An eco-friendly event coming to Southbourne is looking for local businesses to join their movement and turn the seaside town into a sustainability leader.
Planned for May 20, Eco Sobo will be held at Fisherman’s Walk and Southbourne Grove with the aim to provide sustainability solutions and information for members of the community. The sustainability expo will only use local people and businesses from across the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole region.
The expo will provide ideas on how to become more sustainable at home and in the garden, to electric cars and active travel options. There will also be a speakers corner where activists and community members can voice their environmental concerns as well as a live music stage and food making competitions, in the style of a traditional country fair.
Lizzie McManus, founder of Warrior Agency, which exclusively does PR for ethical brands, is one of the events organisers. She spoke to Buzz News about her reasons for putting the expo on: “Based in Southbourne, I’m very passionate about sustainability and the community working together and connecting all the dots.
“There’s a lot of people, a lot of organisations and businesses that are doing a lot of good things that I know through my work, and I’d like to champion them a bit more and share thier good practices and what they are doing with the wider community.”
Mandy Polkey, who is in charge of logistics and runs the successful Shake and Stir music festival, is also helping to organise the event with Miss McManus and the Warrior Agency founder went on to explain how the two came together: “I was working with Mandy for the Shake and Stir festival in Fisherman’s Walk in Southbourne and it is super popular.
“She has been doing it for years! She is the expert when it comes to putting on events, especially in Southbourne.”
Making up the final member of the organising team is Rosie Edwards of SOBO Wastebusters who Miss McManus describes as the “eco” and “local expert” of the trio whose SOBO Wastebusters website has a “bank of resources” for anyone to use.
She added: “Rosie has been working incredibly hard behind the scenes with other eco-passionate people for years trying to make Southbourne more sustainable.
“She has started a plastic free community and all sorts of other things.”
There will be a meeting at Brewhouse and Kitchen in Southbourne on Tuesday 17 January at 5.30pm where the three organisers will present to local businesses their plans for the expo.
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