Holy Trinity holds the Eco Church Bronze Award, and we are working on achieving Silver. To learn more about A Rocha’s Eco Church, its focus on how we care for Creation in our worship and teaching; in how we look after our buildings and land; in how we engage with our local community and the wider world, and in the personal lifestyles of our congregation, go to: https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/
The Eco Team have put together a list of interesting webinars on environmental issues from various sources, including the Church of England and the Oxford Martin School (part of Oxford University) – see below. Some are on church issues and others are of more general interest.
Events
Great Big Green Week
Saturday 10 – Sunday 18 June 2023
GBGW is the UK’s celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect Nature. In 2021, over 5,000 events took place and over 200,000 people took part. Watch the 2 min video about GBGW 2021.
Webinars
The Cattle-Grain-Beef Complex: Maize, Feedlots, and British Breeds in the Rise of the Modern Food System Thursday 18 May, 12.30-1.30pm
Online and at Oxford Martin School, 34 Broad Street
With Dr Nathan Sayre.
Intensive, industrial beef production in the US relies on confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and high-throughput slaughter and packing plants to produce reliable supplies at low prices. Its problems are legion and infamous. Where did it come from, and how might it be different? Registration essential. To register in-person/ live online/ or to view recorded at later date: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/events/cattle-grain-beef-complex/
Great Big Green Week – The Power of Engaging Local Politicians
Thursday 18 May, 4.00 – 5.00pm
The Great Big Green Week (GBGW), an annual, week-long climate festival, taking place from 10th-18th June 2023, is a celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature, and a significant moment to raise our voices.
This webinar will help use GBGW as a vital moment to urge local politicians to take action on climate and nature, perhaps by championing a particular area such as home energy efficiency or biodiversity.
Speakers: Laura D’Henin and Sarah Jordan, from Hope for the Future, a climate communication and democratic engagement charity.
BOOK HERE
More productive future-proofed crops via manipulation of photosynthesis to address global food security in 2050
Monday 22 May, 5.00 – 6.15pm
Online and at Oxford Martin School, 34 Broad Street
In 2021 one in ten of the global population suffered starvation for a substantial portion of the year, a number that has been rising steadily since 2014. Many of those afflicted are small-holder farmers and their families in the Global South. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN-FAO) projects a worsening situation with global demand for our major crops rising 60% by 2050.
In this talk Dr Steve Long, Ikenberry University Chair of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, will suggest that improvement of photosynthetic efficiency is the largest remaining opportunity to increase genetic crop yield potential.
Analyses suggest that such engineering could lead to a >50% sustainable improvement in crop yield potential, thereby providing insurance against future food shortage and avoiding yet further agricultural expansion and associated destruction of natural areas.
Registration essential. To register in-person/ live online/ or to view recorded at later date: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/events/photosynthesis-to-address-global-food-security/
Practical Guidance on Churchyard Management
Monday 5 June, 12.00 – 1.00pm
Correctly managed, churchyards can be vital spaces which support mission, people, AND nature. This session will tell you about the ecological importance of churchyards and how to create a practical churchyard management plan.
Speaker: Andrea Gilpin, from the conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre. BOOK HERE
Examples of Managing Church Land for Climate and Nature
Tuesday 6 June, 12.00 – 1.00pm
This session is designed to highlight good practice from around the country, showing how the members of the panel are approaching the management of land for climate and nature, at national, diocesan, and local level.
Speakers:
* Mark Betson, National Public Policy Advisor.
* Senior Rural Asset Manager, Church Commissioners
* Jeremy Smith, Land Agent, Dixon Smith LLP
* Marina O’Connell, Director of Apricot Centre CIC
* Local Church – tbc
BOOK HERE
Paying Attention to Nature, with Bishop Graham Usher, Lead Bishop on The Environment
Wednesday 7 June, 12.00 – 1.00pm
The seminar will use the skills of the 18th century parson-naturalist Gilbert White of Selborne to explore how we might see the wonder and joy of nature around us more clearly.
Bishop Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, an ecologist by profession, will reflect on how being more aware of the glory of God’s creation can connect directly to practical action to protect it. BOOK HERE
From Global to Local – Tackling the Twin Crises for Climate and Nature
Friday 9 June, 12.00 – 1.00pm
This webinar gives the big picture, for the UK and globally, and how this relates to local action. You will get an overview of the twin crises we face (climate change and biodiversity loss) and the linked solutions that exist, which can come from becoming “nature positive”. What, if anything, has changed after 2022’s two international COPs, on bio-diversity and climate, and how does this big picture link to national and local responses?
What could the UK’s route be to becoming Nature Positive, while also contributing to meeting Net Zero commitments here in the UK? How can Church land contribute?
Speaker: Pete Brotherton is Director of Science and Climate Change at Natural England, the Diocesan Environment Officer for Peterborough Diocese, and honorary Lay Canon of Peterborough Cathedral. BOOK HERE
Church Solar Panels
Tuesday 20 June, 4.00 – 5.00pm
This webinar will give you an introduction to solar PV panel technology, its applications, usage and on-going benefits that accrue to system owners. It covers the steps involved in developing a Solar PV project from assessment, survey, technical & electrical engineering design, council planning & DAC application and approval processes, the introduction of battery storage, and the information required from Churches in order to ensure proposals are as accurate as possible to the installation process, testing, commissioning and certification, on-going maintenance, and funding through the Smart Export Guarantee Scheme. This is an update of the webinar on this topic, last run in 2021. BOOK HERE
Church Heating – Part 2: Choosing the Best Heating Solution for your Church
Tuesday 27 June, 4.00 – 5.00pm
[NB If you missed Church Heating Part 1, you might prefer to listen to that before Part 2. If so, go to: Net Zero Carbon playlist, and keep scrolling down the list]
This webinar will include heat pumps, electric heating solutions, and more. What are the pros and cons, what is the carbon impact and what is the future of funding? What are the key questions to ask? How do we make a persuasive case for change? This is an update of the webinar on this topic, last run in 2021.
Speaker: Susan Logan from EcoTeric. Susan is a Chartered Building Services Engineer who has worked for 40 years designing and advising on energy efficiency and latterly carbon efficient solutions. She has been the Heating Advisor for Worcester Diocese for the last 15 years and a member of the DAC for even longer. BOOK HERE
Past webinars which are available to watch again
For links to the range of C of E Net Zero Carbon webinars, and environmental fundraising go to: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/environment-and-climate-change/webinars-getting-net-zero-carbon#na
Oxford Diocese Eco Hub
This describes itself as ’a one-stop shop for information, practical advice and theological reflection on how we can best care for God’s creation.’ It brings together resources from various organisations and groups, enabling us to find information to become agents of change.
Parish Buying Scheme
For clean electricity, and much more besides at competitive prices (including LED lighting, photocopiers, phones and broadband, insurance, office products, church supplies, furniture, fire safety, audio visual, and even Covid-19 supplies).
Ravenous: How to get Ourselves and our Planet into Shape
Recording from Oxford Martin School
This webinar discusses how our food system is no longer simply a means of sustenance. It is one of the most successful, most innovative and most destructive industries on earth. It sustains us, but it is also killing us.
Diet-related disease is now the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the developed world – far worse than smoking. The environmental damage done by the food system is also changing climate patterns and degrading the earth, risking our food security.
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain, government adviser and author of the radical National Food Strategy, takes us behind the scenes to reveal the mechanisms that act together to shape the modern diet – and therefore the world. He explains not just why the food system is leading us into disaster, but what can be done about it. To listen to the recording: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/videos/ravenous/