Eco Church 

Strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of earth.

As a member of Eco-congregation Scotland, Broughty Ferry Parish Church is committed to: 

• caring for creation
• making the link between environmental issues and the Christian faith
• responding with practical action in the church and wider community

Our Bronze Award for this work recognises our achievements to date but we are committed to go further and meet the challenges of the silver and gold award as well as our own goals towards the fifth Mark of Mission. 

While climate change, loss of habitat for plants and animals (big and small) and the challenges posed by an ever-increasing human population seems daunting, we need to “Think Globally but Act Locally!” We can all “do our bit” no matter how small and together the church community can make progress towards a sustainable future for our planet. 

Examples of how our Church contibutes include:

• Maintaining the Meditation Garden and Green Graveyard in St Aidan’s 
• Seeking further opportunities for nature in all our gardens 
• Growing flowers and vegetables in the Community Garden in Queen Street
• Regularly including environmental issues in worship services 
• Continuing to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings and their use 
• Providing recycling points for stamps, printer cartridges, milk carton tops and glasses in addition to household recycling 
• Increasing use of technology for communication to become “paper light” 
• Promoting links with Government agencies and charities to share ideas and actions on “Green issues”

ECO GROUP VISIT TO THE BINN ECOPARK, GLENFARG

On a beautiful sunny morning at the end of April BFPC’s Eco-congregation Group had a very interesting and enjoyable visit to the Binn Group Ecopark. The Eco group are currently reviewing recycling and waste management being carried out at all our buildings. Our tour allowed us a chance to investigate exactly what happens to the waste brought on site and to find out where the recycled materials can end up. Fraser McLeod (Field Sales Executive at Binn Group), together with Angus and Matthew were our hugely enthusiastic, informative guides, taking us round the vast 62-acre site. We were very grateful for the time they spent sharing their knowledge and answering our many queries.

As part of the diversification of Binn Farm a small skip hire service started in 2001. From this beginning Binn Group developed in the early 90’s with a modern landfill site, capable of managing leachate and capturing energy from the landfill gas produced, to becoming Scotland’s leading recycling and resource management company. Other companies are now based within the Ecopark including Earnside Energy which carries out anaerobic digestion and in-vessel composting, producing biofertiliser and compost, GAP Alba, a cutting-edge fridge and cooling equipment recycling facility, and a Waste wood processing facility. With 100% electricity produced by wind power onsite the Binn Group is committed to ensuring they remain fully carbon neutral.

As we seek to improve the carbon footprint of BFPC it is important that we investigate the most ecologically sound ways to reduce and dispose of our rubbish including the traceability of materials sent to any company or local authority facility that we may use.