What three things can you do in November to take your first steps (or more!) as a church on your eco journey?
1. 28 November is ‘Buy Nothing Day’.
- To put this in some perspective, on 10 April 2025 the UK hit its Deficit Day - the day by which its residents have used as much from nature as the country’s ecosystems regenerate in the entire year. After that, the UK’s Footprint exceeded its own biocapacity. So a day when you buy nothing is a great way to start thinking about reducing our consumption every other day of the year!
- Reduce, Repair, Recycle – Charity shops and online pre-loved goods websites make it easier than ever to buy as-new goods to reduce levels of consumption. Cambridge Carbon Footprint is hosting lots of repair cafes this month around Cambridgeshire to get your items repaired.
- Donate unwanted clothes, bric-a-brac and gifts to charity shops, or sell online (Gumtree, Vinted and other websites make this easier than ever!).
2. November is often filled with preparations for Christmas.
- In ‘How Bad Are Bananas’, Mike Berners-Lee calculates that the excesses of Christmas have a significant carbon footprint – whilst a low-carbon Christmas creates 4kg CO2e per adult, the UK average is 280kg CO2e per adult, and a high carbon Christmas can create 1.5 tonnes CO2e per adult – and that’s only including the ‘excess’ (so unwanted presents, wasted food, avoidable travel, non-LED fairy lights and cards).
- There are lots of ideas for reducing the impact of Christmas out there, so start thinking early about how you might adopt some or all of these.
3. Get ready for the Energy Footprint Tool.
- This data-gathering will recommence in January 2026, to help churches to calculate their carbon footprint from energy consumption - so if you haven’t already, please start to gather your energy bills together, to make this as easy as possible come the New Year..!