An important part of our Eco Church journey is that we can work together as a community to make a difference and that means each one of us doing our bit. We hope we can encourage all of you to join us on our journey and that the aims of Eco Church will become an integral part of loving our neighbours and following God faithfully. We should all be contributing towards the protection and restoration of the natural world, both as a response to the biblical mandate to care for the earth, and as a demonstration of the Christian hope for God’s world. 

These are just a few ideas, things you might like to consider doing yourself. If you have any ideas you’d like to share, get in touch, we would love to hear from you via [email protected]

Bread is full of symbolic meaning for Christians and in another step towards being an Eco Church we ask you to consider using the LOAF Principles: Locally produced, Organically grown, Animal friendly, Fairly traded.

The decisions we make about our food have far-reaching effects, influencing the way food is produced and animals are treated. Buying food from local and regional sources means less climate-damaging food miles, less lorry traffic and supports the local economy.

We would like to encourage all members of the church family to audit their carbon footprint. We are looking towards putting in systems to monitor our church buildings and activities and encourage you to do the same at home. Check out these simple tools as start point…

climatestewards.org

footprint.wwf.org.uk 

footprintcalculator.org

How about implementing your own Peat Ban. Please consider the peat content when selecting compost. Peatlands make up just 10% of UK land but they store a lot of carbon – even more than UK forests and other types of soil. So, they help in the fight against climate change. They can’t perform this vital function if they are degraded. Losing just 5% of UK peatland carbon would be equivalent to the UK’s entire annual greenhouse gas emissions. Find out more here.

A rainwater tank is a water tank used to collect and store rain water runoff, typically from rooftops via pipes. Rainwater tanks are devices for collecting and maintaining harvested rain. A rainwater catchment or collection system can yield 2,358 litres of water from 2.54 cm of rain on a 92.9 m² roof. This water can then be used for watering your lawn, gardens and house plants; cleaning off gardening tools; and even washing your car.

Our Youth are calling our church family to action and would like to challenge us as a church and individuals to SWITCH TO RECYCLED TOILET PAPER! (The youth were relieved to discover that this means old newspapers and writing paper get recycled into loo rolls and not used toilet tissue that gets used again….!) The youth group, are also keen to make sure that the chocolate they consume comes in fully recyclable packaging, not single use plastic. Is this something you can do too?

Many of the changes we want to make as a church and that we encourage you to consider joining with are going to be linked with meeting together, events and the work of our various working groups – ideas for the future include –

COMMUNITY AND GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT – group walks, litter picking, gardening events, inviting the community to share our open spaces.

LIFESTYLE – promotion of walking and cycling to church, composting, recycling programs.

WORSHIP AND TEACHING – invite guest speakers from environmental organisations, prayers for our community, our world and the many eco initiatives happening around us.

LAND – wildlife surveys on church land, encouraging areas of land for native wild flowers.

BUILDINGS – cycle racks, recycled/sustainable toilet paper on church premises, use of grey water.

Plus many more ideas from and involving the church family and community. We will add more things as they are happening or if they are things you can be doing to play your part at home and don’t forget to get in touch if you have any great ideas you’d like to share or even better if you’d like to get involved.