Caring for the Environment
We are all aware of the challenges facing us as a planet. We hear often about climate change, and its effects. We are frequently challenged to modify our lifestyles in order to do our bit for the sake of the earth. And while we have noticed changes in our own climate: in rising temperatures, flooding and unseasonal weather; it is the poorest areas of the planet that are most dramatically affected by climate change. However, it is the richest parts of the world whose culture, lifestyle and spending power have helped accelerate those changes.
The Silsden Methodist Church has been awarded
The Silver Eco Church Award
The Yorkshire West Methodist District Synod in September 2022 challenged churches to raise issues about climate justice by gaining an A Rocha Eco Church award.
Silsden Methodist Church is committed to caring for the environment and over the past few months has been working towards applying for an A Rocha Eco Award. This is an ecumenical scheme which assesses environmental performance across a number of areas of Church life -
Worship and Teaching, Building, Land and Gardens, Community, Lifestyle
The Silsden Repair Cafe comes to
Silsden Methodist Church
Silsden Methodist Church
The Silsden Repair Café was started in June 2023 by Climate Action Silsden in partnership with the Methodist church and it has been even more successful than originally hoped.
Here are the statistics from the first 7 cafes
More than 306 items have been brought in (not all the items were counted initially). Of these 190 were fully repaired, 35 were taken away to repair, 9 partially repaired, 36 were advised upon and 36 couldn’t be repaired and so in total 88 % of the items brought to the café had a positive outcome. There are no set charges for repair but people are asked if they would like to give a donation to the cost of running the Repair cafe
As well as the Repair work there is the Pop-Up Refill shop which moved from the Coffee and Camaraderie morning to run along side the Repair work. In 2023 they have saved 892 plastic bottles going into landfill by people bringing along their own bottles to be refilled with such items as washing up liquid, handwash, detergent etc. They also stock block soap, shampoo and conditioner. It is non profit making shop, all the prices charged are wholesale.
A recent addition to the morning is the Climate Action Silsden Energy Helpdesk, providing information about a wide range of measures that people can take to reduce their energy costs, such as loft and wall insulation, secondary glazing, solar panels and battery storage. The Helpdesk volunteers also have information about the grants that are available to help make your home more energy efficient, and you don’t have to be in receipt of benefits to be eligible for these grants.
In February over 2 weekends, five Silsden households opened their homes to anyone who wanted to come and learn, at first hand, about what they've done to reduce their energy costs. Loft and wall insulation, underfloor heating, secondary glazing, solar panels and heat pumps - all will be available for discussion. Further information is available at the Helpdesk or on Climate Action Silsden's Facebook page.
There are lots of plans to develop the cafe further including Clothes swap. bike repairs and maintenance, wiping of data from phones etc then donating to a charity so an exciting time ahead.
As well as the repairing of broken items the church is running the café for people to sit and chat and have a drink or crumpets, toasted teacake and cakes while they wait . You don’t need to bring a repair in to use the café, it is open to all and we would love to see you there. A voluntary donation is asked for towards the cost of the refreshments
Most of the repairers did not know each other prior to June and it has become a great little community giving back to society and the planet. It is a lovely friendly atmosphere with lots of laughs along the way.
Come along and sample it for yourselves either with or without a repair job, lots of church people can give testimony to it having had several items repaired such as clocks, teddies etc.
Silsden Methodist Church Energy Use
The graphs below demonstrate the reductions in energy use we have achieved at Silsden since 2015.
Gas
The reduction in gas usage is mainly due to the fact that in 2015 we started to switch off the boilers in the summer as not required for general heating. Electricity is used to heat the hot water required in the kitchen and toilets and is mainly generated by the solar panels. This resulted in a reduction of 20% in gas use.
There was a slight reduction during the limited activity in the covid lockdowns, but we always thought it better to keep minimum heating in the building. In 2022 and 2023 we have used 15% less gas than
pre-covid with similar levels of activity in the building, a result of running slightly lower temperatures and maybe slightly higher outside temperatures.
Electricity
The reduction in electricity purchased is due to the installation of a 10kW capacity solar panel system in late 2015. You can see in the graphs we have generated each year more than was predicted by an average of 6%, with 2022 being the best year to date. The impact of the solar panels was a reduction of 33% in electricity purchased.
Covid and its impact on activities in church has obviously affected usage in 2020 and 2021 but 2022 and 2023 has remained at the lower level probably because we have changed all the lighting to LED, and we are also being more aware of when items are switched off. This represented a further saving of 36%.
Financially the feed in tariff from the government plus the saving in electricity over the last 7 years will cover the cost of the investment of £17,000 in the solar panels. The feed in tariff continues for a further 13 years with a potential income of £20,000.
It is difficult to predict electricity cost savings due to the current price volatility but based on 2023 prices, the difference in electricity costs pre solar panels and 2023 is approximately £3,500 per annum.
graphs.pdfRecycling bins for Bras, Stamps, Knitting wool and candle wax. (Unfortunately we are unable to take Blister Packs) and a collection basket for
The Keighley Salvation Army Foodbank
The Keighley Salvation Army Foodbank
Carbon Footprint
The average carbon footprint for a single person in the UK is 5.4 tonnes which includes energy use in the home, plus other areas such as travel by car and aeroplane, CO2e generated in the manufacture of the things we buy and the creation of the food we eat.
We have calculated the Carbon Footprint for the church energy, gas and electricity used at church for a year and it comes to 10.5 tonnes of CO2e. This may not seem large considering the size of the building and it’s use when compared to the individual’s average and it obviously reflects the reductions in energy use we have made in recent years.To counter this amount of CO2e it requires approximately 400 living trees so it still has an impact on global warming, so we need to do all we can to reduce it further.The average carbon footprint for a single person in the UK is 5.4 tonnes which includes energy use in the home, plus other areas such as travel by car and aeroplane, CO2e generated in the manufacture of the things we buy and the creation of the food we eat.