Eco-Group Report for the Annual Church Meeting 2024
During the year ending 31st March 2024, the Eco Group continued to meet to discuss how we can be better stewards of the earth that God created.
Members of the Group took part in a number of activities supporting environmental action throughout the year, including attending the Diocesan Environment Day on 9th September 2023 where we received a certificate of thanks and congratulations for our work towards achieving a Silver Eco Church Award; this can be seen in the narthex. Other activities that we have supported include lobbying for Better Buses in South Yorkshire and events around the COP28 conference held in UAE from 2nd – 9th December 2023.
We have started to network with other churches and bodies who are interested in environmental issues, and hope to build on these links in the future.
We held an evening event called 'Heating your home the green way: A how-to guide for total beginners' on 16th May, as part of Sheffield Environment Weeks; this was a community event for people who wanted to make their homes ‘greener’ and included an excellent presentation by representatives from IMS Heat Pumps.
As part of Sheffield Environment Weeks 2024, we will be hosting a Repair Café in church from 2.00 – 5.00 pm on Saturday 11th May; volunteer repairpeople will be on hand to make small repairs and teach people how they can do these themselves, with the aim of reducing waste by re-using and recycling items that would otherwise be thrown away.
Members of the Eco Group contributed to the Harvest Festival service on 1st October 2023.
We continue to keep the A Rocha online Eco Church Questionnaire updated and constantly try to improve our score, with the aim of gaining a Gold Award and becoming Net Zero by 2030.
We continue to maintain a ‘wild’ area of the garden for wildlife, to grow fruit and vegetables in the garden and in the compound behind church, to have a regular Gardening column written by Bill Atherton in Nexus and to publish an ‘Eco Tip’ and ‘Green Box’ in the Weekly Newsletter to inform and encourage all members of the congregation in ways that they can live a greener lifestyle.
The Eco Group is always happy to welcome new members.
Clare Loughridge, 4th April 2024