Eco-Congregation
Scotland
The Aberdeen Network met in May and shared a range of useful information which may be of interest.
Kemany Parish Church introduced a new heating and lighting system and would be happy to share information about their work with other congregations. Please click on the link to read their story: Kemnay Church Project
The Queen’s Cross Church have introduced a planning policy implementing ways to reduce their carbon footprint and caring for creation: Queen’s Cross PurchasingPolicy
A presentation about Greening Your Buildings by John Forster: Greening your building Project Eco congregation meeting 22 May 2012
120521 Aberdeen Eco-Congregation network notes
St Ninian’s Old Parish Church has received their 1st Eco-Congregation Award. Congratulations!
Photo of church kindly provided by Donald Reid (http://www.panoramio.com/user/3170665/tags/Stirlingshire)
Principally the award was awarded for:
- The remarkable, extensive and innovative project to reduce the carbon footprint of the Parish Halls and the church, including an air heat pump system, improved insulation and secondary glazing achieving 50% reducing in energy consumption. Replacing the high energy use and inefficient electric radiator is particularly impressive. Increase of usage as a result of improvements is obviously an added bonus.
- The way in which the work on the church building has been used to help people think about environmental matters in other parts of life, so that many members of the congregation are now looking to do similar things.
- The various activities by different groups in the church to include and embed creation care themes into the worship and devotional life of the church, including in the children’s educational programme, the bible study group and the ongoing stewardship work.
- The waste recycling systems that have been put in place and planters which have been built and installed in the grounds of the halls.
- The use of the bi-monthly magazine to report on progress and provide carbon cutting ideas.
Well done!
Wellington Church in Glasgow has received their 2nd Eco-Congregation Award. Congratulations!
Principally the award was awarded for:
- The emphasis on care for the environment as part of worship and the extent to which this has been linked to social, environmental and economic justice is exemplary.
- The recycling and resource use ethic, using the 3Rs principles, which are embedded in the infrastructure of the congregation.
- The strong engagement with the local community through your work with Hillhead School, consistent support of the local eco-congregation network and other church groupings.
Alexandria Parish Church has recently achieved their 1st Award as an Eco-Congregation. The award, supported by the Eco-Congregation Scotland charity, recognises the work the congregation have done to weave environmental issues into its mission and outreach. As well as encouraging recycling and caring for God’s world, when they replaced the pews in the Church with comfortable chairs, they donated them to the Grassmarket Recycling of Wood Project in Edinburgh (GROW). This Charity teaches wood working skills to the unemployed, reusing wood to produce new gifts and items. The Eco-Congregation Scotland Award plaques are made by this charity, which may mean future award plaques may be a recycled Alexandria Parish Church pew!
The Award plaque was unveiled by Mr Stephen Alexander, from Helensburgh, a member of the Eco-Congregation Scotland Board. Lomond Ward Councillors, Martin Rooney, and Hazel Sorrell also dropped in at the Church’s Book Room and Fairtrade Café to support the environmental work of the local congregation.
In the photo from right ot left: Stephen Alexander (Trustee, Eco-Congregation Scotland), Councillor Jackie Sorrell; Mary Sweetland (Eco-Congregation Convener Alexandria Parish Church); Councillor Martin Rooney
The Dyson AirbladeTM is a hand dryer that has a significantly lower carbon footprint compared to other hand dryers.
According to a Life Cycle Analysis carried out by a leading research institute it concludes that the Dyson Airblade hand dryer has the lowest environmental impact of a range of hand drying systems from paper towels to other warm air dryers.
In fact, this leading research institute concluded that paper towels and standard warm air dryers are the two worst performing type of hand drying for the environment
The Airblade is already in use in a number of churches including Dalgety Parish Church:
As one of the few meeting places in this new community, Dalgety Parish Church is always busy – as well as accommodating a large range of church and community groups, five days a week the halls are home to a toddler playgroup and an Out of School Club for primary school children. The facilities have to withstand lots of use, especially the main washrooms, where paper towels were installed to dry hands. However they were costing the church too much (£1,750 in 2008 alone) so the Treasurer, Bruce Marshall, decided to search for an alternative. “It wasn’t only the financial cost that concerned us,” explains Bruce. “As a member of Eco Congregation, (which recognises the environmental work by UK churches) we knew that paper towels contribute to landfill and are carbon intensive to manufacture, transport and collect – so the replacement dryer would need to have a low environmental impact as well.“ “We found the Dyson Airblade™ hand dryer website,” says Bruce. “It calculated the savings we’d make if we replaced paper towels with the Dyson machine. Next we asked for a demonstration.” Dyson visited the church hall with a demo kit. “We were all impressed,” comments Bruce. “Ten seconds to dry hands and far less expensive than paper towels. We installed two units straight away – they’ve lowered the church’s costs and environmental impact.”
Eco-Congregation Scotland is not endorsing this product, but we know that a number of congregations are interested in it and some have used it successfully. Scott Coppola Electrical Distributors (EEL) are offering a discount to churches who wish to install Airblade and we are happy to pass this on to any congregations who are interested. The dryers would be ordered using a special discount code from an electrical wholesaler and installed by your usual electrician.
It may be possible to fund the installation costs from an interest free loan from the Energy Saving Trust .
If you are interested please contact the Eco Congregation for further details by emailing – manager
ecocongregationscotland
org (managerecocongregationscotlandorg)
Scott Coppola Electrical Distributors
27 West Bowling Green Street
Edinburgh
EH6 5NX
0131 443 6611
This article is based on the experience of some congregations. Other hand driers are available.
A big thank you to Helensburgh and Lomond Network for raising £140 during the jointly organised coffee morning! They did really well under stiff competition from other events in the area. There were information stands, the FoodPrint game, beekeepers and of course refreshments for sale. A great initiative which we hope will inspire other networks and eco-congregations.
Many thanks to Elizabeth Lambert for sharing these wonderful photos with us:
The board of Eco-Congregation Scotland has endorsed a report on sustainable agriculture issued by the Church and Society Council of the kirk.
The report entitled “Our Daily bread” was launched at the Royal Highland Show earlier this week.
Go Green!
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For a personalised action plan of how you can go greener, create your Greener Plan today - Click Here.