Eco-Congregation and FairTrade

A table with a candle, flowers, shells and feathers
Praying with nature
Swift box attached to the eaves of the church hall
A swift box fitted to the church hall in 2019
members of the church with a banner.
Supporting the Edinburgh Climate Crisis March Sept 2019

We are now working towards our Silver Eco-congregation award with Eco-congregation Scotland.

We are registered with the Fairtrade Foundation as a Fairtrade Church.

 

Becoming an Eco-Congregation

What does this mean for us?

It means that we have adopted a long-term vision that we as a church would be one that ‘Cares for God’s creation, now and forever.’

It also means that we have adopted values that demonstrate that we:

  • Care passionately for God’s creation – our planet, its biodiversity and its resources
  • Would work cooperatively with each other and with others who care about the environment
  • Would encourage transformational change at individual, community and national levels

 

How do we go about it?

We need to continuously work on three strands of activity:

  • Making the link between environmental issues and our Christian faith
  • Taking practical action in the church
  • Influencing attitudes and taking action in the local and global community on issues such as climate change

 

Where are we now in the process?

  • Step 1 – we have completed this step by registering our interest and commitment on the Eco-Congregation website and by receiving our membership certificate
  • Step 2 – we undertook a review of our current activities to see how much we are already doing to protect the environment and promote sustainable living practices and see where the main gaps were (we completed the checklist that is available on the Eco-congregation web site)
  • Step 3 – we are now at the point of developing an action plan to address the gaps identified and the priorities of the congregation

Throughout the review process we kept everyone informed on progress and undertook some workshops with the congregation to identify their priorities for environmental action.

 

What are the congregation’s priorities?

The top priorities identified by the congregation were:

  1. Reduce use of paper and make recycling more obvious for more items
  2. Turn off more lights or unwanted lights in both Church and Hall and monitor energy use and carbon footprint
  3. Use as much Fairtrade  as possible and focus on ethical suppliers
  4. Review how we travel to church and our use of cars – can we reduce car use?
  5. Install solar panels where practicable