Who are Green Squirrel?
We are Cardiff’s bridge between community wellbeing and climate and nature action, making space for everyone to shape and share a greener future.
Our vision is a Wales where people, communities, and nature thrive together.
Green Squirrel was founded in 2012 and became a Community Interest Company in 2015.
From our beginnings as two friends teaching green skills in Cardiff’s coffee shops, we’ve established a thriving community resilience hub and become a leading voice in Cardiff and South Wales for the power of communities to develop and sustain local climate and nature solutions.
Our story
Long, long ago (well, 2012) there were plans underway to create a community supermarket for Cardiff, called Siop Y Bobl. A bake sale was organised to raise funds and Hannah, who had recently moved to Cardiff offered to go pick up a cake from Becca, who had recently returned from travelling. We got chatting… little did we know where that random door-step cake handover would lead!
We – Becca and Hannah – quickly realised that we shared a similar goal: creating opportunities in Cardiff for people like us to learn practical skills to help us make greener choices. For our first project together we worked with Cardiff secondary schools, supporting pupils to design pop up gardens based around climate resilient gardening techniques from around the world.
Since then we’ve held supper clubs in polytunnels, thrown a party for a tree, made a mini monster movie, dressed members of the public up as mermaids and so much more – all with the aim of finding creative ways to translate climate and nature action into something everyone can feel, shape, and benefit from. In 2014 we took the first wobbly steps to exploring whether we could create a physical space for people to come together, and in 2021 we opened the gates to Railway Gardens: a welcoming, green community hub on a formerly derelict site, that is starting to model alternative ways of communities working together for a stronger future for Cardiff.
Today Green Squirrel occupies a unique place in Cardiff’s environmental and community sectors: We combine the strengths of an environmental organisation and a community anchor but we are not limited by the traditional boundaries of either. We work to create space for cross-sector collaboration where residents, organisations, and partners can learn from each other and co-create solutions. If you like the sound of what we do then we invite you to be part of the next chapter in our story. you can join us as a volunteer, a supporter, or simply come along to one of our events.
Our values
courage
We believe in the power of brave voices and bold action - both individual and collective - to get us out of this mess.
connection
Sharing, collaborating, and learning from others makes our work more inclusive and impactful.
trust
Strong communities are built on trust and care, and these are the keys to lasting, positive change.
Our impact
In 2025 we directly supported a total of 3,889 people in south Wales to take action for climate, nature, and community wellbeing, and we indirectly supported an additional 3,330 by providing support and free or subsidised use of our space for their own activities.
72% of the people we've worked with tell us they feel more connected to their community as a result, and 98% say that Railway Gardens benefits our local community.
We fought to bring an abandoned patch of land in Splott, Cardiff back into community use; today it is a beautiful and thriving Community Resilience Hub, Railway Gardens.
95.5% of the people we work with feel that we're an environmentally sustainable organisation
100% of our volunteers say they would recommend volunteering with us to someone else!
One in three people we work with have made one or more changes in their life to take action on climate change.
Our team
Rebecca Clark
Becca is Green Squirrel’s founder. Passionate about environmental issues from an early age, Becca was frustrated by the barriers to living sustainably in her adopted city of Cardiff. She has channelled her experience in community engagement and event management to found and grow Green Squirrel and build a strong network of green experts and professionals, as well as a community of like minded individuals.
In her spare time Becca can be found in her garden growing way too many tomatoes.
Hannah Garcia
Hannah has a background in sustainability engagement and outdoor learning, and she’s interested in climate communication and active travel. Having worked in museums, nature reserves, and urban farms she ran her own food and farming education business before joining Green Squirrel after a chance meeting with Becca involving some cake.
Hannah spends her spare time messing around with chickens, swearing, and learning Welsh very, very slowly.
Julia Forrester
Julia is the Community Coordinator for the Railway Gardens project. Her working life started as a support worker for Global Majority women, but along the way she has held many roles in both the Private and Charity sectors, including Volunteer, Team Manager, Board Member, Volunteer Coordinator and most recently Retail and Fundraising Coordinator.
Julia has lived in Splott for almost twenty years and brings her warmth, enthusiasm, and valuable experience to her role supporting community members to take the lead on the Railway Gardens project.
Sophia Endicott is our amazing Comms and Admin Assistant, supporting everything from programme planning to evaluation.
Sheila Littleboy leads our weekly Wellbeing Cafe, bringing her experience of therapeutic horticulture.
Paula Dunster leads on Friendly Friday cookery sessions, making sure everyone is able to get involved with cooking and sharing a nutritious meal.
Helen Edwards is our community gardener, supporting local people to grow edible and beautiful crops and develop Railway Gardens to be a space that works for them.
Fiona Childs supports families at Railway Gardens. She leads on our popular nature club as well as representing us among local networks focussed on children and young people.
Our governance
We are a Community Interest Company, also known as a CIC, a type of social enterprise. This means that, (unlike a charity) we do aim to make a profit, but rather than any profit we make going into our pockets, or the pockets of shareholders, it goes right back into our community.
What does this mean in practice? Firstly, we have what’s called an asset lock. This means that if Green Squirrel were ever to close down, all our resources and funds would go to a nominated organisation that works to provide the same kind of community benefit as us.
Secondly, when we charge for our services, such as venue hire, or corporate services, any profit we make is used to benefit our community. This often means keeping Railway Gardens opened and staffed, and making sure we’re supporting our volunteers properly, wherever our grant funding doesn’t stretch.
So what does this mean for you? It means you can be confident that whenever you spend money with Green Squirrel, or make a donation, you’re investing in community and helping to build a greener, fairer future for Cardiff.
Our Board of Directors acts as a ‘critical friend’, making sure Green Squirrel is always working in line with our values, our commitment to our community, and our legal responsibilities. This includes things like having oversight of our finances, ensuring we’re on track to meet targets, and helping to decide strategy.
Chris Tweed, Board Chair, is Emeritus Professor in Sustainable Design and former Head of the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. He has previously worked at Queen’s University Belfast, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh), and the University of Edinburgh. Since retiring from full time work, Chris provides consultancy services to universities government bodies on sustainability in the built environment. He is an Emergency Response Volunteer with the British Red Cross and previously volunteered with Greenpeace in Edinburgh.
Kate Oprava, Finance Director, joined the Green Squirrel Board in 2020. Kate qualified as a Chartered Accountant with one of the Big Four accountancy firms in London before moving to KPMG’s corporate finance department in Cardiff. Since then, she has worked for a number of organizations in both finance and IT roles. She has worked for several third sector organizations and is currently working as Finance Director for an environmental charity. Kate has a keen interest in the environment and is also an active member and trustee of Cardiff Rivers Group.
Lucie Taylor is a qualified town planner having gained membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 2001. She has 27 years’ experience of working in the town planning field. Since 2013, she has been working for Social Farms & Gardens and running their CLAS Cymru Service. She has a sound knowledge of the town and country planning system in Wales and is well versed in helping community groups (such as Green Squirrel) gain access to land for their community green space projects.
Mark Drane is an experienced practitioner and researcher with 20 years’ experience. He works across the fields of public health, urbanism, and architecture. His work addresses the wider determinants of health, focused on promoting holistic wellbeing, and reducing health inequities.
His doctoral research, Healthy Streetlife, highlights the important role of streets as health settings. Mark is a practitioner and founded Urban Habitats in 2018, putting research into action in local places.
Could you join our board?
In 2026 we’re seeking a non-executive director with experience in marketing strategy and brand development to help us understand our audiences better and strengthen and diversify our income streams. Could this be you? Our board meets quarterly in Cardiff, although hybrid meetings are possible for the right candidate.
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Our commitment to climate and nature
We do what we do because it matters to us – and we work hard to make sure we run Green Squirrel as ethically and sustainably as we can. Here are some of the things we do to reduce the impact of our activities:
- We travel to meetings by public transport and bike wherever possible. When we do need to travel by car – for example when we’re transporting kit – we have an electric car (called Richard) that is charged 95% of the time using solar power.
- We choose refurbished and pre-loved electronic and office equipment, and pass on or recycle anything we don’t need any more. We’re big fans of Benthyg, the Library of Things, and try to stick to their motto: Borrow, Don’t Buy.
- Becca and Hannah’s home office is powered by solar, with any shortfall bought from a renewable energy supplier. Railway Gardens also uses a renewable supplier – and our website is wind powered too!
- We source all materials with care, choosing reclaimed, pre-loved, and sustainably sourced resources. We have significantly changed our craft activities over the years to reduce their impact.
- We work to keep food waste to an absolutely minimum, but in a community-based kitchen it’s challenging to avoid it altogether! Useable surplus food is distributed to participants and anything that can’t be used is composted.
- For our events we use real crockery and cutlery if possible. For very large events when single use items are unavoidable we compost every single one.
- We choose ethical banking services and are with the most sustainable pension scheme available to us. Read more here about how our choice of bank and pension makes a difference.
- We prioritise working with local independent businesses and suppliers in Cardiff and south Wales. We do not buy from Amazon due to multiple issues with them, including their unchecked carbon footprint, human rights abuses, and tax avoidance. Read more here about the reasons to boycott Amazon.
- We support our team to choose low carbon travel choices for personal travel and are a member of the Sustainable Travel Leave scheme, offering our employees extra time off for slow travel.
- We support our team’s right to take part in peaceful activism and non-violent direct action.