The biennial festival about Environment, Culture & Entrepreneurship.

EA Sustain returns for its third edition on Saturday, 28 March 2026, at Firstsite, Colchester, reaffirming its position as one of the UK’s most dynamic events exploring the intersection of environment, culture and entrepreneurship.

The line-up includes Abi Daré, winner of the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize, Ben Mackinnon, founder of E5 Bakehouse, Dominic Watters, food poverty activist, Anna Jones, author of Divide, Imani Jacqueline Brown, artist and activist, Harriet Rix, author of The Genius of Trees, Owen Jarvis, CEO of UK Cohousing Network, and more.

The weekend will cover sustainable food, food system inequality, climate storytelling, community-led housing, regenerative agriculture, eco-conscious consumerism, nature and biodiversity, Art x Environment and the human dimensions of building a more resilient future.

In the words of EA Sustain founder, Joanne Ooi, “This is not another ESG conference – or gathering of nature lovers per se. Rather, the festival seeks to connect the dots between the environment and the ordinary person on the street, so they can understand how climate affects their lives every day.” 

To learn more and purchase tickets, visit www.easustain.com

Programme

10 – 10:45 am: Humanising Climate Change 

Speaker: Abi Daré. £12

Abi Daré, winner of the Climate Fiction Prize for And So I Roar, explores how fiction can humanise climate change, revealing it not as an abstract environmental issue but a lived reality shaped by power, injustice and inequality, where those least responsible often bear the greatest consequences of systemic failure.

This event is presented in partnership with Essex Book Festival.

11:05 – 11:55 am: Broken Food Conversations

Speakers: Dominic Watters & Anna Jones. £15

From farm gate to food bank, Britain’s food system exposes deep social divides. Journalist Anna Jones and food poverty campaigner Dominic Watters explore the growing disconnect between producers and consumers, asking how a fragmented system can be rebuilt to create greater resilience, fairness and understanding.

12:15 – 13:05 pm: From Monoculture to Meaningful Diversity 

Speakers: Ben MacKinnon & Lindsay Wright. £15

Bread is everyday, but the system behind it is anything but simple. Ben MacKinnon and Lindsay Wright explore how modern bread became dependent on uniform wheat, long supply chains and industrial efficiency – often at the cost of nutrition, biodiversity and farmer livelihoods. Drawing on organic grains, agroforestry and short supply chains, they examine grain diversity, the limits of sourdough, and what it truly means to localise food systems today.

13:20- 14:10 pm: Domestic-scale Rewilding – Workshop

With James Canton. FREE

This workshop, led by James Canton, explores domestic-scale renaturing for gardens, meadows, and half-acre plots, offering a practical alternative to large-scale rewilding. It features a short film of Canton’s journey by Fleeting Year Films, interactive guidance on bringing nature back to your property, and an open discussion with audience Q&A.

13:20 – 2:10 pm : The Ancient History of Bread – Taste & Talk 

With Giovanni DiSarno. FREE

Bread has shaped human civilisation for thousands of years, from Neolithic flatbreads to Egyptian leavened loaves, Greek varieties, and Roman water-powered mills. In this Taste & Talk session, participants explore three historic breads – Greek Horiatiko Psomi, Egyptian barley and oat bread, and an ancient Roman grape-and-millet loaf – learning about their cultural significance while tasting history first hand.

14:30 – 15:15 pm: The Genius of Trees

Speaker: Harriet Rix. £12

In The Genius of Trees, Harriet Rix shows how trees actively shape soils, water, climate, and ecosystems, forming complex relationships with other life. Far from passive scenery, they are Earth’s engineers. This conversation reframes how we see trees, forests, and the living world, revealing their profound ecological impact.

15:35 – 16:35 pm: Co-Housing – an Introduction to Community-Led Sustainable Living

Speakers: Deborah Benham, Anne Thorne & Owen Jarvis. £15

This session explores co-housing in the UK, explaining what it is, why people choose it, and the challenges of creating community-led housing. Owen Jarvis offers a national perspective, highlighting co-housing as a social, efficient, intergenerational model that fosters shared resources, support, and connected living.

16:55 – 17:45 pm: Decarbonising the Art World – and Why Artists Matter

Speakers: Heath Lowndes & Imani Jacqueline Brown. £15

Heath Lowndes and Imani Jacqueline Brown explore decarbonising the visual arts sector, addressing travel, shipping, and energy use. Combining systemic strategies, shared standards, and individual practice, they examine how culture can reduce emissions while remaining vibrant, meaningful, and attentive to environmental justice and historical extractivism.

To purchase tickets, visit www.easustain.com