Eco Church, Sustainability and the HeatHack project
Earlier this year Peter Skerratt convened a small working group to explore ways in which St Andrews might reduce its energy costs, put the Church and Centre onto a more sustainable footing and set an initial path towards a Net Zero future by 2050. This group is made up of Church and Centre representatives including Peter himself, Maureen and John Jackson as Leader/Facilitator. The group also required the voluntary support of an experienced engineer. We have been extremely fortunate in recruiting Faris Manshi, a local civil engineer with a wealth of experience in building design and energy savings, to work closely with us.
So where does HeatHack come into all of this I hear you ask? Thanks to Peter’s researches we have discovered this small, interesting and charitable consulting organisation. It is based in Edinburgh and in a short time has built up an enviable experience of working with churches and other community organisations to help reduce their carbon footprints and their energy costs.
Through this experience HeatHack are able to provide a monitoring device for gathering data and a four-part programme of meetings with the aim of producing a range of options that will be reported back to St Andrew’s. This programme is facilitated locally using materials provided free by HeatHack and we are pleased to report the group have just completed its second meeting.
HeatHack place great store on presenting programme outcomes to the local wider community so that people can present their views and feedback on the proposed solutions. Our group are aiming to do this as part of the Centre’s AGM which will this year be held on the evening of Wednesday, 29 November.
Further information on HeatHack can be found at: https://heathack.org
Further information as to project progress from: [email protected]
John Jackson
