After achieving our Bronze award from A Rocha last year in recognition of all the hard work that goes into making our church greener, more environmentally friendly and environmentally conscious, we had a quieter year in 2024 but productive none the less.
Our aim this year was to maintain the changes we put into place over the last two years and work towards our Silver award. The criteria for this have changed so although we’d managed to tick off quite a few challenges, we’ve now had to start again – many items are the same but there are many extra, all designed to benefit the planet.
The bird boxes which toddler group helped install have been used by bluetits again; the bug hotels have also been open for business and are often checked by the children thereby teaching even our youngest children the importance and diversity of our wildlife. The apple trees both had fruit and in 2025 we’re hoping the apples will grow big enough to eat! The ‘no mow’ area has had quite a good range of wild flowers and grasses during May to September but this year we plan to enrich this with some Native British wild flower seed, bought with some of Len Palmer’s bequest.
All the meals served by St George’s Social Committee this year have included vegetarian and vegan options and have promoted use of leftover food and no waste.
Signs have been put up in the church flower room and loo to encourage use of environmentally friendly cleaning products.
The two recycling bins in the hall kitchen have been well used reducing the amount we send to landfill, and the compost bin by the church is regularly in use.
We were delighted to welcome Matt Lockwood, Net Zero Carbon Support Officer for Portsmouth Diocese, to speak at our Harvest service. He is passionate about his subject and was able to enthuse the whole congregation with thoughts and plans for how we can all be involved in making changes for the benefit of the planet.
David Cain has worked particularly hard for the Eco group exploring our heating system and working out how we will best be able to manage our heating in the future in a more environmentally conscious way and with much lower bills. This is ongoing.
Havant Borough Big Green Week – 7-15 June 2025
The theme for 2025 is the same as last year.
Let’s Swap Together for Good
On Saturday 7th June in St George’s Church Hall there will be a big ‘green’ swap with stalls, clothing, refreshments etc. Last year this was held in the Meridian Centre in Havant. St George’s will provide refreshments. It was felt that this would be a good thing to do and something we can tick off our Silver Award list.
We’d like to encourage you all to work out your carbon footprint in line with the Diocesan advice, by using the World Wildlife Fund Carbon Footprint Calculator. https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
It’s really interesting and by doing it once a year you can see if your carbon footprint is going down as we all strive to reach net zero carbon.
The Eco church subcommittee has space for one or two new members so please join us! We are Malcolm Brewer, David Cain, Jane Cook, Sara Pask, Mo Peters, Lynn Winter.
