we do then please get in touch. 

Key Dates from 30+ Years of Bristol FoE

Bristol Friends of the Earth began in 1971. Over the years, hundreds of activists and thousands of members have played their crucial role in helping to defend the local and wider environment. This brief history is a mere snapshot of all the passion and heartache - some battles have been won, but many lost. Today Bristol FoE is still hard at it and we appreciate your ongoing support and donations, which is our only source of funding to campaign in your local environment. Here’s a summary of BFoE’s work.

Find out more about how you could get involved

Key Dates from the 1970s
• October 1971 Bristol Friends of the Earth launched - non-returnable bottles dumped at Schweppes office in Brislington as one of the first 8 local groups in the country.
• First office opened in Brunel House.
• Recycling activity starts when the Council stopped.
• Coordinator threatened with eviction for storing a ton of waste paper under the stairs. Money from recycling used to insulate old people’s houses.
• Campaign against Outer Circuit Road through North Bristol - the road was never completed!
• Set up free bus service for Christmas shoppers.
• Bristol FoE Coordinator the first paid regional worker.
• Funeral procession with 40-foot inflatable whale through centre for Save the Whales campaign.
• Waste land in Easton adopted by Dig-in campaign to grow food locally but found to be contaminated.
• Bristol FoE joins chartered train for rally at Windscale (now Sellafield) as part of developing nuclear campaign.
• Local nuclear demonstration converted 8 tea chests into plutonium container manoeuvred through Broadmead by armed guards.
• Cycle Rally and campaign leads to the setting up of Cyclebag, the new cycling campaign group. 10 cycle racks donated to Broadmead.

Key Dates from the 1980s
• Loft Insulation project funded by Youth Opportunity Programme.
• Parsnip Soufflé - vegetarian recipes in the newsletter
• Lead-free petrol campaign pickets car show rooms to promote European agreements on catalysts.
• Acid Rain cycle ride to Didcot power station.
• Severn Estuary campaign highlights water pollution and crazy barrage proposal.
• Chernobyl disaster events.
• Avonmouth campaign raises pressure to reduce cocktail of pollution from emissions with some success.
• Forest Alert walks in local woods show tree die-back due to Acid Rain.
• Stop Hinkley Expansion alliance - long Public Enquiry ends in scrapping plans for a Pressurised Water Reactor.
• Cities for People alliance with the Bristol Civic Society, Cyclebag and Bristol Bridge promotes pedestrianisation of Deanery Road (successfully completed in 1992).
• Avon Metro events supporting light Rail in Bristol (what’s new).
• Aerosals disguising FoE members demonstrate threat to ozone layer from CFC’s.

Key Dates from the 1990’s
• Public urged to write to Chris Patten to demand the elimination of all ozone depleting chemicals.
• 800 postcard objections to the 55 million pound Bristol Spine Road, prompted through a campaign to raise local awareness.
• Severn Estuary campaign pressurises for protection under the Ramsar Wetlands Convention and the Special Protection Area European designation. A ‘mudcake’ is delivered to the Department of the Environment at Tollgate House as a reminder that 1,000 days had passed since designation was promised.
• Usk Barrage victory.
• Inflatable chainsaw wielded in shopping areas as part of the Great Chainsaw Massacre Campaign to stop the import of timber from rainforests.
• Letters written to local supermarkets asking them to stock returnable bottles and campaign to return people to buying milk in bottles.
• Rubbish collected at the Avon Gorge Clean-up campaign transformed by children into scupltures including a fifteen foot dinosaur, a fairy, a bumble bee and a selection of robots.
£150 raised through the Christmas sales of Picton’s Poison beer at the Bristol Brewhouse.
• Top Park Field in Ashton Court threatened by quarry expansion - demonstrations in city centre dance along to the sounds of the Ambling band. (The planning application for expansion has now, sadly, been approved, though the fight goes on.)
• Organic wine tasting for reasons of publicity only (ahem).
Growing Asthma Stop Pollution (GASP) campaign - 130 GPs sign statement of concern.
• Generation Earth youth project makes contact with over 1,000 young people in ans around Bristol, Presentations and workshops include life cycle analysis of everyday items, a recycled fashion show and the calculation of pollution caused by journeys to school.

Key Dates from 1995 onwards
• Ashton Court quarry campaign and camp gains much local support, and causes the company huge financial losses. Unfortunately the Quarry extension still goes ahead.
• The Right to Know Campaign was started in 1996 following the explosion at the Avonmouth depot of Allbright and Wilson. They campaigned for openness about toxic emissions from factories and persuaded the then Environment Minister to set up a League table of worst offenders releasing toxic emissions into the environment.

• The Nuclear campaign informed local residents in Bristol about Nuclear Waste being transported through their back yard. They were instrumental in organising public meetings, street theatres, and actions in conjunction with “Stop Hinkley” and “CND” which stopped Oldbury Common using Magrox. They continue to campaign for the closure of Oldbury Power Station in Avonmouth.

• The Housing campaign highlighted the fact that 5500 thousand properties were empty in Bristol and held a travelling art exhibition mimicking Estate Agent adverts for properties for sale. They also contributed to Regional Planning Guidance and ‘The Bristol Foyer.’

• Bristol FoE campaigned against the building of a new superstore, IKEA, in Easton, which still went ahead. Some Bristol FoE volunteers opened a small, recycled furniture shop nearby for a week as an alternative.

• BEAP (Bristol Environmental Accessibility Project) received a grant and completed a questionnaire about disabled groups and the environment. A more accessible computer and minicom has been set up in the office. They are currently planning talks to the deaf community.

• Generation Earth continued raising awareness of environmental issues amongst Bristol’s youth and was granted funding from the National Lotteries Charity Board from 1998 - 2000 to run school projects; for example, building a ‘pedal-powered sound system’ and running eco-friendly trainer marketing workshops.

• CAKE (Constructive Action in the Knackered Environment) was started by a group of young volunteers in 1997. Since then, CAKE has painted a mural at Trinity Community Garden, made an informative video on GM food for young people, and participated in international environmental conferences.

• We moved downstairs to a larger office to increase accessibility to all and to raise our profile locally.

• The Allotments campaign was started in 1999 by a Land is Ours activist who recently wrote a national allotments guide. We have linked up with ‘Stoney Lane Allotment Gardeners’ and ‘pear’, and have highlighted the current allotment situation within the Bristol Area.

• Bristol Permaculture Group, started after courses led by Mike Feingold, burst out into a number of gardening projects around Bristol. They use FoE office to produce their Newsletter.