Environment

Policies and useful documents

The Environment

This page is for useful information and sources about environmental issues - climate change, pollution, plastics and so on.

It is being enhanced: your input and suggestions are very welcome.

A useful list of online resources from the Church of England can be found here. The more recent Winter 2021/2022 issue of 'Environment Resources' from the Diocesan Environment Officer can be accessed here. It is an excellent compendium of resources for creation, for prayer, for reading, for advice and information from inside and outside the Church of England.

Slides from a recent presentation by Rachel Johnston, Diocesan Environmental Officer, can be downloaded. Because of the size of the presentation, they are in three files -
* Living Hopefully first set of slides,
* living Hopefully second set of slides and
* Living Hopefully third set of slides.

Eco-Church

Sources of materials on Eco-Church

General material on Eco-Church is here, and on Eco-Diocese here. There is a video from Hereford Diocese here.

If you need to re-register on the new platform, you can do so here.

This section will be further enhanced shortly. Your thoughts and suggestions always welcome.

Sustainability

Useful advice on Sustainable Church Buildings can be found here.

There is information about Project Sustainability here.

Advice on Maintaining Roofs and Gutters is here.

Sustainable St Albans - working together for an environmentally sustainable District - is here. Three key activities are

  • films and talks (exploring issues such as food and plastic waste and sustainable communities),
  • playing out (closing roads to traffic regularly to allow children to 'play out') and
  • Sustfest (the annual Sustainable St Albans week - or 10 days - of events run by local groups).

Through them, you can borrow a thermal imaging camera to identify energy waste - where is insulation really needed?

This section will be further enhanced shortly. Your thoughts and suggestions always welcome.

Funding for environment-related projects

A useful grants directory with a new (October 2019) section on environment and sustainability is available - see https://www.parishresources.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Charitable-Grants-for-Churches-Nov-2019.pdf
Alternatively you can try this website.

This section will be enhanced shortly.

Energy

There is useful information on energy efficiency for Church buildings here.

Information on Renewable Energy can be found here.

Parish Buying's Green energy basket can be accessed here.

Advice on Heating can be found here. Note that this advice is in the process of being updated.

Historic England have produced advice on Energy Efficiency and Historic Buildings here - you will need to scroll down to see the range of different guidance notes available.

For information on Parish Buying's current pilot of energy audits, look here.

There is information on the Church of England's Energy Footprinting Tool here.

This section will be enhanced to be more comprehensive shortly. Contributions - tips and suppliers - you have found useful are always welcome.

Insulation

This section will be enhanced shortly.

Historic England have good guidance about energy efficiency and historic buildings, one of which (accessible here) is about draft-proofing windows and doors. Draft-proofing can be a more sensitive way of improving the efficiency of historic buildings.

It is worth noting that, although repairs to single-glazed windows can be very effective, many churches are a home to bats, so a bat survey should be undertaken before any small openings in the windows are closed.

Lighting

Useful guidance on lighting issues can be found here.

Parish Buying's LED lighting advice and offer is available here.

This section will be further enhanced shortly. Advice from Parishes who have found good systems or good installers (or both) is always welcome.

Rubbish, refuse and recycling

This section will be enhanced shortly.

Water

This section will be enhanced shortly.

Plastics

This section will be enhanced shortly.

Eco News

The Diocesan Environment Officer is Rachel Johnston, [email protected].  She has provided much of the information on this site.

 

There is more useful material on the Diocesan  website.