St Nicholas Church became part of the ECO Church programme back in 2020. ECO Church is a learning facility and community made up of churches of all shapes and sizes. It provides a framework to support practical action on caring for God’s earth.

St Nicholas has focussed on the 5 areas of the ECO award scheme to go for one of the ECO Church awards – Bronze, Silver or Gold. The 5 areas are:-

• Worship & leading
• Management of Church buildings
• Management of Church land
• Community & global engagement
• Lifestyle

We are pleased to report that in March 2023 we demonstrated that we had achieved Silver Award status and we can now proudly display our wooden plaque inside the Church.

Among the many things that have gone towards achieving this are:-  an increase in bio-diversity around the church gardens, including some “bug hotels”, wild flower sections, and a new water butt to assist our in-house gardeners. Some bug hotels have also been installed in St Nicholas school for the children to keep an eye on.  In addition, we have made significant reductions in energy usage via our new ‘A’ rated central heating boiler and widespread replacement of lighting with LEDs.

As a result of achieving the award we are now focussed on moving towards obtaining Net Zero Carbon status by the national target date of 2030 as part of the Church of England’s mission.

Eco Church website here: ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/.