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Church of England’s Environmental Adviser calls for end to spin

12 May 2008

Now summer is on the horizon and the temperature is soaring, the Church of England’s Environmental Adviser, David Shreeve, is calling for households to switch off their energy-hungry tumble dryers, and, instead, dry their clothes on good, old-fashioned clothes lines.

He makes the environment-friendly plea in the latest edition of ‘People and Places’, a podcast series profiling a wide range of people who work in today’s Church of England, produced in association with Premier Christian Radio, and available online at www.cofe.anglican.org/podcast and www.premierradio.org.uk/programmes/peopleandplaces (and via iTunes).

When prompted for practical energy-saving advice that anyone could employ, he replies: "I think my tip would be for everybody to make sure if they don't have any to go out and buy some clothes pegs - because I think more and more we should use the benefits of the environment, and I do think tumble-dryers should be turned off and a lot more clothes put out in the sunshine to dry, and that would save an awful lot of energy."

Co-founder of the Conservation Foundation in the 1980s, David Shreeve and his team supported some the Church of England's early moves towards greater environmental responsibility.

"It made me realise that the Church should be involved in environmental issues," he says on the podcast, acknowledging that although it took some time to mobilise the Church in these matters, "people really do see the links now between faith and the environment."

For the Church of England, an umbrella project, called ‘Shrinking the Footprint’, was devised in 2006, in response to General Synod's realisation that the Church didn't know the impact of its own environmental 'footprint'.

"Nobody knew," David adds, "until we did our first stage - which was measuring our 'footprint', which was to try and find the total energy used in 16,000 churches and the diocesan offices and bishops' houses."

During this mammoth exercise, the project was augmented with a useful website to help the Church reduce energy consumption at www.shrinkingthefootprint.cofe.anglican.org.

Recorded in Kensington Gardens, the full interview with David Shreeve is available on the latest ‘People and Places’ podcast, which also features an interview with Harrow-based pioneer youth minister and author Cris Rogers, and Ealing-based General Synod member Elnora Mann.

Notes

1) A Which? report on energy efficiency, dated 2nd April 2008, provides useful information: “Energy-class labels on tumble dryers are meant to help you choose a more energy-efficient model. The classes go from A (the highest rating) to G (the lowest rating)… Most tumble dryers have a C-class energy rating. But, even so, the energy they use varies by around a third. And, with a million tumble dryers sold in the UK every year, that adds up. A washing line is far more energy efficient. Imagine that everyone who buys a tumble dryer next year buys the most efficient, rather than the least efficient one – they'd save enough energy to power hundreds of households for a year each time they all dried a full load of cottons.” For the full report click here.

2) The Conservation Foundation’s Parish Pump News magazine, Issue 17, Spring 2008, says: “The Church of England’s estimated carbon footprint is on a par with major supermarket chains, a new study for the Shrinking the Footprint campaign has revealed. The energy use of its offices, places of worship, clergy houses, schools and halls is measured at around 1.3 million tonnes.” See also www.shrinkingthefootprint.cofe.anglican.org/newsitem.php?id=20

3) A joint Church of England and Premier Christian Radio production, ‘People and Places’ provides an opportunity to meet some of the people who make the Church of England what it is today. Throughout the series, roving reporter Howard Dobson travels around the country to meet a variety of people in a variety of places, and 'People and Places' presenter and producer Cindy Kent from Premier Radio contributes topical interviews from London. A full A to Z of interviews is available at www.cofe.anglican.org/podcast/atoz.html.