God of creation, who loves all he has made and all that has evolved,
Rt Revd Nicholas Baines
open the eyes of your people,
that your love might be reflected in our care for the planet.
Through Jesus Christ, who walked this earth and calls us by name.
Amen.
Bishop of Leeds
Our environmental policy and strategy
We have adopted an environmental policy and strategy which explains what we believe when it comes to the environment, our commitment to minimise our impact where we can, and our plan for how we’re going to do it.
See our environmental policy and strategy
Eco Church
We’re proud to say that we’ve received a Bronze Award as part of the A Rocha Eco Church scheme, and we’re working towards a Silver Award.
Our energy footprint
Each year we calculate our energy usage, and share the results of our report.
See our energy footprint report
Reforesting and carbon offsetting
As well as working towards reducing our impact, we’re looking at ways we can actively offset any impact we do cause. Our Technical Team offset the carbon used in manufacture of any new equipment we buy, and when we use external printers we choose to offset carbon there as well.
So far we have planted 359 trees and offset 4 tonnes of carbon.
See our forest and our carbon offsets
Renewable electricity
All the electricity we use in our church and Community Centre comes from renewable sources, meaning we’re not burning fossil fuels to keep the lights on. Our Community Centre also has its own solar panels and batteries, generating power for use on-site and helping to reduce the carbon demand of the local electricity grid.
Low-energy lighting
The majority of the lighting in the church and all of the lighting in our Community Centre is low-energy LED, which helps keep our energy usage down.
We also switch off our floodlighting at midnight, which not only reduces energy usage but also reduces light pollution.
We like the flowers, we like the bumblebees
Our churchyard and graveyard are important pieces of green land, and we leave parts of them to grow wild. This gives a safe habitat for a range of local wildlife, helps local pollinators such as bees and butterflies, strengthens the local ecosystem and boosts biodiversity. It also provides a beautiful splash of colour throughout the year as different flowers bloom.
Keeping it under wraps
In our latest refurbishment, our Community Centre was fitted with brand new insulation. This keeps down our heating costs during the winter months and reduces noise pollution for our neighbours.
We also make sure our heating is automatically switched off when the building isn’t in use.
Recycling at Whitkirk
Where we can’t reduce what we use in the first place, or re-use it as something else, it’s important to recycle materials so that the energy used in their creation can be at least partly reclaimed.
We collect and recycle all our paper, card, glass, plastics and cans, and encourage users of our buildings to do the same.
There is a box in our Community Centre porch where you can donate empty printer ink cartridges. These will be refilled and reused, preventing unnecessary waste, and we also receive a donation of up to £2 for each one.
Green bottoms
All our toilet paper is made from 100% recycled material, so going to the bathroom in our Community Centre doesn’t mean more trees will be felled as a result.
Cycle friendly
We support active transport, and have bike parking available outside our Community Centre for those who prefer to cycle.
At the bar
The bar in the Community Centre operates a green buying policy – we actively look for more easily recycled packaging options, and try to keep our deliveries to a minimum. We recycle as much of our packaging as possible, and no longer give out straws (of any kind) except by request.
In the cloud
Our website runs in a datacentre using 100% renewable energy, and we regularly review usage of all our other online tools to see if we’re being as green as we can.
We also make sure our website is using best practices for keeping energy usage low, and we’re pleased to say we’re greener than average.
We choose with care
Green credentials are an inherent part of the selection process when some of our teams are choosing suppliers, and we’re rolling this out to more of the Church.
From email providers to the people who print our business cards, we want to make sure that the companies we work with care as much as we do.
Think before you print
We can’t completely eliminate printing, but we’re always aware of the impact it has. That’s why we’re encouraging people to use electronic alternatives where they can. Where we’re still printing things, we use recycled or FSC-certified paper as much as possible.