As a congregation, we have been taking steps towards a greener lifestyle. Some of these things are visible, such as increased opportunities for recycling in all of our buildings, committed use of eco-friendly cleaning products and the installation of wildflowers, bug hotels and bird boxes in the churchyard. Other changes have been less obvious, for example changing to green energy tariffs, improving insulation behind radiators in the church hub and commissioning an energy audit for our buildings.

However, while we are proud of what we have achieved so far, we know that there is still much to do. As we move towards our silver award, these are some of our priorities:

• Looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint within our church buildings.
• Continuing to encourage biodiversity study in our outside spaces.
• Regular blog/website and newsletter/Facebook and.
• Website content to showcase what we are doing and to generate ideas.
• Gardening across our outside spaces.
• Encouraging each other, family and friends to make even just one change.
• Building the Eco Church team to help St Mary’s along our eco journey.
• Continuing to include creation care in our worship and teaching.