THE CHURCH TIMES GREEN CHURCH AWARDS

The Church Times Green Church Awards have two objectives: to celebrate the remarkable efforts made in recent years by individuals and congregations to offset the damage being done to the earth, and to set good examples before others who might be inspired to follow suit.

The 2024 Church Times Green Church Awards were organised in association with the Church of England’s environment programme, the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army, and Eco Congregation Scotland, supported by our headline sponsor Ecclesiastical Insurance. They were open to church groups and church schools of any denomination, in the UK and Ireland.

There were seven award categories:

• Green Building award, sponsored by Inspired Efficiency: projects that have significantly reduced the carbon footprint of an existing building or strengthened its climate resilience, or a new building built to high environmental standards which can be shown to have been the better option than refurbishment. Prize: £1000.
• Land and Nature award, sponsored by A Rocha (Eco Church): projects creating space for wildlife and encourage biodiversity. Prize: £1000.
• Congregation and Community Action, sponsored by Green Journey: projects where a church, school, or other group has taken a leading part in environmental action, benefiting the wider community as well as its own. Prize: £1000.
• Action on a Shoestring award, sponsored by Green Journey: projects where a church, school, or other group has achieved a great deal with little. Prize: £1000.
• Green champion award, sponsored by Stewardship: nominations are invited for an individual who has made a significant difference through their environmental efforts. Prize: £1000.
• Training and Education award, sponsored by BRF Ministries (Messy Church): projects promoting understanding about some aspect of environmental action, or destruction, and its impact, either at home or on the international community. Prize: £1000.
• Green Health award, sponsored by the Conservation Foundation: Projects making an active connection between faith, nature, and health. Projects may be run by a faith organisation in association with a local health practice or charity. Prize: £1000. The Conservation Foundation is particularly looking to encourage the use of faith land for therapeutic gardening to benefit communities, especially where this involves social prescribing.  
  
  

Winners of each of the seven categories with staff from Ecclesiastical Insurance, the headline sponsor of the Green Church Awards, and the chair of judges, Dr Ruth Valerio, Programmes, Partnerships and Advocacy Director for Embrace the Middle East, and Andy Atkins, CEO of A Rocha UK. Credit: Geoff Crawford/Church Times

2024 Church Times Green Church Awards results list

Green Buildings category – sponsored by Inspired Efficiency

WINNER : The Lighthouse Church, the Wirral

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

St Cecilia’s CofE School, Southfields, London

The Corporation of The Church House

Land and Nature category – sponsored by A Rocha UK (Eco Church)

WINNER : Chapel en le Frith Methodist Church  (Townend Community Garden)

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

St Luke’s, Sway (churchyard)

St Matthew’s, Bristol (wildlife garden)

Congregation and Community Action category – sponsored by Green Journey

WINNER: Watford Salvation Army (community allotment)

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

St Mary’s Scottish Episcopal Church, Dunblane (ECO Fest)

Holy Trinity, Barnes (Growing Together)

Green Health category – sponsored by The Conservation Foundation

WINNER: St Mary the Virgin, Lewisham (St Mary’s Therapeutic Garden)

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

St Paul’s Church, Camden (St Paul’s Woodland Garden)

St Peter’s, Quarrendon, Aylesbury (StPA Community Garden)

Green Champion category – sponsored by Stewardship

WINNER: Jean Carletta

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Joanna Laynesmith and Rosemary Croft

Helen Bradstock

Training and Education category – sponsored by BRF Ministries (Messy Church)

WINNER: Worcester Cathedral (Living Gently on the Earth)

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Shinfield St Mary’s CofE Junior School, Berkshire

Diocese of St Albans Board of Education (Heart for the Earth)

Action on a Shoestring category – sponsored by Green Journey

WINNER: St Mary’s CE Academy, Sheffield (Eco Council)

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Christ Church, Abbeystead (Partners in Environment youth group)

St Matthew’s Church, Walsall (churchyard)

1. Green Buildings

WINNER: Lighthouse Church, the Wirral

THE parish of Heswall, on the Wirral, long had a mission church and hall on the high street, but both buildings were tired, cold, and run down, and too costly to renovate. Instead, the con­gregation decided to replace both with a sustainable building that could continue to serve their com­munity.

The church worked with a Christian firm of architects who shared the vision of a bright, airy, welcoming space for mission and ministry, which upheld the highest modern standards for energy efficiency.

The new church, rechristened the Lighthouse Church, has no gas supply; instead, it relies on solar panels and an air-source heat pump, and is almost airtight to reduce energy usage. The congregation paid for almost the whole eco-build through their own fundraising efforts and dona­tions, without any major grants or loans.

The criteria for the awards stated that a new building should consider the environmental and embedded carbon impact of building new as opposed to renovating. The judges were more than satisfied that the Lighthouse Church had made this consideration. The new building demonstrates a clear and well-articulated vision for the church and community, and demonstrates the possibilities for a modern and fossil-fuel-free building.

Saint Cecilia’s C of E School, London

This growing school in Southfields, south London, sits in a conservation area. When building a new teaching wing, the school, in partnership with the Diocese of Southwark, em­­barked on a sweeping programme of new green technology. This technology includes automatic sensors for lights and water usage, LED lights, sealed classrooms with mech­­anical ventilation, an air-source heat pump, solar panels and an underground rainwater tank.

Efforts have been made to encourage wildlife and biodiversity, including bat boxes, bug hotels, and wildflower planters. A “green corridor” for flora and fauna runs from the street through to the school’s garden. Donations from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and generous locals mean the play­­ground is gradually becoming filled with trees and plants, making the space more pleasant, and better for wildlife and insects, too.

The judges were particularly impressed not only with the array of technological solutions employed, but the approach to both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the impacts of climate change. With the attenuation tank holding and slowly releasing rainwater the risk of flash flooding is reduced, which has been a concern to the whole local community.

Church House, London

A post-COVID decline in demand for office space in central London meant that Church House, the national headquarters of the Church of England, in Westminster, could embark on a top-to-bottom renovation of the Grade II listed, century-old building, before welcom­­ing in new tenants.

The building’s odd design and listed status ruled out some obvious moves, such as installing solar panels on the roof or cavity insulation. Instead, they got creative, using re­­cycled wine corks for floor and wall insulation, carbon-absorbing paint, and plastic internal walls from recycled washing machines.

With trustee backing, Church House spent about ten per cent of the project’s budget ensuring that materials used in the work were carbon-neutral. They are already seeing the benefits in lower heating and lighting costs.

The judges were won over by the renovation process itself, an area which can often create a great deal of carbon emissions. The refurbishment process has thus far sequestered more carbon than it has produced, and provides an excellent example that making changes to reduce operational carbon need not, necessarily, increase greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

2. Land and Nature

WINNER: Chapel en le Frith Methodist Church, Peak District (Townend Community Garden)

Chapel en le Frith is a picturesque town in the Peak District. The Methodist Church had previously paid little heed to their mown field of grass. But, after just a few years of at­ten­tion, it has been transformed into an oasis of life.

Now known as the Townend Community Gar­den, it features raised beds for growing flowers and crops, wildflower areas, a pond, bug hotels, fruit trees, and a tranquil sen­­sory area in which people can relax, reflect, and pray. Heat and light for seedlings comes from a solar-power generator, and all water used is recycled rainwater.

Bees, hedgehogs, and frogs are regularly spotted in the garden, and so are children from the school next door.

Raised beds of different heights allow people with limited mobility to take part in growing fruit and vege­tables, some of which are later don­­ated to the foodbank.
Local groups — including those for people with learning difficulties or mental-health issues — meet in the garden for events and services, and individuals simply enjoy the peace.

For the judges, the Townend Community garden was a wonderful example of land and nature coming together with health and education to provide an inclusive and self-sufficient community space.

St Luke’s, Sway, Hampshire (churchyard)

In 2022, the EcoChurch group at St Luke’s came up with a new approach for manag­ing their churchyard, to prioritise wildlife and diversity. Out went relentless lawnmowing, chemical pesticides, and invasive non-native plants. In came native hedgerows, bug hotels, wild­flower meadows, and garden-waste composting.

Advice from the charity Caring for God’s Acre led to a careful scheme of planting pollinat­ing flowers. As a result, they have seen a huge increase in the number and types of wildlife using the churchyard.

Prayer meetings and annual en­­vironmental church services help to connect the work on the churchyard to the church’s faith and mission, and their enthusiasm is now spread­ing, with local gardeners taking in­­spiration to start wildlife-friendly gardening.

The revitalisation of the church­yard has helped St Luke’s to connect with other churches also tackling the same issues, with limited money but keen volunteers.

What came through very clearly to the judges about St. Luke’s was that this wasn’t simply a project by the church and for the church, but truly a chance to improve the environment for nature and the local community, with local groups and volunteers part of the transformation and the ongoing life of the garden.

St Matthew’s, Bristol (wildlife garden)

St Matthew’s sits on a hill close to the centre of Bristol, in a densely packed neighbourhood with little green space. Over the past six years, the con­gregation has been ex­­perimenting with turning their churchyard into an oasis for both nature and the com­­munity.

First, they stopped mowing the lawn, before adding in insect-friendly native plants, bug hotels, and bird feeders. What was a gloomy, little-used space, overshadowed by dark trees, has been opened up into a wildlife garden used by the whole neigh­bourhood (including foxes, badgers, bats, and birds). A new gate allows greater access to the community as the pandemic lockdowns brought people out of their homes for socially distanced walks. Many dis­covered the garden, and seized on the oppor­tunities for community gardening.

City centres can often be areas of green space deprivation, and the judges were drawn to the role St. Matthew’s has as an oasis within the busy city centre of Bristol. Welcoming all comers into the green space has provided benefits for the entire community, as well as allowing the Church to feel less removed from city centre life and providing further missional opportunities.

3. Congregation and Community Action

WINNER: Watford Salvation Army (community allotment)

Bringing a splash of green to the grey has been the target for the Watford Salvation Army community allotment project. That splash features planters, raised beds, wildflower meadows, a pond and a summer house, used by the children from Cherry Tree Primary School nearby.

More than 120 pupils and staff visit each week to learn gardening skills, take part in forest school, and enjoy services and harvest celebra­tions. Most local young people live in flats without any outdoor space, so the allotment is a vital outlet for the community.

Pupils with additional needs and behavioural struggles part­icularly benefit from time outdoors, learning patient gardening skills, and being surrounded by nature.

The children have been introduced to new fruit and vegetables, and have learnt about low-intervention gardening techniques, which boost biodiversity and cut waste: a bathtub is the pond, planters are made from old tyres, and, wherever possible, woodchip comes from diseased trees that had to be felled.

What really caught the judges’ eye about the community allotment was the collaborative approach taken within the project, and the focus on providing something to the community which would help children to grow and learn in ways they would not be able to access otherwise.

St Mary’s Scottish Episcopal Church, Dunblane (ECO Fest)

St Mary’s has been an Eco Church for two decades. They have ad­­dressed energy efficiency, rewilded the grave­yard, and incorporated crea­tion spirituality into their worship.

In 2021, they realised that they hadn’t yet looked beyond the church to the town. This was the genesis of ECO Fest, a church-led community day to educate the town about care for the Earth and encourage more action for the environment.

The first event, in 2022, featured a public debate on environmental is­­­sues, a plethora of eco groups (local and national) who offered informa­tion, and a foraging/recycling activity for young people.

The 2023 event was expanded, and community groups joined in the organising: there were more exhibi­tors, an electric-car dem­onstration, live music, ice cream, and a COP26 display.

The response was so positive that they decided to turn the ECO Fest this year into a week-long event, incorporating a repair café, clothes swap, wildflower-meadow planting, and environmental discus­sions at schools.

What really drew the eye of the judges to ECO Fest was the breadth and depth of community engagement, including pre-school children, schools, community centres, businesses and shops. It is truly a collaboration between the church and the local community, which can be seen by the ever expanding plans for the event!

Holy Trinity, Barnes, London (Growing Together)

Growing Together at Holy Trinity Barnes has seen an unloved and largely derelict churchyard transformed into a flourishing community garden. The project traces its roots back to a time when Sunday services needed to be held outdoors, and it was spotted that the green space of the churchyard was under-appreciated.

As well as growing kilos of fruit and vegetables, given away at the foodbank which is also run by the church, the garden also hosts free sessions to teach neighbours — in­­cluding children and their families from a nursery nearby — how to garden for themselves. There has been a focus on helping people to connect with where their food comes from, something which isn’t always easy in London.

Prioritising regenerative “no-dig” gardening methods, the team compost waste, collect rainwater, minimise chemical fertil­isers, and build habitats for wildlife, resulting in a blossoming of bio­diversity.

The judges were drawn to Growing Together as an example of different strands of mission coming together, building connections between the care for God’s creation, social justice and evangelism.
 

4. Green Health

WINNER: St Mary the Virgin, Lewisham, south London (St Mary’s Therapeutic Garden)

St Mary’s sits next door to a hospital mental health unit. Patients regularly walk through the churchyard, so it was a natural next step to create a therapeutic garden — a safe and beautiful green space in which patients can reflect and revive.

Now, patients are given social prescriptions to join the church’s weekly gardening club, working in the raised beds to plant and weed, as well as general tidying. Each session ends with a short time of quiet, and patients can add a ribbon to the prayer tree.

Over time, the garden has developed and expanded, and now includes perennial flowerbeds, fruit trees, wildflower meadows, a pond, and beehives. Picnic tables and history trails encourage Lewisham locals — many of whom live in flats without outside space — to enjoy the sanctuary of green in the middle of the city.

The judges particularly focussed on the community-driven origins of this project, noting that it came from a vision of what would most benefit the church’s neighbours and community. As the project has grown so has the vision, and the project now engages with mental health and social isolation.

St Peter’s, Quarrendon, Aylesbury (StPA Community Garden)

St Peter’s is in an urban and fairly deprived part of Aylesbury, and, as such, its community garden is a green oasis. Set up in 2019, the garden focuses on healthy eating and sustainable food-growing.

Because gardening is by definition a long-term enterprise, it has helped to build relationships with the neighbourhood around St Peter’s, whose congregation had previously dwindled to a handful. The local GP surgery prescribes time in the community garden, and the young-offenders probation service regularly brings young adults to learn horticultural skills as they reintegrate into society.

The garden promotes gentle exercise for both bodies and minds, especially among those with dementia and disabilities.

On top of inspiring locals to grow their own healthy, organic food at home, the garden promotes recycling of food waste, challenging everyone to reconnect more broadly with creation care.

The judges were drawn to St Peter’s as an example of working with the local community to improve health outcomes, seeking to teach and encourage people to make healthy choices, and providing them with the skills to do so, rather than simply telling people the choices they should make.

St Paul’s, Camden, north London (St Paul’s Woodland Garden)

St Paul’s has a thickly wooded garden, creating a secluded woodland space amid the hubbub of the busy city beyond. Since 2019, the church, together with local partners, has built up a garden project which enables all ages, from children to the elderly, to come each week to grow, prune, plant, water, and harvest.

Besides the gardening, there is bird-watching, wildlife surveys, cooking, and storytelling workshops, with a special focus on serving both people with mental-health difficulties and those who are socially isolated. Occupational therapists and psychotherapists regularly bring patients into the woodland garden as therapy, getting hands into soil and watching their handiwork grow and flourish.

And the midweek Eucharist often overflows into the garden outside.

Among this busy activity, the number of wildlife species recorded has surged, thanks to careful planting of more native trees, and bird- and insect-friendly perennials. Bug hotels, compost heaps, and a wild grassland area complete the biodiversity.

What really stood out to the judges were the strong community links being developed alongside the positive health outcomes, with greater involvement from members of the church and community, and creating offshoots of the project in a number of locations developed with partners. 
 

5. Training and Education

WINNER: Worcester Cathedral

Worcester Cathedral declared a climate emergency in 2021, and out of this grew their “Living Gently on The Earth” programme.

Funded by a lottery grant, the project has focused on training and educating the people of Worcestershire in care of creation, carbon literacy, climate justice, and environmentally friendly diets, among other things. A highlight was hosting an eco hustings at the cathedral, featuring all the main parliamentary candidates, before this year’s General Election.

Workshops, fairs, tours, nature surveys, lectures, conferences and practical demonstrations at the cathedral have raised awareness of greener and healthier diets, appreciation of the natural world, and the theology and science behind why everyone must act on the climate crisis.

The key to all the action is using the cathedral’s profile locally to force environmental concerns up everyone’s agenda, from politicians to tourists.

The judges were pleased to see the Cathedral taking a lead on these matters and reaching out to people throughout the diocese. It has not been a one-size-fits-all approach, but has explored many different avenues and areas of concern. The reach of the Cathedral has been used to raise the profile of environmental matters in the local community.

Shinfield St Mary’s C of E Junior School, Berkshire

Over recent years, Shinfield St Mary’s C of E Junior School have transformed their five acres of land into a mini-farm. It features dozens of raised beds, greenhouses, a chicken coop, an artificial wildlife stream, and an aquaponics bio-dome where the pupils can farm fish and vegetables together.

The children are taught environmentally friendly no-digging gardening methods, and plant trees and willow to use as natural materials in the farm. All the food grown is also donated to local foodbanks.

The school was already at net zero emissions. Thanks to its extensive tree-planting and gardening project, it is now a carbon sink, improving the environment and boosting wildlife and biodiversity.

The gardening and farming have also had positive knock-on effects for the school: the pupils are eating more healthily, have better attention in class, and enjoy higher academic performance.

The scope of the project and its grand vision might have been what first caught the eye of the judges, but it was the holistic and integrated approach, as well as the focus on the outcomes for young people, which they particularly commended.

St Albans Board of Education

Heart for the Earth is a two-year project encouraging the 137 church schools and 26,000 pupils in St Albans to become carbon neutral. It aims to engage “heads, hearts, and hands” on a journey towards care for creation. It was prompted by the UK-hosted COP26 climate conference and the Church of England’s own net zero target of 2030.

The initiative comprises resources for collective worship — which explore the biblical and theological grounding for environmentalism — plus support for developing an eco-curriculum and eco-charter for schools to pursue net zero emissions themselves.

The project has brought together staff from various diocesan teams, so that experts in land and buildings can collaborate with those working on religious education and spiritual development. Partnerships have been formed with external groups, including Anglian Water and the RSPB, to try to root the theological learning in practical, everyday acts that every school and pupil can take.

The judges recognised the ambitious nature of a project of this scale, not only in the number of children reached, but also the scope of resources developed. Working with partner organisations, including the schools, charities and businesses helps to embed these crucial topics in the education of thousands of children. 

6. Green Champion

Jean Carletta

Jean Carletta had been working as an academic researcher, focusing on how people use technology, before taking a year off to think how to apply her technical skills to real-world problems faced by churches in Edinburgh, where she lived.

One particular Episcopal church was struggling with heating. It had huge gas bills, but was still “absolutely freezing” on a Sunday morning — so cold that the nursery in the building had to close regularly, as the temperature dipped below the minimum allowed by law.

Jean’s thinking eventually led to the HeatHack programme.

HeatHack leads a congregation through a step-by-step project to assess their energy usage and needs, and begin the transformation to a net-zero future. It supplies lay people with just enough technical knowledge to have informed conversations with professionals and funders. It is structured around interactive small-group sessions designed to draw out the church’s needs, and how decisions can be made through games and problem-solving.

Many churches benefit immediately by realising that simple tweaks to their heating controls can produce large savings, in both money and emissions.

The impact that HeatHack became clear to the judges through the passionate words of churches which have benefitted from the approach and are now on the journey to a more eco-friendly future. Churches all across Scotland are benefitting from Jean’s work.

Joanna Laynesmith and Rosemary Croft

Besides co-leading the eco group at St John’s, Reading, Joanna Laynesmith and Rosemary Croft have many other strings to their bows — including working with the advocacy group Global Justice Now and running Reading Area Green Christians.

The pair have led St John’s to a Gold Eco-Church award. In addition, they have raised awareness of environmental concerns through a quarterly magazine (which has included interviews with Sir David Attenborough, councillors, and parliamentary candidates on climate perspectives). They have also led Lent prayer vigils outside Parliament, helped to develop a wildflower and vegetable garden at St John’s, and helped to promote carbon reduction among the congregation.

Their work has had a big impact beyond St John’s as well, and the judges commended the work of Joanna and Rosemary in raising the issue with other local churches and with people in the community. Many more people are aware of local and global issues, and are taking action, as a result of their hard work and dedication.

Helen Bradstock

WHEN the community centre in the Isle of Wight village of St Helens was awarded a grant last year for developing a community fridge, Helen Bradstock was the obvious person to lead the food-waste project.

The long-time co-ordinator of the local church’s Eco Group, she regularly organises talks on environmental issues, wildlife surveys of the churchyard, and creation-focused monthly worship. She has also worked with the village school to plant trees and set up bird boxes.

The project means that she oversees a team of 20 volunteers who collect surplus food every day from two local supermarkets, which is then redistributed to villagers to reduce food waste.

Almost six tons of food has now been saved from landfill, thanks to Helen’s leadership — equivalent to saving more than 12 tons of CO2. An extra freezer was sourced to expand the community fridge’s storage capacity, and opportunities were developed to educate the village about food waste.

Important for the judges was the role Helen Bradstock has played in bringing together different missional priorities and activities of the Church, bringing social justice and inclusion alongside environmental action. Helen’s work with the community fridge has shown the whole community that there are ways to get involved and make a positive impact.

7. Action on a Shoestring

WINNER: St Mary’s CE Academy, Sheffield

MOST of the children attending St Mary’s, a small primary school in Sheffield, live in flats or small houses in a poor urban environment. They have grown up aware of the climate crisis, but with limited outlets to try and do anything about it.

One teacher decided to establish an Eco Council of eight pupils to lead the school in being good stewards of God’s creation. The aim was to inspire action without unnecessarily alarming the children.

The council’s first step was to galvanise the school body to collect plastic bags for recycling. They have gathered more than 10,000, and have moved on to other school waste, aiming to hit a target of one tonne recycled by 2030.

Next, the council focused on travel to school, trying to get their peers to walk, cycle, or scoot each day rather than rely on cars.

Finally, they began to build a school garden, transforming a neglected space — using second-hand and upcycled planters — into a bounty of homegrown fruit and vegetables.

The collaborative and empowering nature of the Eco Council really caught the eye of the judges, involving the children at the very heart of the action rather than them being the target. This offers hope and opportunity to the young people, while also reaching their families at home.

Christ Church, Over Wyresdale, Abbeystead, Lancashire

Partners in Environment (PIE) is a youth group with a difference. Set up five years ago, it brings those of secondary-school age together, not in the village hall around a games console or table football, but to volunteer outdoors on environmental projects.

They have rebuilt leaky dams, planted sedge in a lowland bog, laid hedges, pushed back invasive Himalayan balsam, built nesting boxes, planted trees, and installed mallard tubes. All of this has been in collaboration with community groups including the Canal and Rivers Trust, the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, and others.

Besides trying to tempt new young people just entering secondary school to get involved, Mr Foster said that he hoped to team up with nearby churches to expand the scheme. The key to PIE’s success centres on food: almost every session with the young people ends with them cooking something over an open fire.

The passion of the young people and their leaders shone through very clearly to the judges. PIE has made a huge environmental impact, offered opportunities to young people and made a positive impression on the local community, with the volunteers often asked to go back and help again.

St Matthew’s, Walsall

THE churchyard at St Matthew’s used to be a dirty and overlooked space, filled with broken glass, needles, litter, and graffiti. Over five years, volunteers have transformed it into a haven for bumblebees, praised by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust as one of the “most-promising churchyard projects” in the country.

Bushes have been removed and foliage cut back to let in light; rubble has been cleared, and extensive weeding has taken place. In their place have come wildflower meadows, plants, grassy patches, and undisturbed areas for nesting bees.

As the space has been transformed, vandalism and anti-social behaviour have fizzled out. Now, the local community appreciates the church’s green space and passers-by stop regularly to enjoy the churchyard.

More focused efforts on composting and educating those who visit graves has ensured that visitors now almost never leave behind non-biodegradable plastic. Volunteers inspired by the bumblebee haven have taken up action across in other areas, well beyond the confines of the churchyard.

What drew the attention of the judges to St. Matthew’s was the desire to create something positive from something unloved, where it might have been easier to abandon it. What is there now is a haven for biodiversity and a sanctuary for bees.

 
2024 Green Church Awards sponsors

We are pleased to announce the involvement of partner organisations and sponsors in the 2024 Green Church Awards, chief among whom is Ecclesiastical Insurance.
Helen Richards, church operations director at Ecclesiastical Insurance, said: “As a company dedicated to making a positive environmental impact, I’m delighted that Ecclesiastical is able to sponsor the Green Church Awards 2024. We’ve been protecting churches for more than 135 years, and we know that action is needed to help preserve these amazing buildings from climate change for generations to come.

“There are amazing projects and initiatives taking place in churches in communities all around the country helping to tackle climate change, and these awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate them. We’d encourage churches to submit their entries and share the work they are doing for a chance to receive £1000 to support their work.”

Our other partners include:

• Inspired Efficiency, Buildings award sponsor
  
  “Inspired Efficiency have been delivering decarbonisation projects and advice to churches on how to reach net zero in their buildings for 13 years. We are passionate about taking climate change and know that heritage buildings are not ‘too difficult’ to achieve this but can be a leading example of how to decarbonise well within the hub a community. We are proud to be supporting the Church Times Green Church Awards and look forward to learning more from the entrants and their inspiring efforts”
  Matt Fulford, Inspired Efficiency
  inspiredefficiency.co.uk
  
  

• A Rocha UK (Eco Church), Land and Nature award sponsor
  
  “Church land has enormous potential for serving God by helping restore nature, cut carbon and ministering to the local community, so we are delighted to support these awards to inspire and encourage churches to fully include their land as part of their mission”
  Andy Atkins, CEO, A Rocha UK
  arocha.org/en
  
  
• Green Journey, Congregation and community action award sponsor; Action on a Shoestring award sponsor
  “Green Journey is proud to sponsor the Congregation and Community Action and Action on a Shoestring categories at the Church Times Awards. Our mission to guide churches towards sustainability perfectly aligns with these awards, showcasing innovative and efficient environmental practices within church communities. Celebrating congregations that effectively combine resource conservation with impactful community engagement, we’re inspired to further support the journey towards a sustainable future for all.”
  Craig Hogg, head of Green Journey
  greenjourney.org
  
  

• Stewardship, Green Champion award sponsor
  “Stewardship is delighted to be sponsoring the Green Church award. As part of our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint, we have achieved Planet Mark accreditation. We are keen too to encourage our many church and charity partners to consider how they can consider their impact on the planet. We also support those causes working specifically for the environment by signposting our donors to a special platform of dedicated content and resources that we call ‘Creation Care’. We recognise there are many passionately committed individuals who are making a significant contribution to caring for our planet, so we very much look forward to honouring those nominated for this award and showcasing the winner.”
  Janie Oliver, CEO, Stewardship
  stewardship.org.uk
  
  

• BRF Ministries (Messy Church), Education and Training award sponsor
  “Messy Church has been a trailblazer in mission and we are passionate that Christian faith is lived out with respect to care for creation.
  “Education and training are the heart of understanding the problems of climate emergency. Messy Church Goes Wild, our initiative to help church address our environmental responsibilities, offers people of all ages the chance to take their part in changing behaviours and attitudes, providing the opportunity to encounter God through nature. As it is Messy Church, we believe education and training should be fun and tactile, while exploring the wonders of God’s world and the important role we play in it.
  
  “These awards raise awareness of the urgency of climate change but give churches an opportunity to respond positively to the challenges. The more we can share our experiences and care for God’s world around us, the greater the impact.”
  Aike Kennett-Brown, Messy Church Lead for BRF Ministries
  messychurch.org.uk
  
  

• The Conservation Foundation, Green Health award sponsor
  “We are delighted that the Green health awards are continuing to encourage churches and faith organisations to use their space to bring the benefits of nature to help mind, body and spirit. ‘Faith space’ is often the only green lung in a community, and it can help to improve lives in many ways. I very much hope that we can encourage both existing and new projects through these awards.”
  David Shreeve, director, The Conservation Foundation
  conservationfoundation.co.uk

 

 

2017 winners

Green Building Award

St Wenn, Bodmin, Cornwall. A small, rural church that partnered with the next door school to install and share a biomass heating system. Most of work was done by volunteers. Bishop Nicholas said: “It is a beautiful example of the pastoral mission of the parish church being care for the community and the members of the community caring for and becoming the parish church.”

 

Biodiversity award

St James’s, Finchampstead, Berks. Volunteers converted scrubland into a biodiverse churchyard extension and garden of remembrance. The land was transformed into a wildlife haven, including bat boxes, bee hotels and wild flowers. The judges praised the wide range of small measures and community engagement.

 

Green Congregation award

St John’s, Shildon, Durham, the Shildon Alive! Guerilla Gardening Team. The congregation started this project in 2014, counteracting decline in community engagement and increase in vandalism. Over 1000 young people have been involved in planting in 70 locations. The scheme also has two community gardens, a food waste scheme and gave out 300 bags of fresh fruit in 2016.

 

Green Champion Award (shared equally by all those shortlisted)

Martyn Goss (diocese of Exeter); Br Hugh Cobbett SSF (Hilfield Friary); Victoria Gilbert (St Catherine’s, Burbage); Suzanne Dalton (St Chad’s, Far Headingley); Judith Allinson (St John’s Methodist Church, Settle).

 

Green Futures award

Holy Trinity, Tulse Hill, London, described as an innovative church hall building using only recycled material which engaged with the entire community. The project is using straw bales and will be the first straw-bale church building in Europe and the largest straw-bale building in London.

2017 shortlist

Green Building award               Sponsored by Good Energy
Gloucester Cathedral; Holy Trinity, Bradford on Avon; Holy Trinity, Tulse Hill; St Wenn’s, Bodmin. 
Read more: Green Building award

Green Congregation award              Sponsored by Ecclesiastical Insurance
Garden design and development team (Campoverde Church, Spain); Inverkip Church Eco-group; St Catherine’s Environment Group (St Catherine’s, Burbage); Shildon Alive! Guerrilla Gardening Team (St John’s, Shildon) 
Read more: Green Congregations

Biodiversity award               Sponsored by Levy Restaurants UK
Bradford Cathedral; OASIS Community Church, Worksop; St Asaph’s, Denbighshire; St James’s, Finchampstead; St John’s, Sharow.  
Read more: Biodiversity award

Green Champion award               Sponsored by Shrinking the Footprint
Martyn Goss (diocese of Exeter); Br Hugh Cobbett SSF (Hilfield Friary); Victoria Gilbert (St Catherine’s, Burbage); Suzanne Dalton (St Chad’s, Far Headingley); Judith Allinson (St John’s Methodist Church, Settle).  
Read more: Green Champions

Green Futures award              Sponsored by Shrinking the Footprint
Baildon Methodist Church; Hamutua Quarterly Meeting Friends Church, Kenya; Sheddingdean Baptist Church; St Mary the Virgin, Cannington.