“The Lord God place man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.”
(Genesis 2:15 New Living Translation)
Eco Church is A Rocha UK’s award scheme for churches in England and Wales. We have taken our first steps in identifying how we care for God’s earth.
We have undertaken an online survey to find out how we score against five areas of church life:
· Worship and teaching
· Management of Church buildings
· Management of Church Land
· Community and global engagement
· Lifestyle
Our current score:
A small working party are now assessing our Garden of Eden and how we can improve our care for God’s world here in Woodley. We will be campaigning for global and local changes to protect the environment and encouraging all church users to alter their lifestyles to better care for the world around them both locally and globally. Initially we will be looking into the areas of worship and teaching, land and lifestyle towards achieving a Bronze Eco Church Award.
New members are welcome to join us, as we continue to work towards our Bronze Eco Award. Please email us here.
For more information see our Eco Church Facebook page .
Eco News:
Early Summer is time to consider being eco-friendly in the bathroom and utility room.
In the Bathroom:
Spend less time in the shower and save energy and money. Spending 1 minute less in the shower can save up to £7 off your energy bill each year per person. • Remember to turn off the tap while cleaning your teeth. Water is a valuable resource! • If your toilet cistern was installed before 2001 it probably holds more than 6 litre of water, consider adding a brick or a Hippo water saving device to save water with each flush. (Details of Hippo here!) • Fit a water efficient shower head (if your shower takes hot water straight from your boiler or hot water tank). This will reduce your hot water usage, and hence money and energy, whilst retaining a sensational shower. • Switch to eco cleaning products which biodegrade in the sewerage system and don’t damage aquatic life in rivers and the sea. Products you might like to consider: Method, Ecover, Bio-D, Ecozone, Ecodoo to name but a few. • Consider purchasing paper products for your bathroom that have a higher percentage of recycled paper. • Turn off the tap! Please turn off the tap whilst you clean your teeth, it will quickly become a habit!
In the Utility Room:
In the Utility room ensure that the washing machine contains a full load and use the lowest temperature setting, saving energy, money and resources. • Reduce your use of the tumble dryer. Dry clothes outside on a washing line or even in winter clothes can dry effectively. Consider using an indoor airer to dry clothes inside during set or inclement weather. • If you do need to use a dryer consider using wool dryer balls. These balls help clothes dry faster and it will reduce the dryer time, which is good for the environment and for your clothes. • Irons use a lot of electricity therefore only iron the clothes that really need it. • Old clothes and sheet can be used as cleaning cloths for cleaning jobs instead of buying new cloths. • If you have clothes that you no longer wear, consider recycling them using the various clothing banks found around Woodley. The nearest bank is in the car park adjacent to church.
Personal eco-friendly products:
• You might like to consider using less plastic in the bathroom, substituting bottles of shampoo and conditioners with shampoo bars and conditioning bars. • You might consider using deodorant sticks instead of plastic roll on deodorant or deodorant sprays. • How about trying out bamboo toothbrushes? • Swap your cotton pads for reusable washable pads. • Do you use a plastic shower puff? Is it time to swap this for a biogradeable natural loofah or a cotton flannel. • Consider overtime, replace cosmetics with more organic or sustainable options. This transition can happen over months or years; if your still loving a particular product, you may as well use it up. Then look to finding more sustainable or environmentally friendly products – there are many webpages that can help you find products.
These are just a few of the eco-friendly product you could consider for your bathroom and utility room.
Future Plans:
Later in the summer we will be looking at transport.
In the autumn we will consider electrical appliances and lighting the home.
Share your ideas with the group – email us just click here! Remember to look at the St James Eco Church page on Facebook.
Local Environmental Events:
Saturday 3rd August 2019 Earley Green Fair, Maiden Erleigh Nature Reserve
