Eco-Church

In February 2020 General Synod set the Church of England an ambitious challenge: to reach net zero carbon across parish, cathedral, diocesan and school estates by 2030. In order to achieve this, there is a target for 40% of local churches to be registered as Eco-Churches and 30% of local churches to achieve awarded standards, of which at least a third of these awards should be Silver or higher by 2026. The principles are that Eco-Church should be Based in Theology – Treasuring God’s Creation; Urgent, relevant and widely understood; Data-driven, focused and transparent, Embedded in all we do; Using less energy, and from cleaner sources; travelling sustainably; Offsetting only what we cannot reduce.

In July 2024, All Saints Church PCC decided that we should apply to become an Eco-Church with a target to achieve Bronze status by the end of 2025. Through 2025 we made great strides towards our target:

• a) We are now on a “Green Tariff” for both Gas and Electricity
• b) We have installed bird boxes, bee hotels, a hedgehog house, and an insect hotel in the churchyard, some of which were installed and constructed by the local guides group, and by Thelwall Mens Shed.
• c) We started “No Mow May” which went on throughout the summer, and is still in place in various ‘Conservation Areas’ through the churchyard.
• d) There have been several mentions of the Eco-Church project from the pulpit, and encouragement for the congregation to become ‘Climate Heroes’ using an online climate calculator.

While much has been achieved through 2025, we were unsuccessful in achieving he necessary standards under the “Community & Local Engagement” and the “Lifestyle” categories of the Eco-Church plan. Through 2026, we are planning to put together a specific team to address these areas and look forward to trying again to achieve the Bronze Level in 2026.

Specifically the team will set out to draw up a plan to take action locally and/or nationally / globally, using the Parish News and Church Noticeboards to encourage participation; we will encourage local car sharing initiatives from pulpit and on website etc.; draw up a plan / strategy to promote ethical and environmentally aware consumption patterns by individuals and households, and encouraging the use of Fairtrade goods and materials; and encourage us all to become “Climate Heroes” using this calculator: https://climate-calculator.climatehero.org/