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St. Paul’s makes great efforts to be a Green Church and certainly the Green Team has played a part in this.

Our most visible efforts are the regular monthly bottle drive.  In the past year, we raised almost $3000.00 for the church and know that we can do better. On the third Saturday of each month, the Green Team is at the church to collect any refundable bottles and cans that people drop off and Beaver Envirodepot provides large bags into which we put the separated items.  Beaver then pick the bags up at 1:00 p.m.  We encourage all members of the congregation to support us in this.

On March 27th 2012, Marcel Maessen, the Waste Reduction Education Officer for Halifax spoke to the congregation about ways we could reduce our garbage by recycling various products. He was very entertaining and informative. Since this is a relatively new department for the city, there is always something to learn and everyone who attended this meeting came away having learned something valuable.

In the spring, members of the Green Team assisted the Boy Scout Troop in cleaning up the highway along Old Sambro Road. This is an initiative of the Scouts here at St. Paul’s. They have adopted a section of the  road and annually take on the cleaning of litter along this stretch of highway past the church.

Throughout the year, the Green Team spoke in church for a Green Moment, pointing out that being Green is really an extension of our faith in action. This is a focus of the United Church of Canada as well as St. Paul’s United Church.

We have also continued to write for the Chebucto News on environmental issues. This year there have been letters to the editor as well as articles explaining our Green Team initiatives and focus.