Eco church

St James Dalby : Church & Community : Eco Church

Dalby Recycling Bins!!

This is a new initiative working in conjunction with the Western Civic Amenity Site, we now have 5 wheelie bins at the front of the church to take the recycling for our church and community :

We will be recycling :

Paper ( not Cardboard)
Plastic bottles and cartons, trays etc. anything plastic with the small triangle on the base with the numbers 1,2,4 or 5 in the triangle.
Glass bottles and jars
Tins and cans
Cartons of any kind including Manx creameries, Please crush the plastic, can and cartons so that we can cope with the bulk more easily

The bins will be emptied manually, so we ask you to ensure all recycling is clean and dry, and they'll be emptied every Wednesday.
This service is for free and is open for anyone to use!

The Environment Action Group : www.eag.im

Our We Care initiative is a set of free resources to use in your own way, but designed to be fun. It aims to show our community how much we care about the environment and particularly about climate change. We support the Isle of Man government’s vision for tackling climate change and want more action more quickly.

It's all about your ideas on the environment, what matters to you and your opportunity to share that with friends and family and even with your MHK (member of the House of Keys).

Notes on how to use the WeCare resources
Here is an information sheet and some notes on using the resources with church groups and with other groups.

A poster and other display material for discussion
A We Care poster, a prompt list ‘What we most care about’ and a list of ‘Ways to reduce our carbon emissions’.

Craft resources
And here are lots of images for putting on paper plates in group workshops, and for sharing with family, MHKs and the public when out on a march! Page 1 Page2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Earth & people We Care postcard

Campaign postcard
And finally here is the postcard in a format that can be printed out four at a time and used as it is, or coloured in and then shared with friends and family, on social media and sent to your MHK by post, on social media or handed to them personally. You can find your MHK details here.

Dalby Eco Church :
Our Church, supported by our community has registered as an Eco-church through the A Rocha Eco Church scheme. We have now achieved our Silver Award and are working to reduce our energy consumption to become carbon neutral by 2030, and rewilding our small area of garden.

Some of the on-going Eco community initiatives are :
Energy Saving :

Insulation : We've now fully insulated the ceilings above the schoolroom and kitchen; during the re-roofing project on the church in 2018 the church ceiling was insulated, so, with the newly fitted carpet in the church ... how cosy are we?!
Double Glazing: we've finally had all six of our very old and very rotten church windows re-framed and double glazed. It's great to get the old glass protected and the drafts reduced.
Draft excluding : An on-going problem with an old building in an exposed location ! We have two 18ft snakes to fit the gaps between the screens to stop the wind coming howling through! We've put in new draft excluders throughout, better but still not perfect.
Lights : All our lights in the Church, Schoolrooms & Hub are now LED.
Wood burning Stove : we've installed a woodburning Stove in the Community Hub, as well as the Schoolrooms which we use as our primary heat source; we still have oil heating for back up for colder spells, but have greatly reduced it's use.

Logging & Reducing our Co2 emissions : thanks to the work of the Dalby Community Woodland Scheme in maintaining our wood supply and in establishing the wood store we've saved on fuel again this year ; it’s been a really great asset ... and a lot of work!
Dalby Community Woodland Project : the church is working in conjunction with this local initiative. The long term aim of the project is to replace part of a Spruce woodland with locally grown deciduous trees to create a wildlife friendly habitat and a coppiced woodland offering a sustainable source of fuel for the community.
The Coronation Oaks : to mark the coronation this year we've partnered with The Dalby Woodland Scheme in planting 60 acorns, one for each house occupied in the village. Over half of these have now found their forever homes and been planted in gardens and land across the community, the remaining saplings will be planted in the the Community woodland.
Community Chimney sweep : we coordinate the sweeps’ visit to the village so that by booking together we get a reduced rate whilst reducing the number of trips by the sweep..... the church gets their chimney done for free.
Sunday Coffee & Papers : is our weekly carbon-saving initiative which continues in strength, with a regular 14+ people meeting on Sunday mornings. It’s a very relaxed and open group, whereby one person heads out to Peel, the nearest town 5 miles away, to collect the papers ordered by the group, their partner puts the coffee on ....... and we all sit and chat! Co ordinated by Kevin and Gilly,
Plant stall : is a regular source of interest, income ... and work, particularly for a regular team of folk who pot-up, split and divide, take cuttings and grow from seed. We sell garden flowers, herbs and shrubs, fruit bushes and veggies and wildflowers throughout the summer.
Veggie sales: on a good summer when we all have surplus in our gardens we also have a roadside stall and honesty box for fruit and veggies.
Farm Veg : We also sell Farm Veg in the Hub Shop and from the road side throughout the winter
Seed catalogues & Community food growing: we circulate Sutton seed catalogues to the Dalby Growers which entitles anyone who is part of this group to an amazing reduction in seed prices, and usually means there's a fair amount of seedling swapping in the Spring in the schoolrooms.
Compost bins : The land here is really just a school yard, poor soil and windblown. So we've now got 2 compost bins, which take all the grass cuttings, church flowers, veggie peelings and hundreds of tea bags and is developing rich compost.
The garden . is now a well planted wild flower garden with early spring bulbs and perennials throughout the year and the two tubs on the road side make the approach to the building look much more welcoming, and is good for butterflies and bees, and a welcome rest to any passing hiker.

Wild flower border : the small stretch of land towards the Hub we've left as a wild flower area, and have been happily surprised by a wealth and variety of plants that have appeared. We're monitoring this with an annual plant count, with over 36 different species recorded last year. Not many of the sown wildflower seeds have come to much, but nature generously fills the gaps

Hospitality :
Catering : As a community we always try to buy local Manx produce or Fairtrade ethically sourced goods and are constantly looking at ways to reduce our plastic use
Napkins: We've replaced the napkins we use with much smaller sustainably sourced, bio-degradable ones which are composted after use.
Loo Paper: we are now using Traidcraft Recycled Toilet paper in the Hub and Schoolroom Loos.
Flower arranging: we try to use mainly garden flowers and greenery and have a policy of no oasis.

New additions to the garden : Neil has made us a "gull-proof" bird feeder which our little garden birds are now very happily using, and Brian has made us our first bird box, in place and awaiting a resident!