Eco Church

ST. ANDREW'S AIMS TO BE AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY CHURCH

 BY WORKING WITH THE 'A ROCHA ECO CHURCH' INITIATIVE

 WHAT IS ECO CHURCH? At St. Andrew's church we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and caring for the environment.  We have signed up with the Christian charity 'A Rocha' to become an Eco Church.  Progress is measured by means of a questionnaire and awards of Bronze, Silver and Gold are given.  Since embarking on this initiative significant changes have been made and we remain committed to implementing  environmentally friendly policies and actions.  These are some of our recent actions:-

 Fair Trade:   All church refreshments are Fairly Traded and we have occasional Fair Trade goods for sale after services.  We aim to become an official Fair Trade Church.

 Land Use:  Our churchyard now has compost bins and wildlife friendly areas.  The nearby closed churchyard has been planted with wildflowers and bug hotels installed with the aid of young people from the uniformed organisations.  We are liaising with the council to ensure a sustainable mowing regime.

 Building:  We've installed swift nesting boxes, complete with swift calls, into our bell tower.  We hope that swifts will one day adopt it as a nesting site.

Energy use:  All our electricity is now provided on green tariffs  We are monitoring our energy use and trying to reduce it in the church, hall and office.

 Cleaning:    All cleaning products and toilet rolls are now environmentally friendly.

 Worldwide Climate Emergency:   For many years we have supported Christian Aid and their work is particularly focused upon the effects of climate change on communities where they work.  We not only raise money, but raise awareness within our local community.

Worship:   Our worship has a regular focus upon the wonder of God's creation and our responsibilities in caring for it.

Lifestyle:  By actions such as recipe sharing, encouraging and supporting growing food, offering lifts to church and including 'eco tips' in our written material, we are supporting each other in our journey of change.

These, and other actions have won us the Silver Award.  We are working to consolidate these gains across all aspects of our church life and will eventually aim for the Gold Award.