About Green Skills Library
Welcome to the Green Skills Library!
We’re thrilled that you found us.
Complete an online project with us or get involved in our local community in Maidenhead.
Our mission is to bring people together by focusing on people’s health and wellbeing, while promoting sustainability and biodiversity.
We believe that every sustainable action brings us one step closer to protecting the planet.
Thank you for taking a step with us.
Our Philosophy
Circular economy
We want to keep materials in use for as long as possible, stopping needless extraction, and saving you a penny or two!
Art at the heart
We believe that practicing art in any form can bring joy. That’s why all of our projects & skills are designed to help you let out your inner creative.
Collaborating is key
We believe that the best way to learn is through first copying best practice, and then sharing knowledge to improve it. We focus on feedback to help keep our Library fresh and improving. We have local and national partners and supporters helping us to do this.
Taking time
We are living in unprecedented times where the pace of life is leading to anxiety, overwhelm & isolation.. The feeling of accomplishment in taking time to finish a task is a fantastic positive mental step, with a yield ranging from income to health and mental well-being.
Responsibility
Each one of us has a responsibility to ourselves and to our planet. The problem is that it is too easy to pass these responsibilities on to others. We should have full lifetime responsibility for anything we purchase, which includes possibly not purchasing it in the first place.
Inclusivity
Not leaving anyone behind – The brightest individuals often come with small differences that may exclude them from mainstream society. As a result, we lose whole swathes of society. The Green Skills Library aims to be fully inclusive and empower all people with the skills to take control of their future.
Little by Little
One changed behaviour, one home, one street, one borough at a time. People are creatures of habit. From Imperial College’s Grantham institute we understand that over 60% of reaching net zero requires profound and societal change. We don’t expect miracles, but believe that by sharing best practice and providing sustainable inspiration in the form of fun projects, a fundamental change of behaviour can come about in our communities.
Our Team
Donna Stimson - Founder
Donna’s recent diagnosis of neurodiversity inspired a restlessness and a strong desire to support others facing similar challenges, leading to the creation of the Green Skills Library. Her academic background includes a study of Social Anthropology in the 1980s, and she later pursued an MBA focused on organisational culture, which paved the way for an international career in organisational transformation. Donna worked in various countries, such as Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and South Africa, with firms like Deloitte & Touche, Braxton Consulting, and Gemini. In 1995, she established her residence in the UK and began the process of retrofitting properties to enhance their sustainability. Serving as a local authority council member for four years, she held a position on the cabinet as the representative for Climate and Sustainability. Currently, Donna acts as a trustee for the charity Heal Rewilding. Her diverse skill set includes studies in gardening, bricklaying, carpentry, and bench-joinery, along with certification as a Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner.
Michelle Hollis-Hunt
Michelle’s interest in the climate started while studying Meteorology at university and grew from there. Her biggest passion is for vegetable growing, seed saving and bringing the community together. In her spare time she has set up and run seed swaps and community growing events in the local area.
Michelle has a strong interest in wellbeing and how the climate and ecological situation can affect people, but also how nurturing nature is and how important it is to protect this for everyone. She is very passionate about how communities can not only make the fundamental changes needed, but at the same time reducing isolation and promoting wellbeing.
Alexandra Lily Fraser - Marketing and Communications Director
Lily is your typical young professional – tech savvy, living in London and obsessed with houseplants. After spending two years as Deputy Digital Editor and Social Media Manager for Country Life magazine, she moved over to The RHS, helping them fulfil their pledge to inspire everyone to grow. She’s passionate about wildlife gardening, the circular economy and sustainable interior design – she’s currently in the process of renovating her new flat, upcycling the furniture herself to ensure it’s done as greenly as possible.
Madhulika Vankamamidi - Director
Madhu’s fascination with the environment and sustainability sparked during her upbringing in India, where the concept of sustainability and a circular economy naturally thrived. Surrounded by lush trees and a garden teeming with miniature wildlife, she keenly observed the interplay of nature in our lives, realising our profound connection with the environment; any harm to nature is a detriment to ourselves.
While her IT career pays the bills, Madhu’s unwavering passion for the environment and soil led her to Green Skills Library (GSL), a homecoming of sorts. Her interests extend to compact gardening, sketching, painting, and the art of upcycling. Madhu has accomplished impressive milestones in cultivating a variety of produce in small spaces, from 11 kilos of tomatoes to potatoes, beets, peas, spinach, melons, strawberries, raspberries, and a plethora of flowers. Her efforts have transformed her patio into a miniature ecosystem that welcomes diverse wildlife.
Hugh Thomas-Davies - Director
Hugh’s aim is to help people and organisations reduce their impact on the planet, remove inequalities and align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. He was originally a computer programmer at 3M and the European Space Agency in the Netherlands and Germany. Since returning to the UK, he spent most of the last 20 years working on partnerships at companies including Oracle, IBM, Symantec and Siemens. During his MBA Hugh focused his research on Corporate Social Responsibility which triggered his interest in the role that organisations play and their potential to do good. In 2020 he started to look at frameworks to help SMEs become sustainable and agile, publishing the Agile-Sustainability Handbook in December 2020. He is also passionately interested in reducing waste through the circular economy, repair and reuse. So, since May 2021, he has been running the Repair Barn in Princes Risborough, keeping mainly household items in use by providing a repair service.
Jonny Thomas-Davies - Web Developer and Digital Editor
Jonny is a Web Developer, Actor and Stand Up Comedian. He has performed for over 100,000 people, including audiences at Wembley Arena and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Aside from building the Green Skills Library website he is writing a musical, developing a comedy double act and raising a Fox Red Labrador called Simba.
Katrina Sale - Director
Katrina Sale is a serial entrepreneur specialising in tech and events. She is the Founder of Wisetree, a technology company committed to sustainable consumer habits, and has provided leadership across a number of community projects including mental health and mentoring programmes in schools. Katrina is passionate about enabling reducing waste in public services and offers consultancy to help local governments use technology to reduce the time and materials needed to deliver initiatives. She runs the APPG for Entrepreneurship and contributes to a number of think tanks on small enterprise.