ST JOHN’S WINS SILVER ECO AWARD
The Green Team is delighted to announce that St John’s has just been awarded a silver Eco Church award by the A Rocha organisation. Eco Church is an award scheme designed to encourage and help churches in England and Wales to care for God’s earth. Since obtaining a bronze Eco Church award in 2019, the Green Team has been working tirelessly with the clergy, members of the congregation and other teams, in particular the Gardening Team to improve on this, and the silver award is a reflection of everyone’s hard work. The award is split into five categories: worship and teaching; buildings; land; community and global engagement; lifestyle. Questions cover a range of topics, such as working out carbon footprints, sustainability, the mowing regime, the use of LED lightbulbs and preaching about environmental issues. A silver award is given when a certain number of points are reached per section – according to the Church of England’s website, only 19% of all the C of E Eco Churches have a silver, so this is something to be rightly proud of. Congratulations and a huge thank you to everyone involved!
In addition to the silver Eco Church award, the Green Team recently applied for a Wildlife Friendly Workplace award from local organisation, Harrogate District Biodiversity Action Group. This was presented to us on 12th March by two ladies from the organisation, both of whom were very impressed with our lovely church grounds and all the work that the Gardening Team have been putting into them.
Members of the Green Team and Gardening Team with representatives of Harrogate District Biodiversity Action Group
