Our Greenshoots Network connects people from across the diocese who are wanting to take environmental action with their churches. With over 100 people now in the network, there are so many exciting stories to share, lessons to learn and experiences to exchange.
Whether you are working towards Eco Church awards, or just thinking about where to start on a net zero carbon journey, being part of Greenshoots can support you along the way. The Network is a forum for people to exchange questions and ideas over email, and it also offers online get-togethers once a month, to hear from external speakers and from parishes about their activities and to exchance news or queries. Greenshoots Network host Alison Riggs gives a flavour of some of the topics and ideas discussed below. Recordings of many presentations given at Greenshoots Get-togethers are available on our EcoHub using the search word Greenshoots.
Sharing ideas
We've heard in our online Greenshoots Get-togethers how St Mary’s North Leigh are planning steps towards their gold Eco Church award, and that other churches had booked or benefited from an energy audit. St Mary’s Shaw shared how they had declared a climate emergency using the Climate Emergency Toolkit resources, and St Michael’s, Tilehurst, told us they'd worked with others locally gathering tips for reducing plastic use.
We've also discussed efforts towards net zero carbon and energy efficiency. We've shared some helpful resources and case studies from the Church of England Environment Programme, including renewable energy generation as well as other net zero adaptations. This came up again in later get-togethers, with a focus on solar panel installations.
In another meeting we started with some very helpful information from the Revd Mark Nelson on starting and running a Repair Café, and a 20-minute recording of this part of the evening and our Q&A with him afterwards are available to watch on demand. Mark strongly recommended joining the Repair Café movement as he found their start-up pack useful and good value.
Energy bills
St Mary’s, Wendover, have shared their experiences of moving to a new energy supplier in these extremely challenging times, as their contract was ending. Volatility in the market means decisions have to be made quickly, so their approach was to ask the PCC to delegate the decision to the energy standing committee. This meant fewer people had to sign off the quote by an email vote on the day the quote came in. For those churches struggling with energy bills, the document heating your church this winter is useful.
Nature, wildlife and biodiversity
Wildlife-themed updates included one from St Mary’s Shaw. They shared how a lack of a regular mowing contractor and a talk by Flower Farms has inspired them to work with the parish council to consider creating a wildflower meadow in part of their closed churchyard. St James the Greater, Eastbury are keeping up with their churchyard butterfly surveys for the Upper Thames Valley Butterfly Conservation Trust. We had a request from St Paul’s West Wycombe for suggestions on how to best make a wildlife pond out of their old Belfast kitchen sink (see some tips here). We heard news of encouraging progress made by St Frideswide’s, Water Eaton, on an agreement with their local council for them to take over some land near their churchyard as a community garden. Also, a number of churches represented had, or plan to shortly, put up bird and bat boxes. Either the free ones we were offered for Oxfordshire churches (St Mary’s, North Leigh and St Peter’s, Aylesbury) or, at St Peter’s, Burnham, their Men’s Shed group have been busy making their own bird and bat boxes. All Saints Faringdon shared how to access species records on the National Biodiversity Network. Caring for God’s Acre is a great source of churchyard wildlife advice.
Advocacy
St Peter’s, Aylesbury, told us their MP had asked to visit their community garden and was very impressed by it plus their community café and foodbank. All Saint’s, Wokingham told us the first time they joined a Greenshoots Get-together how their church climate group was planning ways to get their whole church talking about environmental issues during Creationtide (1 Sept to 4 Oct) and considering registering for the Eco Church scheme - this went wll as they have since recieved a silver award!
If any of these topics or conversations have inspired you to join Greenshoots, then do email the Environment team and Alison will add you to the network. We look forward to even more mutual support and ideas-sharing going forwards.