Eco Church
|
St Michael’s has become an Eco Church and already gained the Bronze Award. The national Eco Church scheme has been run by the international environmental charity A Rocha since 2016, though Lichfield Diocese had its own scheme as early as the late 1990s. The scheme encourages churches to adopt environmentally sensitive policies in all of their activities. To join, churches fill in a questionnaire survey where each question contributes a number of points. Depending on the answers, the church may be given a Bronze, Silver or Gold Award. The questions cover five aspects of church life:
Our results gave one Gold level, one Silver levels and three Bronze levels – but the award is given on the lowest of the five aspects. However, of the 100 churches in the diocese that have joined the scheme only a quarter have achieved Bronze level or higher, so to get Bronze when we start shows that St Michael’s is already concerned about environmental issues. What is even more pleasing, is that in the aspects for which we have achieved Bronze level, it will take only a few improvements to raise the score to Silver level and the PCC will be planning how to take these steps. If we succeed we will be only the fifth church in the diocese to achieve this level ! St Michael's currently does these things
|
|