Photo: Photo: Trish Carn
Sustainability at Friends House
Joe Mugford reports on the "greening" of British Quakers' central offices
As regular readers of the Friend will be well aware, climate change is rapidly becoming one of the highest priorities for individual Friends and for Quaker organisations at all levels. So it was that staff from all the offices in Friends House (FH) gathered last week for a meeting on consolidating the environmental sustainability of the FH building itself, and using it as an emblem to the outside world of how the Quaker doctrine of simplicity can create practical and effective environmental action. FH’s aim is to reduce carbon emissions by twenty per cent by 2013, half of that in the course of next year as part of the ‘10-10’ initiative.
‘We were very pleased with the responsiveness of everyone at the meeting’, says Johanna Kociejowski of the recording clerk’s office; ‘it was extremely interactive, more so than any normal administrative or planning discussion of this kind’. Certainly, at the session, it was clear that everyone there was interested not only in the practical steps that are being taken and would be taken in future to reduce resource usage and waste, but also in what this means for the way FH is presented to the world.
There was much discussion of the new Quaker Centre and café as a ‘shop front’ for Quaker values, and how this could be extended to the whole of FH – it was revealed that people are already booking FH for conferences and meetings specifically because they have searched online for venues with a good environmental record, and suggestions were made as to how projects like trying to grow herbs for the restaurant in situ might also work to publicise the building’s ‘greenness’. (The herb garden is already planted on the roof.)
The meeting revealed positive news: that FH’s food waste recycling (it is composted to make soil that is being used on the Olympic site and by commercial mushroom growers) prevents carbon emissions to the equivalent of 169 cars per day; and that paper recycling has ‘saved’ thirty-eight trees in three months. And obstacles were discussed: Camden local council’s recycling services for businesses are next to non-existent so FH relies on commercial recyclers; and FH’s grade II listed status means every single structural change has to be individually approved.
The feeling of the meeting, though, was optimistic about how much change could be made, and a ‘good ideas’ brainstorming session for future initiatives was still raging when time ran out. ‘What matters now’, says Johanna, ‘is whether and how people follow through on this interest. But people are keen to join the staff working group – the “green champions” who will drive behavioural change and have real power in decision making – so hopefully this optimism can continue into our day-to-day work.’ Those present at the meeting made a symbolic gesture of their commitment by dressing in green for a photo in FH garden (above).
