Environmental issues and sustainability at Christ Church

Thanks to our former Environmental Officer, a good many initiatives have already been undertaken at Christ Church, both concerning the edifice itself and the surrounding garden, in an effort to address environmental issues and sustainability for the long term. They include the following:

• Compost bins have been placed in church garden
• Those involved in maintaining the garden aim at conserving the natural ecosystem present there and the garden is currently entirely free of chemical products
• All glass, aluminium, iron, paper and PET emanating from on-site activities are being recycled
• The heating system of the church building itself is under review. Ideally a ground-based heat pump system backed up by gas during extreme cold would be more environmentally friendly and we hope to persuade the historic monument organization to allow us to use solar cells to transform sun light into electricity to off-set the extra electricity needed for the heat pumps
• Church light bulbs are gradually being replaced by LED bulbs as they expire. (Only 2 left to change out of the 127 light )
• Environmental issues are regularly mentioned in intercession prayers
• The Sunday Club children followed an on-site talk on the importance of caring for the environment to encourage them to take an interest in and continue thinking about this aspect of our lives
• A project on recycling at home was recently carried out in conjunction with the Sunday Club for any congregation members interested in participating
• We have a noticeboard dedicated to environmental matters on which the Environment Officer posts information that may be of interest to the Congregation. How to become more environmentally friendly and information on environmental events are also items that could be posted here

Some further ideas which have been proposed and which may be developed at a future date are as follows:

• As the plight of bees has been a source of growing concern in recent years, there is an initiative to develop the garden in such a way as to encourage bees to thrive in it
• Distinctive mini recycling bins would be extended to the church kitchen
• Congregation members could be encouraged to ‘share experiences’ of recycling techniques or experiences amongst each other