Support
Our Eco Church Journey
We believe that it is part of the Church’s mission to care for God’s creation with our voice and with our actions. We therefore teach, pray, and support care for the environment and want to build a culture of environmental concern and action here at the Cathedral. In December 2024 we were the first Cathedral in Wales to receive the A Rocha UK Silver Eco Church award and are now working towards Gold.
Our Land
450 Trees Planted
We were advised that the land behind our Cathedral had become overgrown with invasive, non-native laurel trees. These were removed, and the Woodland Trust kindly donated 450 trees that will grow to form a mixed native species hedge which will provide shelter for many creatures. We had a grand planting day where members of our congregation came to help plant the trees, and we look forward to watching them grow.
Butterfly Garden
Keep Wales Tidy helped us take an area of unused, wild space in our graveyard and create a Butterfly Garden.
Bug Hotel
A member of our congregation built a Cathedral Bug Hotel which the Sunday School children gladly helped fill for all the minibeasts. Bishop Mary blessed the Bug Hotel at a special service with the Sunday School children.
Our Building
New Energy Efficient Boiler
Thanks to the Friends of Llandaff Cathedral, we were able to replace our old inefficient boilers with a new much more efficient boiler which will greatly reduce our carbon footprint. At the same time, we made the building Heat Pump ready as we hope to find the funds to make this step in the future.
LED Lightbulbs
All of the lighting in the Cathedral has now been changed to LED and low-energy lightbulbs. If you use our space, please help us save energy by remembering to turn off the lights when leaving a room.
Plans for the Future
The Cathedral Development Group is currently working on plans for sustainably developing the Cathedral site. We hope to source funding that will enable us to make the best choices for the environment.
Community & Global Engagement
Learning Together
The Cathedral wants to foster a place of learning and discovery about environmental issues and how we can engage and support change. We offered an Eco Film morning where we watched the documentary 2040 and ate lots of home-baked goodies. If you missed this opportunity, it’s available to rent on Amazon. Watch this space for forthcoming events.
Weekly Eco Lifestyle Tips in our Newsletter
Each week we offer a tip in our newsletter on how you can become more eco-friendly. Check them out!
My Family’s Eco Journey (coming this Autumn!)
We will be rolling out an exciting eco-journey for our Sunday School families. They will have the chance to complete eco-friendly activities and lifestyle changes progressing from a slow start Turtle to a sprinting Cheetah for the environment!
Fairtrade Church
We are a Fairtrade Church serving only Fairtrade coffee and tea from our kitchen. If you use our kitchen, please respect our commitment in this area and serve only Fairtrade tea and coffee.
Green Fair
The Cathedral hosted a Community Green Fair which was buzzing with local, sustainable artisans, educational stalls, and crafts and activities for children. It was hugely successfully, so we plan to make this a recurring event!
Lifestyle
Cathedral Eco Committee
A group of clergy, staff and members of the congregation tasked with championing the cause of the Cathedral becoming more environmentally sustainable. We are looking for more people to join. If you are interested, please email Krisi Hillebert. krisihillebert@llandaffcathedral.org.uk
Travel and Lifestyle Survey
We recently asked the congregation to fill out a survey on how they travel to the Cathedral and other Lifestyle choices. See the results here. We encourage members of our congregation to undertake a carbon footprint audit and reflect on ways you may be able to reduce your energy usage or consumption.
Reducing Paper Usage
We are trying to reduce the use of paper with a combination of QR codes to access orders of service and reusable booklets for those who wish to minimise screen use.
Cycle Racks
Cycle racks were installed outside of Prebendal House to encourage active travel to our site. We are glad to see that they are used daily!
Recycling and Food Waste
We try to recycle as much as possible and encourage you to do so as well when on our site. You can find recycling bins in the North Aisle of the Cathedral and the Kitchen. If using our kitchen, please put all food scraps into the Food Waste bin.