Sustainable Tring
Community-led action to inspire sustainable living in and around Tring, Hertfordshire
Our Sustainability Categories
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In 2015, the nations of the world came together around a shared promise: the United Nation’s Sustainability Goals; seventeen guiding lights to help us end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that every person has the chance to thrive. They are, in essence, humanity’s great to-do list: a call to kindness, to balance, to building a home where people and nature flourish side by side.
Here in Tring, we have taken this global vision and, in 2025, woven it into the fabric of our own town. We shaped the goals to reflect our local needs, our landscapes, and our community spirit. These have become Tring’s to-do list, and compass, guiding projects like Future Tring, and a framework helping us turn ambition into reality-based action.
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Our Sustainability Champions
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To bring these categories to life, we looked to the heart of our community. We found neighbours, colleagues, and friends who were already quietly working in some of these areas; people whose daily lives embody the care and creativity needed to make change. Many walk alongside experts, yet their strength lies in something even deeper - an understanding of what matters here, in Tring.
Together, they remind us that these categories are reflections of the challenges we face locally, and the opportunities for solutions before us. We are in the stages of developing these more and establishing Facebook groups to lead these. These groups will be the threads binding global goals to local action. And they are the pathways by which we carry Tring’s heritage forward into a more sustainable future, for our generations to come.
WATER​
Sewage Residents' concerns strong smells coming from the local Thames Water treatment works. Site waste processing is beyond its current capacity.
​Flooding Concerns about new developments being approved on flood-risk land, especially after local flash floods on small development left families homeless, highlighting questions over current local infrastructure.
Chalk streams suffering pollution from wastewater infrastructure failures such as blockages and overflows.
INFRASTRUCTURE​
1,400+ new homes without considerate upgrades?
Schools are full, with no clear plan to expand places.
Doctors are overstretched, and appointment waits are already too long.
Roads and key junctions are at capacity, and traffic is only getting worse.
Local services should come first.
ACTION​
Tring residents' clear steps to push for better planning.
Lobby Tring Town Council to help back local concerns in support of infrastructure before home developments.
People’s gatherings to agree shared demands and lobby planners with one strong voice?
SANG (green space) to protect our nature corridors initiative, and stop overdevelopment.
Together, we can lobby better.
NATURE​
Tring’s natural spaces must be protected.
Create nature corridors so wildlife can move freely. Not every inch should go to housing.
Plant trees along the A41 to reduce noise and pollution and bring back some green balance.
Hedgehog walkways in fences to support biodiversity and help our wildlife thrive.
Nature needs space too.
COMMUNITY​
Green spaces are what makes Tring feel like home.
SANG on greenbelt ensures new homes still have green views and space to breathe.
Nature walks on our doorsteps keep the countryside accessible for all ages.
Protect community greens where families gather, picnic, and connect — they matter.
Let’s keep Tring a place to live, not just to build.
BUILDINGS​
Buildings respect Tring’s character and our future.
Keep habitat around Nora Grace Hall so the buildings stay less prominent, and the landscape preserved.
Make it off-grid? Lobbying for sustainable energy use in the building itself?
Energy C-rated homes? Push for existing homes to be as efficient, affordable, and climate-ready as new builds.
Better existing buildings, not just new construction ones.
ENERGY​
Off-grid, wind, water? Tring could lead the way in local, low-carbon energy solutions.
Go off-grid where possible, cutting carbon and easing pressure on local supply.
Explore wind turbines Tring sits in a breezy valley that could generate clean power.
Revisit water power Historic watermills on the River Bulbourne show that Tring has previously harnessed water power. Clean energy, rooted in place.
EDUCATION​
Considerate Constructors? Who could we partner with to educate us in how we can do all this?
Educate our community starting with Carbon Literacy Action Day 2025.
Educate through our actions We will continue to show what Sustainable Tring is by our actions.
Our Category Champions will also educate us more in our local challenges and ideas others have achieved.
FOOD​
Tring Apple Fayre We will start by showing what Sustainable Tring is by our actions in food.
Allotments We will engage in education on food through our allotments.
Tring Farmers Market We will support our Tring Farmers Market and local farms like Meads.
Share locally grown garden food, and finding better solutions to combat public black-binning of old apples.
WASTE​
We will tackle food waste more locally.
Encouraging redistribution of surplus food through community fridges or food-share schemes.
Partnering with local schools, cafés and businesses to trial composting or upcycling initiatives.
Awareness campaigns on portion planning and smart storage. We will continue to drive our group Plastic Free Tring, and continue to lobby for more upcycling in Tring.