Living Soil Partners

What is a Living Soil Partner?

 

A Living Soil Partner is an organisation that actively participates in a local composting system that turns food waste into living soil.

 

The Living Soil Partner badge recognises participation, not perfection. It reflects a commitment to keeping food waste local, supporting soil health, and contributing to a circular food system in Bristol.

 

This is not an accreditation or certification scheme. It is a way of acknowledging organisations that are part of a real, working system of composting, soil regeneration, and community action.

 

 

Why Living Soil matters

 

Soil underpins food production, biodiversity, climate resilience, and human health. Yet soil is often invisible in sustainability conversations.

 

When food waste is composted locally and returned to the land, nutrients are recycled rather than lost. Living soil is created through biological processes involving microbes, fungi, invertebrates, and time.

 

Living Soil Partners help make this process visible and valued.

 

 

What the Living Soil Partner badge represents

 

The Living Soil Partner badge shows that an organisation:

 

• Separates food waste for composting

• Participates in local, biological composting systems

• Avoids contamination and supports good composting practice

• Contributes to the return of nutrients to soil

• Is part of a wider circular food system in Bristol

 

The badge represents ongoing participation, not a one-off action.

 

 

Who the Living Soil Partner badge is for

 

The badge is available to organisations that work with Generation Soil through food waste collection, composting, education, or collaboration, including:

 

• Businesses and workplaces

• Schools and education settings

• Community organisations

• Growing spaces and food projects

 

Participation is reviewed through practice and engagement, not paperwork.

 

 

How partners can use the badge

 

Living Soil Partners are welcome to use the digital badge on:

 

• Their website (for example in a footer or sustainability page)

• Email signatures

• Sustainability or impact communications

• Social media posts

 

Use of the badge is optional. Some partners choose to display it publicly, others prefer to keep participation quieter.

 

The badge should always link back to this page to provide context.

 

 

Why this is not a certification scheme

 

The Living Soil Partner badge is not a formal certification, audit, or accreditation.

 

Soil health and composting are context-specific and relational. Rather than reducing participation to a checklist, the badge reflects involvement in a living system that evolves over time.

 

This approach prioritises integrity, learning, and care over box-ticking.

 

 

Living Soil Partners and impact

 

Living Soil Partners contribute to:

 

• Reduced food waste sent to landfill

• Improved local soil health

• Lower carbon food waste management

• Support for community composting systems

• Stronger local food networks

 

Where appropriate, partners may also receive impact reporting as part of their engagement with Generation Soil.

 

 

Becoming a Living Soil Partner

 

Living Soil Partner status is offered to organisations that are already participating well in Generation Soil’s composting and soil work.

 

If you are interested in becoming a Living Soil Partner, or want to understand what participation involves, get in touch and we’ll be happy to talk it through.

 

 

Living soil is about participation, not branding

 

The Living Soil Partner badge exists to recognise real action, not to create another sustainability label.

 

It reflects a shared commitment to caring for soil as a living system and keeping food waste connected to the land it came from.