Green Action Group

Car-free Sundays - the first Sunday of every month

The decisions we make about how we travel are part of our Christian responsibility to care for God’s creation. Therefore- 

• Whenever you think of making a journey by car ask yourself whether it is really necessary.
• Use alternative transport: Walk, cycle or catch a bus for all journeys of less than two miles if you are able. When going further use the train or coach.
• Avoid driving to church if you can. Maybe you could give someone else a lift if you have to use a car.

All Saints' Orchard  - planted 28/9/13 with donations from the congregation

Thanks to donations from Friends of the Earth and the National Trust, another 6 trees are to be planted 21/3/2015. 

All fruit is for sharing with all members of the community. Help yourselves!

The average person in our region uses around 140 litres of water a day. 

Water efficiency is about using water wisely to avoid waste. By avoiding waste you are not only helping to conserve a precious resource, but you are helping to protect the environment. Reducing your water waste will also reduce your carbon footprint. Water that is wasted is treated twice; once before it reaches your tap, and again before it is returned to the environment. This treatment requires a lot of energy.

Northumbrian  Water have a water saving kit which provides you with a variety of water saving devices that will reduce your utility bills and help you to reduce your water consumption by as much as 95 litres per day. Further information on

https://www.nwl.co.uk/your-home/saving-water/water-saving-kit.aspx

3 simple things can help reduce food waste and cut costs.

Organisation and planning

By making a comprehensive shopping list and weekly menu or meal plan you can cut down on the extra items you pick up when shopping or forgotten items that need to be purchased later in the week.  This also cuts down on guessing what you have in your cupboard back at home.

Wise Shopping

Shops and supermarkets have lots of different ploys to get us to part with our money. We are bombarded with 2 for 1 offers or mix and match pre-packaged produce. We need to think about what we need rather than letting the supermarkets tell us what they think we need. Buying loose fruit and vegetables allows you to purchase the exact amount that you need without all the plastic waste. 

Portion Control

Preparing too much food is a big issue and leads to lots of food waste.  On average 90% of left overs are kept for a day or two and then thrown away. Being precise will save you money as well. 

Food Labelling

it is also important to understand food labelling and those use by and best before dates. As a rule of thumb the following can be applied.

Best before dates  This refers to the quality rather than the safety. This date only means the item is at its best up until the date on the packet, it should be safe to eat after that date expires and we need to use our own judgement when deciding  whether we can eat it or not.

Display dates or sell by dates  Ignore these dates as they are for the shop staff and not for customers. It allows the shop to keep track of stock and what they have on their shelves.

Use by dates  These refer to the safety of an item and need to be adhered to. Do not eat anything that is past its use by date.

Useful Links:

england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
www.thekitchen.com

Composting reduces the amount of waste that you put in your "wheeled bins", and it gives you a wonderful material to use on your flower beds, vegetable plot and roses.  All you need is a suitable container for keeping the waste materials in place, it needs to be at least 1m³ and can be simply constructed from a length of chicken mesh or, if you don't mind spending a bit, one of the excellent plastic ones available from garden centres.  Find a place in your garden that is in shade or semi shade to put your heap, which will ensure it doesn't overheat or dry out.  It is better to have it in direct contact with the soil, otherwise the worms, bacteria etc essential to satisfactory composting can't get in; if the bin has to stand on a solid surface, you'll need to add some soil to it to get it working properly.

Any organic material will rot down but it's advisable to use about half "green" material, such as kitchen waste and lawn clippings and half "brown" (twigs, sawdust etc).  Even newspaper will compost but it's best to rip it up and mix it in a bit otherwise it will either sit inertly in the heap or go slimy.  Slow rotting things like leaves can be bagged for a few months before adding to the heap as they tend to be bulky and take a long time to compost down.The results are truly worthwhile; after about sixth months you will have a lovely sweet smelling, crumbly compost.  

For more information, visit the  RHS website.

The energy supplier has been changed, thus making savings on energy costs.

Proposals to change the lights in the Centre and to monitor the heating controls in the Church and the Centre have been put forward. We aim to encourage the congregation and Centre users to use energy more economically, by, for example, something as simple as ensuring lights are switched off when not needed. We are also investigating the possibility of installing solar panels.