Caring for God's Creation
We are now a Fairtrade Church
St Luke’s has been awarded Fairtrade status helped by everyone who takes refreshments of tea and coffee after church services. You will have noticed lately that our individually wrapped biscuits are now Fairtrade as well.
Fairtrade is a system of certification that aims to ensure a set of standards are met in the production and supply of a product or ingredient. For farmers and workers, Fairtrade means workers’ rights, safer working conditions and fairer pay. For shoppers it means high quality, ethically produced products.
Choosing Fairtrade means standing with farmers for fairness and equality, against some of the biggest challenges the world faces. It means farmers creating change, from investing in climate-friendly farming techniques to developing women in leadership.
With Fairtrade you change the world a little bit every day. Through simple shopping choices, you are showing businesses and governments that you believe in fair and just trade.
The way you live your life has an impact on the resources of God's Earth
Tips from the Church of England
Food: Food production, packaging, and transportation consumes energy and results in carbon emissions which threaten to raise the average global surface temperature. It has been suggested that our food is responsible for 20% of the UK’s entire carbon footprint.
We can reduce our carbon footprint by:
- Eating seasonally.
- Eating locally.
- Limiting the amount of meat in our diet.
Plastic: An estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans each year. Much of this from single-use plastic packaging. There are a number of organisations working to change our attitudes to plastics, offering advice on how to cut down on your plastic use:
- Greenpeace’s plastic pledge.
- Plastic Planet’s #PlasticFreeAisle.
- WRAP’s circular economy.
- WRAP’s plastic pact
Energy: If we each save a little energy at home, together we can have a huge impact on the UK’s carbon footprint. 10 tips from the Church of England:
- Turn your thermostat down by 1ºC. It could cut your heating bills by up to 10 % and save you money.
- Is your water too hot? Your cylinder thermostat shouldn’t need to be set higher than 60ºC/140ºF.
- Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows.
- Always turn off the lights when you leave a room.
- Don’t leave appliances on standby. And remember not to leave them charging unnecessarily.
- If you’re not filling up the washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher, use the half-load or economy programme.
- Only boil as much water as you need (but remember to cover the elements if you’re using an electric kettle).
- Fix leaking taps and make sure they’re fully turned off! A dripping tap wastes energy and in one week wastes enough water to fill half your bath.
- Replace your light bulbs with LEDs. They will reduce costs and last up to 12 times longer than ordinary light bulbs.
- Switch to a renewable energy provider: take a look at the suggestions here from Money Supermarket.
For more advice, visit:
Waste and recycling: Reduce what you can. If you can’t then re-use what you can. If you can’t then recycle what you can. Some of it is burned to create energy for electricity. The remainder is disposed of in landfill. This is the last option.
Carbon reducing tips from St Luke’s church family –
Every time you use the oven to cook dinner, always try to plan to bake another dish or two at the same time; a simple quick apple crumble or something else that freezes well. It’s handy to have something homemade at hand should you or a friend become poorly.
If you turn the oven off 5 minutes before you dinner is due to be ready, the residual heat will keep your dish cooking and help reduce electricity bill (not recommended for cake baking).
When finished with the oven, providing it’s safe to do so, leave the oven door ajar to let out the residual heat and keep the kitchen nice and cosy whilst you’re sat down to eat.
Steaming your veg:
If you have a pan steamer then you can save money cooking all your vegetables in one pan that uses just one hob. Over a year, this will help contribute to keeping the electricity bill down. If you don’t have a steamer, M&S sell a universal steamer for £12.50 that fits most pan diameters. Other shops sell a 3 tier steamer for approximately £25 so keep an eye out for the sales or put it on your birthday or Christmas wish-list.
I usually steam potatoes in the bottom steam pan, next level is carrot batons and top tier broccoli. The water left in the bottom pan can be used to make your gravy or saved as a vegetable stock for the next day. A steamer pan is extremely useful over Christmas when your hob is maxed out with other things Christmas brings to the table.
from Jan Wilson
St Luke’s achieved an EcoChurch Silver Award in 2020 and the Eco group will be looking at ways in which we can go for gold this year.
As we start a new year, all churches are being encouraged by the Church of England to become net carbon zero by 2030. This will certainly be challenging, but perhaps we can all look at our own carbon footprint and see how we can reduce and offset the carbon we use in our everyday lives. For more information please click here
EcoChurch is a national environmental programme for churches managed by A Rocha UK. It builds on our existing environmental concerns & Christian perspectives and aims to encourage us as members of the church to CELEBRATE the gift of creation and CARE for it in appropriate practical and spiritual ways.
Similar to other supermarkets Sainsbury’s is encouraging their customers to recycle various types of plastic bag. The Crosby store now has a plastic bag/plastic wrapping recycling point. This allows customers to recycle Polypropylene (PP) film found in several household plastic products (see list below of polypropylene and polyethylene plastic film accepted at this supermarket)
Sefton Council Recycling
The images below indicate what items can & cannot be put in our brown bins.
