St James Dalby : Church & Community : Eco Church
Hurray! We've just achieved our Silver Eco Church Award !!!!!
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“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches
is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. ” Michael Pollan |
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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 currently working to reduce our energy consumption to become carbon neutral by 2030.
Some of the on-going Eco community initiatives are :
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 currently working to reduce our energy consumption to become carbon neutral by 2030.
Some of the on-going Eco community initiatives are :
- Insulation : This summer we're getting the Schoolroom and Kitchen ceilings fully insulated; during the re-roofing project on the church we had the church ceiling insulated. ...so how cosy is that going to be this winter!
- Double Glazing: we've finally had three of our very old and very rotten church windows re-framed and double glazed!! Great to get the old glass protected and the drafts stopped !
- Lights : All our lights in the Church and Hub are now LED ...... this summer we look to replace the lights in the schoolrooms.
- Wood burning Stove : we've got a new wood burning stove installed in the schoolrooms as well as the Community Hub ...... a very exciting new development to our Eco initiatives!
- 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 create a sustainable source of fuel for the community.
- Community Chimney sweep : Rosie has coordinated 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 Papers : is our weekly carbon-saving initiative which continues in strength, with a regular 18+ 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 Neil and a regular team of folk who pot up, split and divide, take cuttings and grow from seed so that we now 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 Not many of the sown wildflower seeds have come to much, but nature generously fills the gaps
- Draft excluding : An on-going problem with an old building in an exposed location ! Ann has made us 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!
- Community Recycling; as there are no recycling bins near Dalby we now use three additional dustbins for recycling plastic bottles, glass and milk cartons for church and the community use; the deal being the person who can't cram another bottle in, is the person who take the sack to the amenity site!
- Recycling: we also have in-house recycling of glass, Manx milk cartons, cans, card and paper.
- 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, biodegradlable ones
- Loo Paper: we are now using Traidcraft Recycled Toilet paper in the Hub and Schoolroom Loos.
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