Hill House

We had a great time again at our Church Weekend away at Hill House... 

Working on the theme of becoming 'Graciously GREEN

We considered THREE R's of how we should engage with God's beautiful creation:

R: Rejoice

R: Repent

R: Respond.... change the way we live. 

We worked on a lot of the input ourselves, getting information from near and far. This culminated in us putting together 4 workshops, about WATER, FOOD, PLASTICS and ENERGY & TRANSPORT. 

Below are some of the conclusions that we reached: 

As Individuals- Research and Rethink

·         Become more aware how our consumption affects other people’s resources

·         Understand the concept of ‘virtual water’ used to produced clothes, food etc

·         Buy clothes from/ take clothes to charity shops

·         Use less water-fit a water meter, consider how much water goes down the plughole- can it be used elsewhere?

·         Lobby supermarkets about plastic use

·         Find alternatives to single use plastic/ reuse/ recycle

·         Become a ‘reducitarian’ cut down on meat consumption

·         Vote with your ‘cheque book’- pensions, investments, companies you buy from. Research – are you unwittingly supporting expansion of fossil fuels, unethical/unjust consumption? Write to pension/investment companies asking where invested and avoiding fossil fuels etc.

·         When shopping

o   buy loose fruit and veg – locally grown

o   take your own bags

o   consider having milk delivered/ consider plant-based milks (oat milk appears best for use of land/water/CO2 impact and carton can be recycled by South Glos.)

o   buy less but better quality/ sustainably produced meat

 

As a Church

·         Low flush toilets, low water use taps, water butts, rainwater harvesting

·         Support – Water Aid, Toilet twinning, Move the Date, campaigns for better public transport

·         Spread the word to our community, be a role model. Communicate our aims with other groups that use our buildings

·         Double glazing options for main church.

·         Buy sustainable toilet paper

·         Do an audit of food waste- how much is there, could it be used by somebody else.

·         Have an Earth Overshoot day service with no resources

·         Become an ‘Ecochurch’

·         Reinvest our Feed In tariff from solar panels in making our church more eco-friendly/sustainable.

·         Monitor gas, water, electricity use monthly and display this for all to see.