Church and PCC Action

Moving towards Net Zero

• Steps for churches who are looking to work towards Net Zero - this document draws together some of the key resources available from the Church of England to help us reduce our carbon footprint.

Buildings, energy & water

• Review the fuels you use, is it the most environmentally friendly that you can use?
• Seek inspiration from Operation Noah on how you can make your church more eco-friendly
• Consider registering as an Eco Church
• Check out the Eco Church resources
• Review your heating - do you have double glazing to make your heating efficient? Is your heating method efficient and environmentally friendly? Share your experience and knowledge with others
• Review the type of lighting that you use, think of using LED lighting
• Review the use of solar panels as a renewable source of energy - for inspiration and examples of good practice and successful installations on listed buildings see Churchcare.

Land & green space

• Become a part of the God’s Acre.
• Create water collection and drinking points for birds and wildlife around the outside of your church
• Create a wild flower meadow in little-used areas of your church property
• Build a Bug Hotel in your churchyard
• Consider how your church might participate in or support an allotment scheme or Community Orchard

Meetings, hospitality, food & waste

• Ten Commandments of food
• Be conscious of your waste – try not to over-cater for meetings
• Compost your food waste
• Be conscious of your carbon footprint – what transport routes are you using? Can you car share or take public transport for meetings, worship and events?
• Be conscious of your recycling – do you need paper copies of notes for your meeting? If you do are you recycling these? Conduct a 'bin inventory' or follow The Rubbish Diet
• Think about whether your materials are ethically sourced - perhaps you should look into only using Fair Trade products?

Local & global communities

• Create an ‘Events Board’ to raise awareness in the local communities of current environmental issues
• Invite someone to share their stories as part of your worship or church meetings. For example – create a special ‘Creation Sunday’ Service with a guest speaker

Worship, liturgy, theology & teaching

• Consider running a special sermon series during ordinary time or the Season of Creation
• Consider running a Lent Course, using SPCK's 'Saying Yes to Life' Lent resources
• GreenWorship resource
• Creation care resources for your church by A ROCHA
• Eco liturgy for the feast of St Francis