Annual Review 2023-24

Over 200,000 packets of native wildflower seeds were sent to all state-funded primary schools in England, part of a collaboration between the Department for Education and the National Wildflower Centre to mark the Coronation. Each packet contained enough seeds to create approximately two square metres of cornflower, corn poppy, corn chamomile, corncockle, corn marigold and night-flowering catchfly. 

Eden’s schools’ team broadcast to more than 90,000 young people in the UK and worldwide this year, with students participating from Canada, the USA, Japan, Portugal and the Netherlands. On Protecting Our Planet Day in 2023, the team delivered a 45-minute session from the Rainforest Biome for primary schools; they hosted a session on plants for Darwin200, and at the end of March 2024, live streamed a session on chocolate featuring artist John Dyer.

In January 2024, the Centre for Excellence in Land-Based Research and Knowledge Transfer opened at Growing Point. Funded by the Shared Prosperity Fund, the Centre comprises research and teaching labs that support regenerative farming and focus on key areas such as soil health, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. The teaching labs will house Eden’s Horticulture and Ecology degrees in partnership with Cornwall College.

Our new Climate Culture School workshop for years 5 and 6 was launched this year. It’s designed to help pupils understand that there are solutions to climate change without contributing to climate anxiety.

Backed by the expertise of the National Wildflower Centre, the Eden Project Wildflower Bank was created in October 2023 to help reverse the biodiversity crisis by creating and restoring wildflower-rich grasslands across the UK through Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units. Part of the Eden Trust, it will work with developers and other landowners to enhance biodiversity using wildflower habitats. 

In 2023/24, the Nature Connections Team launched Creating Connections in collaboration with local charities and young people’s social prescribers. The programme was designed to support under-25s’ mental health, and activities included a 6-week nature Photography Course. 

A new series of activities were introduced for older people. Called Wonder Workshops these 90-minute sessions offer a friendly social experience in which to learn about nature through creative activities.

This year, Eden began a project with the British Embassy, the Earlham Institute and local NGOs that uses DNA sequencing to verify nature recovery in Mexico. One of 17 megadiverse countries in the world, Mexico is home to 12% of the world’s species. The project is funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and aims to stimulate investment in nature recovery. 

More than 67,000 Coronation Big Lunch events took place as part of the celebrations for His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen’s Coronation, bringing over 14 million people together.

Events of all shapes and sizes took place across the UK, with special guest and Coronation Big Lunch ambassador Mel Giedroyc popping up at a traditional street party in West London.

In Morecambe, 900 tables were arranged along the seafront, bringing thousands together to celebrate.

A whole weekend of activities took place at Eden, home of The Big Lunch, including talks, activities and the sharing of a giant Coronation Quiche.

Our curated exhibition, Acts of Gathering, explored the ceremonies and practices of different cultures around food production, harvesting, and sharing. Using performances, songs, storytelling and symbolic objects, the show encouraged visitors to consider their own connections and relationships to the food they consume.

The loan of Ai Wei Wei’s Fly (2019) to Eden was extended following its appearance as part of the Super Natural exhibition. The work was moved to the Rainforest Biome, where it was on display from May 2023 until September 2024. 

Part of Acts of Gathering, Jumana Manna’s feature-length film Foragers was shown at CAST (Cornubian Arts & Science Trust) in Helston, Cornwall. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, the film depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel.

Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey visited Eden in January for our Reclaim weekend to discuss why art should be approachable and the meaningful dialogues it can trigger about politics, culture and the environment. His striking Noko Y3 Dzen (Something in the World) (2019–20) was part of the Acts of Gathering exhibition.

Our geothermal energy plant began supplying heat to Growing Point, our new state-of-the-art greenhouse, and the Biomes. This reduced our gas usage by 19% compared to 2022/23 and our Scope 1 carbon emissions by 42% compared to our 2019/20 baseline.  

We reduced our operational waste by 14% compared to last year, while on-site composting of food waste increased by 42%.

Total carbon emissions across scopes 1, 2 and 3 were reduced by 20% compared to the baseline set in 2019/20, keeping us on track with the required target reduction. Read the report.

A further 1.6 hectares were planted with a mix of trees as part of our ongoing woodland creation plan to enhance biodiversity and sequester carbon.