Church of Divine Mercy committed to Sustainability & Environmental-Friendly practices, at parish operation, the congregations, and the parishioner’s community. We will promote awareness of ecological conversion & ecological spirituality to all the parishioners, align with Government policy, vision & mission of CJC (Commission for Creation Justice) and reference to the Encyclical Letter written by Pope Francis, entitled Laudato Si’ mi Signore on Care for Our Common Home.
Procedures
- Green Office Procurement
- All purchase required approval from Parish Priest. Before purchase, always consider repair, share or swap.
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- If purchase is necessary, first choice is to buy local, and buy bulk.
- Select suppliers that are having good environmental credentials.
- Encourage to use paper from recycled material, or fiber paper which is certified by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).
- When purchase electrical appliances or equipment, the followings should be taken into consideration;
- Supplier who allows trade in or upgrade.
- Select electrical appliances that come with “Green Label”, such as “Energy Star” for energy-saving.
- Select air conditioners that are CFC or HCFC free.
- Equipment or furniture are always considered for reuse, unless it is not fit to use, will send to recycle vendor.
- Recycles the empty cartridge for the model that can be accepted by recycle vendor
- Lease or purchase multifunction machine that can perform printing, scanning & copy.
- Avoid using fax machine
- If purchase is necessary, first choice is to buy local, and buy bulk.
- Waste Management
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- Continuous support of 6R with Posters, e-posters, videos or projects. Definition of 6R in CDM is ‘refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, regenerate, recycle’.
- Centralized trash bin & Recycle bin in office to avoid waste and allow the waste to be visible.
- Paper
- Avoid printing emails, and also put a note in email Signature to remind recipient to avoid printing emails.
- When printing is required, print double side
- For paper that has been printed on one side, reuse it for note-taking, printing drafts or message-taking, etc.
- Confidential paper waste is to shred.
- Track photocopier monthly usage trend (which represent 99% of paper usage), to encourage reduction of paper usage. The trend chart is to be published during quarterly PPC meeting.
- Utilize website, multimedia and email for publications, reports, announcements, updates, meeting minutes, so that documents can be downloaded and view on screen.
- Pantry and Meal serving
- Avoid prepacked food in single use plastics and Avoid mineral water in single use plastic bottle. All church function is to serve food from tray with proper serving utensil to ensure hygiene. Attendees are encouraged to BYO /bring your own plate, cups & utensils. Church do also provide plates and utensils, and user to wash their own dish.
- Keep cloth towels next to the sink instead of paper towels.
- For Kitchen & Pantry, buy food in bulk, avoid over packaging. Example, avoid3 in 1 coffee/milo packing, instead buy coffee, creamer, sugar, biscuits in bulk packing.
- Exception to the above with conditions as follows: –
- when church needs to provide take away meal (eg for group pilgrimage visitors, outreach and street walk). The food packing needs to be in paper or biodegradable packing. Preferable drinks in aluminium can.
- Recycling
- Recycling Bin is available at church compound, encourage segregation at source with 6 categories
- News Paper
- General Paper
- Carton Boxes
- Plastics
- Aluminium
- Metal
- Recycling Bin is available at church compound, encourage segregation at source with 6 categories
- Certified Recycling contractor is engaged to collect the recycling items from the church
- Trend Chart of Recycling sales to be published during Quarterly PPC meeting
- Office Faulty or obsolete electronic / electrical items will be sold to e-waste collector
- Energy Conservation
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- Switch off all lights, computers, copiers and other non-essential equipment when not in use
- Consider green labelled and energy-saving computer, air conditioner and other electrical products
- When non-LED lighting out of order, will replace lighting with LED lights
- Solar Panel is installed and tracked monthly by Maintenance team, and to be reviewed annually during Parish assembly.
- Office, meeting room, class room, and Main Prayer Hall air conditioning temperature settings is 24°C or warmer
- Minimally yearly servicing of air conditioning system is required. Record of the service is available for audit.
- Trend chart of Energy usage to be published during Quarterly PPC meeting
- Water Conservation
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- To replace with water saving devices in toilets and pantry faucets, whenever the old tap out of orders.
- Water leakages is reported to the office
- Water usage trend is reviewed in quarterly PPC meeting
- Water Conservation Goal ; Rain Harvest system installation or water saving devices installation,. minimally one in 2 years.
- Air Quality
- Ensure adequate ventilation in office, meeting rooms, classrooms and main hall.
- Encourage planting of office plants that help purify air.
- Community Engagement
- To organize or participate in green community engagement, minimum once a year, with compliance to Covid SOP
- Encourage Car Pool for any activities by Parishioners, but with compliance to Covid SOP.