Caring for our Environment
‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it on the waters.’ Psalm 24
At St Edward’s, we see our planet as God’s gift to us, and we are called to be stewards in caring for our environment. In 2022, the Church of England set a target for zero carbon by 2030, and as a church we are actively seeking ways to reduce our carbon footprint to tread the earth more lightly. We acknowledge this has to be a collective responsibility and so we signed up for A Rocha’s Eco Church programme and were awarded Bronze in 2022. We are now actively engaged in moving towards Silver.
What do we do?
We are a Fair Trade church.
We offer recycling for cardboard, plastic, glass, tins, batteries, printers cartridges, stamps and pens. The boxes can be found at the top of the atrium ramp.
All our cleaning products are sourced from a York company and are eco-friendly.
We have solar panels which help to feed electricity back into the national grid. A new inverter fitted in 2024 has greatly improved the efficiency of the panels.
We have an organic garden with bird houses, hedgehog homes and garden herbs for the kitchen.
We have compost areas including leaf mould piles.
Our young people are acutely aware of the importance of caring for the world, as it is especially their future, and last year they took part in planting, poster designing, litter picking and apple pressing.
In 2024, the church was fitted with low energy LED’s and by the summer of 2025, every light in the building will be LED.
We provide bike racks in order to encourage people to cycle.
Our florists seek to source the most environmentally friendly products for arrangements.
We support the work of USPG which works in less developed countries to improve education, health and agricultural practice.
What would we like to do?
Replace our existing heating systems with ones not dependent on fossil fuels.
Reduce our overall plastic and paper usage.
Undertake more re-wilding where possible.
Plant a permanent Christmas tree!
Please come and join us in caring for the earth, our home.
