This summer has been a busy and exciting time for our group. Here is the latest news on our various projects.
St Mary’s Wildflower Garden
The garden has been a delight to all visitors to the church and hall throughout the summer, but this is only the beginning … Next year when the biennials flower and the perennials are established there will be even more colour and variety! Look out for the guide we have produced to the 25 varieties of native plants which were sown in the garden with the help of On the Verge Stirling. We will need help to collect the seeds of the annuals and to mow the garden on Saturday 1st September, 10 – 12. Come if you can! We hope to develop other areas of the church grounds during the autumn. Please get in touch if you have any ideas or would like to get involved.
Church Hall Eco-Refurbishment Project
The hall will be cosier this winter thanks to the new suspended ceiling with insulation wool above. We are now working towards the installation of double glazing and cavity wall insulation during the school’s October holiday week. Because the cost of the ceiling was less than we originally allowed for, our funder, the Climate Challenge Fund, has agreed to let us use the outstanding money on other insulation work which will possibly include thermal black-out blinds in the high level windows and new doors. By the time winter comes we should be able to assess how much of an improvement we have in keeping the hall warm.
Recycling @ St Mary’s
At the beginning of the summer we reviewed our recycling facilities. The hall now has a paper recycling box and a bin for tea bags and coffee grounds and outside the kitchen door there are brown and grey bins and boxes for cans and plastic bottles, all clearly labelled.
Walk to St Mary’s Week
A great big thank you to those who completed the survey and promised to try walking or sharing cars during the last week in May! It was reassuring to discover that so many of you are already using environmentally friendly ways of travelling to and from St Mary’s. During September and October, we hope to broaden the project by running a Car Miles Saving Scheme among members of St Mary’s Church which will involve issuing tickets on which to note the number of miles we have travelled every week using methods that are more eco-friendly than driving our own cars, e.g. public transport, walking or cycling, sharing a car etc.
Use your LOAF
We are currently running a survey among church members to work out the number of miles the food we buy travels to get to our plates. Look out for a display in the hall during the autumn on using the LOAF principles when choosing what food to buy:
L- Locally produced, O- Organically grown, A- Animal friendly,
F- Fairly traded
If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at eco@stmarysdunblane.org
