On the road to Net Zero at St James’ House

First published on: 8th December 2022

Staff at St James' House have been working towards becoming carbon neutral as part of our commitment to being an Eco Diocese. Cath Gaskell and Lucia Miller from the resources team have been appointed as St James’ House Eco Leaders and have been developing ways to reduce our carbon footprint.

The role includes; encouraging staff to think about making more eco-friendly decisions, analysing the previous year’s carbon footprint, and coming up with creative ideas to decrease the carbon footprint in accordance with the commitment to become carbon net zero by 2030.

Lucia Miller has written the below update on progress made since they took on the role in September 2022. 

“So far, we have begun issuing a monthly newsletter to all the staff who work in St James’ House with tips on how they can lower their own carbon footprint, such as;

Make a difference across the world: Find alternatives to Palm Oil - An ingredient used in everything from shampoo to peanut butter and has more recently been blended into our motor fuels. Palm Oil plantations are one of the leading causes of deforestation around the world!

Make a difference at work: Send less food waste to landfill - Each kitchen in St James' house is being equipped with a food waste bin. This will be taken to a local community garden each week to be composted.

Make a difference at home: Shop as locally as you can - If you can buy produce locally to home, or on your commute, you can reduce your travel miles and your carbon footprint.

Responses to these emails have helped prompt further change, for example, we will now be implementing food waste bins in each of the kitchens at St James’ House, and the waste will be taken to local community gardens to be composted.

Additionally, thanks to the Diocesan Buildings team, the lights in the car park and in St James’ House are being replaced (as they burn out) with LED bulbs which are more cost-effective and energy efficient.

In the new year, we will be looking at the total carbon footprint for 2022 and where we can make changes in offsetting some of our carbon and reducing our carbon output. This will involve looking into our procurement process to make sure we purchase sustainable and ethically sourced products where we can, recycle effectively and work to make our building more energy efficient – among other things!

With thanks to the Faith4Change Team who have supported us so far.”

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