Eco Church

St Mary’s and its Reawakening Project

Latest updates on The Reawakening of St Mary Magdalene project can be found here.

‘God made the world. It is His and everything in it belongs to Him.’

The Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham has adopted the Church of England’s ambition to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030. To meet this target, our churches need to achieve year on year reductions in emissions and to urgently examine what would be required to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Environmental sustainability guidance states that the Heritage Fund is supporting the Climate Change Committee (the CCC) ‘s aim to raise the UK’s climate ambitions for 2035, changing the UK for the better.

Historic England says this:
Sustainability is at the forefront of Historic England’s (HE) vision. By 2040 they aim to have enabled people to live more sustainably and adapt to a changing climate, while conserving the nation’s irreplaceable heritage for future generations through information and support.

St Mary Magdalene is undertaking a Reawakening Project. Our vision is for our church to be recognised for its heritage significance and play a more significant role in the town as it is recognised for the role it has played in Newark’s history, regional and national history.

As part of our parish mission, St Mary Magdalene has been signed up as an Eco Church. The aspiration was to gain the Silver Award by the end of the Reawakening Project. However, the church has already obtained this during the Development Phase of the project and the Gold Award is now being pursued. We aim to obtain the Gold Award by minimizing the carbon footprint of our church and to shift the mentality of individuals and encourage them
to make small lifestyle changes and take steps to make our buildings and facilities more energy efficient and sustainable.

An ethos of environmental sustainability is embedded throughout our Reawakening Project. An Environmental Sustainability Action Plan has been specially developed to link the environmental sustainability achievements of the project to the relevant Eco Church themes of Buildings, Land, Community and Global Engagement and Lifestyle.

The following Capital Works are due to be carried out in the Delivery Phase of the Reawakening Project and these measures will increase positive environmental impacts and reduce negative environmental impacts.

We will be:

• Installing 40 no. PV Panels will be installed on the south aisle roof, supplying the church
  with some of its electricity during the summer months and in the off-season, through new
  battery storage.

• New underfloor heating will be installed, with an Air Source Heat Pump installed to the
  Thomas Magnus Room.

• Upgrading the heating system to be heat areas of the
  church independently as required.

• A new lighting scheme of low-intensity high-efficiency LED luminaries to the west of the
  Transept. We will use the Energy Footprint Tool to measure our carbon emissions and
  savings, as the model of evaluation used across the Diocese.

• Generally upgrading other M&E, security systems and fire detection systems.

• Using lime in all bedding and pointing as it is a net carbon absorber.

• Sourcing stone from local quarries to reduce ‘stone miles’

• Using FSC certified wood

• Repairing/replacing broken coloured and stained glass throughout the building to ensure
  it is wind and watertight.

• Repairing and replacing the south aisle roof and clerestory windows to minimise heat loss

• Installing sensor control buttons on the West and South doors to minimize
  heat loss (this will also improve access for people with mobility issues)

• Specifying toilets with low flush buttons and exploring opportunities for harnessing water
  when water goods are renewed

• Minimizing travel by advertising locally for consultants.
  freelancers and contractors, using Zoom for meetings and encouraging the use of public
  transport

• Auditing the church café supply chain and switching to fair-trade and local products

• (Reducing the use of plastics, especially single use plastics at events in the Church

• The church uses more than one utility company and will review. rationalise and explore
  the environmental benefits of exploring parish buying and SMART meters

• During the Development Phase we also carried out extensive Ecology Surveys to
  understand the presence of Bats and have confirmed there are bats present only in the
  vicinity, not in the church. A plan for encountering bats, or other types of ecology, during
  the works will be embedded with the Main Contractor contract

• As part of the tendering process contractors will be required to demonstrate how they will
  factor in the increasing positive environmental impacts and
  decrease negative environmental impacts when carrying out their work.
  The above measures will (hopefully)enable us to reduce our carbon emissions by (despite
  increased activity) 12% in our first year, post refurbishment. As the electricity distribution
  network decarbonizes, it is expected that this figure will improve over the next 25 years;
  notwithstanding any future plans by the church to upgrade other parts of the building, not
  covered by the project.

The Eco Church continues its work throughout, and in conjunction with, the Reawakening Project. As the awards are based on a ‘points’ system, the Eco team understands that we will not achieve our Gold Award as a result of the Reawakening Project works, although we will be well on the way!
Going forward, Eco Church has formulated a plan to achieve the Gold Award. We will be focussing on things like installing recycling facilities outside our building and carrying out annual wildlife surveys on our land. We aim to work with a sustainability movement such as Transition Town which will promote and support community engagement and link into local conservation work such as The Wildlife or Woodland Trust with the aim of involving and educating our young people. We are working towards building a ‘team’ around our Eco Church and we use our ‘Bitesize News’ each week to communicate with our church congregation, endeavouring to inform and educate on all matters of sustainability.

We must all remember that we are only Leaseholders of this earth; God owns the Freehold! One of our Heritage Outcomes for this Reawakening Project is that our church of St Mary’s and the people of Newark will be in a better condition and that we will all be more equipped and engaged as a community, to look after God’s earth in a more energy efficient and sustainable way.