What can my church and I do?

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

• 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
• Do you have double glazing, secondary glazing or draught excluders to make heating your church more efficient? 
• Review your heating system. Is it the most environmentally friendly one that you can use?
• 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 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'.
• What paper do you use in your printers/photocopiers?
• 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 or Advent course that focuses on the environment
• Creation care resources for your church by A Rocha UK