Caring for God’s Earth – Lifestyle Audit
Eco Church
As said last month, we are now looking at the Lifestyle part of the Eco Church awards; trying to bring this up to the Bronze standard, alongside the other four sections. This is acknowledged to be the most challenging part of the awards and something that we all need to engage with, if we are to do our bit to reduce effects of the climate and biodiversity emergencies now affecting the whole world. There are things that we can do which will have positive effects.
For instance buying organic, locally grown food, will help boost the numbers of our endangered farmland birds, such as the Yellowhammer and Skylark, as well as reduce the amount of fossil fuels used to get the food from the fields to our homes. Buying fruit and vegetables that are in season in Britain so that they are not flown in from distant parts of the globe using harmful fossil fuels, also helps reduce the carbon footprint of our meals. Eating less red meat helps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by cattle and sheep, but, buying locally produced beef or lamb which is grass fed also has less impact than supermarket meat, as grass fed animals produce less methane, which is what contributes to global warming. If you buy Fairtrade foods, such as bananas, at least you are contributing to the payment of fair wages to the plantation workers, so that they are able to afford to send their children to school and have a better standard of living than those working in non-Fairtrade banana plantations.
There are things we can all do to make a difference and to help with this a website run by a church in the south of England, www.creationcare.org has a lifestyle audit scheme for individual households, similar to the Eco Church Awards for churches.
Having just completed this audit, I can say it is a very good way of looking at our individual lifestyles giving ideas on how we can tread more lightly on the earth. Do let me know if you complete an audit, as we can also register St Mary’s and so track our improved lifestyles as a church. There is no print out for those not on the internet at the moment, but I will let you know if one is produced, so we can all take part. RMR