We started our Eco-church journey at the beginning of this academic year. Getting a good team together is obviously vital. With the support of the Headmaster we managed to bring together a couple of interested staff, and student Chapel Wardens, who could work on making real and lasting changes.
When the group began looking at the criteria it was pleasing to find that we were already doing most of what was being asked for the Bronze Award so we set ourselves the challenge of achieving Silver. The jump between Bronze and Silver seemed to be quite daunting at first but we found that the criteria could often be met by being more consistent with what we were already doing.
So we set out plans for the coming year to make sure that sermons, intercessions, newsletters and e-communications were all raising environmental themes on a very regular basis. We made sure that awareness events such as: Earth Day, Fairtrade Fortnight etc. were in school calendar and marked in Chapel. We ensured that consumables were consistently eco-friendly and one of the group also took charge of monitoring our heating and lighting usage to ensure we were reducing our consumption as much as possible. What seemed like small changes added up to make a big difference.
A student Chapel Warden said, “The environmental crisis concerns me a great deal. I try to take steps in my own life to care for the earth and I was really delighted when the Chaplain asked me if I would be interested in doing something similar for Chapel. Everyone in school has been really supportive. I think this is something we all care about.”