Suffolk parish and school launches eco-friendly project
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St Edmund’s Parish and Primary School in Bungay have taken a big stride towards being more environmentally friendly with the launch of 20 photo-voltaic panels on the roof of the parish and school hall, reports Mary Kirk.
Telling pupils about the project on May 3, parish priest Fr Charles Fitzgerald Lombard quoted teenage environmentalist Greta Thunberg who holds the older generation responsible for the catastrophe of climate change, and said that the installation of the panels was a gesture on the part of the parish towards putting its house in order.
The initiative grew from a plea from some members of the Parish Pastoral Council that the parish should live more simply and reduce its carbon footprint, and at the same time help the children at the school learn about the problems facing the environment, and reflect on their own and their family’s way of life.
Headteacher Samantha Barlow said: “We are all really excited to be part of an eco-friendly school project, and we’ll definitely be encouraging the children to be more eco-friendly themselves and look at other ways of helping the environment.”
The scheme was made possible by the parish’s participation in the Diocese of East Anglia scheme Alive in Faith which raised funds for the development of the diocese and its parishes. The firm Green Bricks of Diss surveyed the hall and suggested using an advanced technology to maximise effective heat capture, and ensures that if one panel fails it does not interrupt the working of the others. In normal use the system has a generating capacity of 5.3kW, and over 20 years will save 56 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions from damaging our world.
Also present at the assembly was Parish Pastoral Chair Shirley Kalinauckas, who encouraged the children to get their parents to save energy, and – amongst other things – turn off equipment which is left on stand-by.
Pictured above, Shirley Kalinauckas, Fr Charles and head teacher Samantha Barlow with the PV panels in the background on the hall roof.
