ECOHub
The home for Environmental Sustainability at Lancaster University
The ECOHub provides a space for active participation and demonstration of projects across our project thematic groups with a specific focus on agriculture and biodiversity initiatives. It is a place of:
Engagement
Hundreds of students participate actively each year through volunteer programmes based on site including student-led Edible Campus Society.
Enterprise
Produce and products such as vegetables, fruit, preserves, and honey are produced, processed and sold with the help of the Food and Farming SOS-UK programme.
Education
A base for teaching module partnerships across University departments and a living example of a reimagined, transformative and immersive learning environment.
Experimentation
A food-growing site where students can learn by doing and test out ideas of small-scale farming practices.
Connection
A crucial health and wellbeing facility on campus where contact with nature and others is a key guiding principle of the space.
Something for everyone
There's a range of specially designed areas at the ECOHub that are all managed by different groups and societies. You can also book the facilities for specialist events and one-off bookings.
Organic Garden
The organic garden features numerous raised beds, an orchard, a 15m2 polytunnel, a 12m2 greenhouse, two wildlife ponds and a wildflower meadow for the benefit of pollinators and other wildlife. It totals over 100m2 of growing space.
Working closely with Green Lancaster, Edible Campus Society are the main users of the space and are responsible for the food growing activities at the ECOHub. Edible Campus is at its core an experiment in community farming. They strive to show the importance of a healthy food system that preserves the environment and provides nutritious food while also nurturing a sense of community. They plan, plant and harvest the garden year-round and student volunteers are the key component that keeps the project alive. They sell their produce at Central, the Farmer's Market in Alexandra Square, and do Seasonal Veg Boxes over the summer. They also make jams and preserves out of the produce harvested at the ECOHub.
Forest Garden
A portion of the ECOHub is dedicated to a Permaculture Forest Garden, a space that is designed to emulate natural woodland ecosystems as much as possible to create a self-sustaining source of food that benefits both humans and wildlife. Forest Gardens are a technique of Agroforestry. Once established a forest garden requires little or no maintenance and will keep producing food such as fruit renewable energy from firewood and natural building resources such as weaving material.
Coppice
Surrounded by trees, the ECOHub is a great location to put sustainable and regenerative woodland management practices into action, something that we do as part of our weekly ECOWoods sessions. A section of the space is dedicated to hazel coppicing, which means cutting the trees down to their bases every 3 to 5 years. This allows light to reach the ground and encourages flowers and other plants to grow, increasing biodiversity and allowing the woodland to flourish. A mix of wildflowers was sown on the woodland floor in March 2021 to enhance biodiversity as well.
The harvested timber is used for various projects as building material, as well as to create habitat piles for wildlife. The trees grow back stronger and produce straight shoots particularly useful as building material that can be harvested every few years.
ECOHives
The ECOHub currently features several hives and individual colonies of honey bees that are managed by Lancaster University Bee Keepers (LUBK), a small group of Lancaster University staff managing the campus apiary at the ECOHub. Over the last summer, they produced enough honey to sell to the campus community.
ECOHives was first proposed by a group of staff and received a boost via the student ECOChallenge in 2017. A student team from Pendle College pitched the idea of ECOHives to the challenge and won! The project started on the ground in 2018 with the construction of the Apiary, kindly supported by Lancaster University (Facilities division), with additional funding from the Lancaster University Wind Turbine, Community Benefit Fund, and a Lancaster University Friends Programme Grant.
Where to find us
The ECOHub is located on the Southwest area of Bailrigg Campus, between Lonsdale college and Lancaster House Hotel.