When a Shopping Centre Becomes a Hope Hub with Parisa Wright

When a Shopping Centre Becomes a Hope Hub with Parisa Wright

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“You might not be able to give them money donations for what they’re doing, but what you can do is give them support in various ways, which then means that you are effectively helping achieve those things in your community.”

— Parisa Wright

Parisa Wright runs Greener and Cleaner, a community sustainability charity that took over a vacant unit inside The Glades shopping centre in Bromley.

Five days a week, the Hub teaches residents how to mend clothes, reduce energy bills, grow food, and repair electronics—all whilst sitting opposite a McDonald’s and the public toilets.

The location is deliberate.

Parisa chose accessibility over purity, planting a “hope hub” in the middle of the retail rat race where people already are, not where activists think they should be.

The conversation centres on how coworking spaces can partner with community projects like Greener and Cleaner without running them.

You don’t need deep pockets or a dedicated sustainability manager. You can offer free desk passes, meeting room access, or signpost volunteering opportunities. In return, your members get training (carbon literacy, energy clinics), CSR pathways, and visible proof that their workspace invests in the local community.

Parisa also chairs the new Community Sustainability Support Network for England, launching in spring 2025.

It’s a free network for anyone running a community sustainability project—coworking hubs included. Members share templates, case studies, impact data, and collaborate on funding bids. If you’re running a repair café, a community fridge, or a lending library in your space, you can join.

The partnership model here is simple: local charities get breathing room (free workspace and promotional reach), and coworking operators can amplify their impact without taking on another full-time project.

Both sides win. The community wins twice.

Timeline Highlights

00:01:44 – Parisa introduces herself: founder of Greener and Cleaner, chair of the Community Sustainability Support Network for England (launching spring 2025).

00:03:22 – The Hub location: a prominent vacant unit in The Glades shopping centre, chosen specifically because it’s near McDonald’s, opposite public toilets, and accessible by public transport. “We specifically chose one that was near a McDonald’s... to be able to engage everyone.”

00:04:23 – What happens at the Hub: “People can learn how to mend things, how to repair things, how to grow food, how to insulate my home... It gives them an oasis of positivity, agency, community collaboration and connexion.”

00:06:16 – The knit, stitch, and crochet social: 30 people attend regularly, a mix of ages and languages. “Some people are going for their mental health, some people are going for loneliness... and they always have a community project on the go.”

00:07:06 – “It’s like a hope hub... because they’re like a ray of sunshine and people can feel like they’re not alone and that they can make a difference.”

00:09:14 – Why five days a week matters: “What there hasn’t been has been something that’s been 5 days a week and that is meeting all different areas of sustainability, but all different areas of community need as well.”

00:10:13 – The in-person advantage: “It’s very experiential. You can’t just do it online... come out of the misinformation... and actually come and have a conversation with someone.” Local issues like ULEZ become less divisive when discussed face-to-face at the Hub.

00:12:59 – The coworking partnership begins: “You can give [charities] membership for free or at a discounted rate... day passes... access to podcast studios, meeting rooms.”

00:13:58 – Community tech reuse: “A partner company... takes out the hard drives, returns them, and basically updates them... then we get them out to people who are digitally excluded... or schools.”

00:14:57 – Why coworking spaces benefit: “Contingent Works... can get the word out to its members... a visual reminder that our coworking space is investing into the community... and tells them about a cool activity or project they can get involved in.”

00:16:09 – Training at local rates: “A big corporate in London is like a grand and a half to two and a half grand... with a local coworking space... we are doing it to cover our costs.” Carbon literacy training, Climate Fresk workshops, lunch-and-learns—all priced for local partnerships, not London corporates.

00:17:14 – Volunteering pipelines: “Provide volunteering opportunities... in person locally... [and] remotely—designing a poster... marketing advice... helping create a video.” This gives coworking members CSR pathways without heavy infrastructure.

00:20:39 – The national network: “We are launching a network for the region of England... join the Community Sustainability Support Network for England for free... share our video case studies... templates... collaborate on funding bids... and have a bit more of a voice with government and with funders.”

00:29:21 – Library of Things funding: “We persuaded the council’s carbon management team to use the carbon reduction fund... [to fund] the Library of Things... brand new tools... trade quality... with regular and concession rates so people can borrow rather than buy new.”

Lesson 1: Accessibility Beats Purity

Greener and Cleaner didn’t open in a refurbished warehouse or a community garden tucked behind the railway arches. It opened in a shopping centre, near McDonald’s, opposite the public toilets.

That choice was strategic, not accidental.

Parisa explicitly wanted to intercept people where they already were—not where environmental activists thought they should be. The Glades gets footfall. It has lifts, toilets, changing stations, and public transport links. It’s where parents go with pushchairs, where elderly residents can get to without a car, and where teenagers hang out after school.

“We specifically chose one that was near a McDonald’s and opposite public toilets because for us... We wanted to be able to engage everyone.”

The location creates a jarring sensory contrast. Outside the Hub: bright retail lighting, the smell of fast food, aggressive visual merchandising designed to induce passive consumption. Inside the Hub: community sewing machines, returned power tools from the Library of Things, peer-to-peer conversations about energy poverty and ULEZ.

This pattern interrupt is the point.

If you bury your community project in an activist enclave, you only reach people who already agree with you. If you plant it in a mainstream commercial space, you intercept the accidental passerby—the person looking for the toilets, grabbing a coffee, killing time before a meeting.

Matt Golding (the guest from the previous episode) called it a “hope hub.” Bernie described walking past and seeing a table full of people knitting in the middle of the mall—shop, lights, shop, lights, oh, table with lots of people.

That’s the design working.

For coworking operators, the lesson is this: don’t wait for the perfect purpose-built space to start a community project. Use what you have. A corner table. A meeting room once a week. A partnership with someone who’s already doing the work across the road.

Accessibility beats purity every time.

Lesson 2: You Don’t Have to Run It—You Just Have to Connect to It

One of the most practical sections of this conversation is Parisa's explanation of how coworking spaces can partner with local charities without taking on another full-time operational burden.

You don’t need to hire a sustainability manager. You don’t need to write a ten-page climate strategy. You don’t need deep pockets.

Here’s what you can do instead:

Give them access.
Free or discounted memberships. Day passes. Meeting rooms. Podcast studio time. For a small charity with zero or very few paid staff, access to a professional workspace makes a material difference to their mental health, efficiency, and reach.

Signpost them to your members.
Greener and Cleaner runs a community tech reuse project. Old laptops, phones, and tablets get refurbished and redistributed to digitally excluded residents or local schools. Contingent Works (the coworking space across the road) promotes that project to its members. Members donate their old tech. The Hub gets the word out. The coworking space gets credit for facilitating it.

Everyone wins. No one had to invent a new programme.

Offer training at local rates.
Greener and Cleaner delivers carbon literacy training, Climate Fresk workshops, and energy clinics. A big corporate in London pays £1,500–£2,500 for this. A local coworking space pays cost price. Your members get professional development. The charity covers its expenses. Your space demonstrates a visible investment in the local community.

Curate volunteering pipelines.
This one’s clever. Coworking members often want to give back but don’t know how. Charities need design work, marketing advice, and video editing—things remote contractors can do in an afternoon. By brokering these connections, you give your members CSR pathways without building infrastructure. The charity gets skilled help. Your members feel useful. You facilitated it.

Parisa’s framing is blunt: “You might not be able to give them money donations for what they’re doing, but what you can do is give them support in various ways, which then means that you are effectively helping achieve those things in your community.”

This isn’t performative. It’s structural.

The coworking space doesn’t run the community allotment, the repair café, or the energy clinic. It just makes sure the people running those things have a desk, a meeting room, and a megaphone when they need one.

Lesson 3: The Economics of Sustainability Are Inverted

One of the most damaging narratives in the sustainability space is that going green is a middle-class hobby. Solar panels. Electric vehicles. Organic food boxes. Heat pumps.

All of these solutions require upfront capital that most people simply don’t have, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.

Parisa identified this early. The prevailing media narrative surrounding sustainability was widely perceived as a “middle-class hobby” or an exclusionary luxury.

So she flipped the framing.

Greener and Cleaner doesn’t lead with climate anxiety or planetary collapse. It leads with cost reduction and practical utility.

Free and impartial energy advice.
Qualified, DBS-checked advisors help residents navigate flexible tariffs, smart meters, and scam awareness. This directly addresses the winter heating crisis for vulnerable households.

The Library of Things.
Instead of buying a drill you’ll use twice, borrow a trade-quality one for a few quid. Instead of buying a carpet cleaner, borrow one. Instead of upgrading your slow laptop, bring it to the tech reuse project and get it refurbished for free.

This isn’t about saving the planet. It’s about not going broke.

By the time someone’s borrowed a pressure washer, attended a mending clinic, and learned how to insulate their loft properly, they’ve saved hundreds of pounds. The carbon reduction is a byproduct, not the sales pitch.

For coworking operators, this reframing matters because your members exist across a wide economic spectrum. Some can afford premium add-ons. Some are scraping by. By partnering with a project like Greener and Cleaner, you democratise access to sustainability without pricing it as a luxury service.

The economics are inverted: the less money you have, the more valuable these services become.

Lesson 4: The Library of Things Is Civic Infrastructure

The Library of Things deserves its own section because it’s one of the most elegant examples of circular economics at the neighbourhood scale.

Here’s how it works:

Greener and Cleaner raised £35,000–£40,000 (the exact amount varies depending on the build) to install a wall of lockers stocked with brand-new, trade-quality tools and household equipment. Drills. Pressure washers. Ladders. Carpet cleaners. Thermal imaging cameras. Projectors. Ice cream makers.

The Library of Things (the national organisation) deals with manufacturers like Kärcher and Bosch, so the equipment is professional-grade, not the cheap version you’d buy at Argos and throw away after two uses.

The tools are insured, maintained weekly by a trained engineer, and available at regular or concession rates. You don’t need to prove you’re on benefits to use the concession rate—if you’re struggling, you can use it. No questions asked.

The funding came from the council’s carbon reduction fund, not the general community pot. This distinction matters because carbon funds have specific KPIs around tonnage reduction, and the Library of Things can provide exact stats on how much carbon is saved when people borrow instead of buying new.

The result: residents get access to trade-quality tools without the upfront cost, the storage burden, or the maintenance hassle. The council gets measurable carbon reduction. The Hub gets footfall.

Parisa estimates that about 1,300 people visit the Hub every month, and a portion of those come purely for the Library of Things—then stay for the knitting social or the energy clinic.

For coworking operators, the lesson isn’t “go install a Library of Things tomorrow” (though if you can, you should). The lesson is this: small-scale infrastructure can create disproportionate community value.

A repair café once a month. A uniform exchange for local parents. A tech drop-off point. These aren’t huge operational lifts, but they give people a reason to walk through your door who would never have found you otherwise.

Bernie made this point in the conversation: when he ran a space in Euston, people would Google “meeting room near Euston,” book the room, and discover it was a coworking space. Some of them became members. The meeting room was the Trojan horse.

The Library of Things is the same logic, but for sustainability.

Lesson 5: The Network Is the Infrastructure

In spring 2025, Parisa launches the Community Sustainability Support Network for England. It’s free to join. It’s for anyone running a community sustainability project—or anyone running a sustainability element within a larger organisation (such as a coworking space with a repair café or a community fridge).

Here’s what you get:

A public-facing map and profile.
Your project gets listed so people can find you. If you’re up for it, you can offer tours, mentoring, or collaboration opportunities.

A members-only area.
Templates. Case studies. Video walkthroughs. Impact data. This is the stuff you need when you’re trying to pitch your trustees, your landlord, or your council on why a repair café is worth the space. Instead of inventing it from scratch, you download the version that worked in Dulwich, Brixton, or Cornwall.

Collaboration on funding bids.
Most grassroots projects die at the grant-writing stage. They’re doing brilliant work, but they don’t have time to write a 40-page funding application. The network creates opportunities to collaborate on bids, pool research, and speak with a unified voice to government and funders.

Reduced isolation.
Running a community project is lonely. You’re solving the same problems as someone in Newcastle, but you don’t know they exist. The network fixes that. You can ask, “How did you negotiate your lease terms?” or “What concession rate do you charge?” and get real answers from people who’ve done it.

Bernie’s reaction to this is telling. He said he’s spent years sitting on a Google Drive full of case studies—pop-up coworking spaces, community fridges, music groups—and he just sends them to people when they ask. He doesn’t think they read the whole thing, but seeing that five people have done it before gives them permission to try.

That’s what the network does at scale. It gives people permission.

If you’re running a coworking space and you have any sustainability element—a Library of Things, a repair café, a uniform swap, a community fridge, a monthly energy clinic—you can join. Your project goes on the map. You get access to the templates and case studies. You can collaborate on funding.

Learn more about the Community Sustainability Support Network for England at Greener and Cleaner’s announcement.

This is infrastructure for the infrastructure builders.

Links & Resources

Parisa’s Work
Greener and Cleaner – The Glades Shopping Centre, Bromley
Announcement – Community Sustainability Support Network for England
Parisa Wright on LinkedIn

Community Resources Mentioned
Contingent Works – Euan’s coworking space, opposite The Glades
Library of Things – National tool-lending lockers organisation
Jon Alexander – Book: Citizens; featured Greener and Cleaner with Re-Action
🎙️The Hero's Journey Is Broken: How to Tell Stories That Drive Collective Action with Matt Golding

Related Events & Communities

European Coworking Day
6th May 2026

Unreasonable Connection Live!London Coworking Assembly Forum – 19th May 2026

London Coworking Assembly
London community for independent coworking operators

LinkedIn Coworking Group
Join the conversation online

Bernie’s Projects

5 Biggest Mistakes Coworking Community Builders Make (And How to Avoid Them) 5 Day Email Course via London Coworking Assembly

Connect with Bernie on LinkedIn
Bernie J Mitchell on LinkedIn

One More Thing

This episode made me think about the word “sustainability” and why it’s become politically toxic in places like Bromley.

Parisa deliberately chose the name “Greener and Cleaner” over “Climate Action” because the latter phrase had been weaponised. ULEZ. Parking restrictions. Low-traffic neighbourhoods. For residents in outer London boroughs where car dependency is high and public transport is patchy, environmental policy feels like punishment during a cost-of-living crisis.

So Parisa dropped the language. She kept the work.

The Hub still teaches people how to reduce their carbon footprint, but it does it through the lens of “how to reduce your energy bill” and “how to mend your coat instead of buying a new one.”

This is a version of what Matt Golding discussed in the previous episode: stop telling people to be heroes. Give them a way to be useful.

Parisa’s framing is even sharper: give them a way to save money, and the carbon reduction happens as a side effect.

I don’t know if this is a compromise or a genius. Probably both.

But it works. Thirty people show up to knit. Hundreds of people borrow power drills. The council funds the Library of Things because the carbon maths check out. The coworking space across the road sends its members over for carbon literacy training. The charity survives. The community benefits.

Nobody had to agree on whether climate change is real. They just had to agree that borrowing a carpet cleaner is cheaper than buying one.

Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is meet people where they are—even if that’s opposite McDonald’s in a shopping centre.