As we look back over the past year, an area of huge growth in the life and work of the SEC has been Net Zero. A year ago, interviews were held for members of the Net Zero team (pictured above), and through the first few months of 2024 recruitment continued. Once in place, the team hit the ground running, creating and developing new strands of work and engagement across the province. The Net Zero Portal has enabled encouraging stories and useful resources to be shared, both internally and amongst other organisations and denominations. We would like to share some highlights of the past year, as we reflect with thankfulness on this challenging and exciting part of our ministry.
We all felt so proud of St Mary’s Dunblane when they were short-listed as finalists for the Church Times Green Church awards. The way they have developed the Dunblane ECO Fest to engage the whole community, is truly inspiring. They continue to grow this work and are now running monthly eco events to keep the momentum going through the year.
Our series of Funding Webinars have been so well attended – what an encouragement that members of churches across the province have taken time to join and ask questions, and we know many others will have watched back the webinars at a convenient time. We are thankful for all the funding bodies who have given of their time and expertise to speak into the SEC context during these webinars. Look out for upcoming webinars and new funding announcements in 2025.
Many thanks to everyone who has taken time and effort to fill in the Energy Footprint Tool. This gathered emissions data for 2023 and is a useful tool to better understand the emission footprint of the province. New data has also allowed some level of comparison with data from the previous Energy Footprint Analyser which was used for 2018-2021. A lovely example of a charge that has reduced its emissions and energy bills by installing far infra-red heaters is St Mary’s Dalmahoy. They lowered their bills and made progress to net zero with the same investment – win-win!
The Net Zero team have ended 2024 with a real sense of encouragement in how many churches have already engaged with our work to care for God’s creation. There is also huge excitement and anticipation for some new projects that are in the pipe-line for the year ahead.
To keep up-to-date with our ongoing work throughout 2025, subscribe to receive our Stories directly into your inbox. Also, keep an eye on our Funding, Resources and Events pages for regularly updated information.
Bethany Nelson, Empowerment Coordinator
