Introduction

The Five Leaf Eco-Awards are an awards program for churches and religious bodies that provides assistance, inspiration and recognition for  their environmental achievements.

It encourages faith communities to be more efficient in helping the environment and to play a more effective role in social change towards sustainability. It provides examples of what is possible, and a framework of steps to work towards and to allow comparison with other communities to enable exchange of knowledge and experiences.

The program aims to:

• Make ecologically friendly churches the norm
• Provide support to evolving eco-churches
• Provide a system that is flexible enough to allow and encourage creative approaches and extensions of the basic program.
• Encourage fellowship by providing a common goal with reachable targets and recognisable achievement.

The program has five levels or ‘leaves’ of awards. The first four leaves can be achieved by completing the requirements of any of the first four categories: Sustainable Church buildings/property, Green Worship and Mission, Ecological Congregation, and Ecological Mission/Outreach. The final level, Five Leaf, extends and challenges the church community to become a ‘Green Church’ in the sense of being environmentally friendly over these categories, demonstrating positive influence in the wider community for sustainability, and showing constant improvement of environmental practices.

Within the Five Leaf Eco-Awards there are two levels that churches can complete. Both levels cover the same areas:

• Making your Church Buildings sustainable
• Developing Green Worship
• Creating an ecologically aware congregation
• Starting ecological outreach programs
• Becoming a “Green Church” or community leader in sustainability

The levels differ in the level of involvement and the stringency of the requirements to earn the certificate or award.

Basic Level:

Who it is for: Any church that wants to become more environmentally friendly. It is designed to be readily achievable.

Method of completion: Completed with the help of the support kits, and personal assistance can also be requested if needed. To receive the Basic Certificate the church must complete all areas of the basic level.

Prize: Basic Certificate and support as you get started on the path towards becoming an ecologically friendly church.

Before beginning the program you must administer a survey to your congregation to determine their level of knowledge and action surrounding environmental issues. To obtain the survey, email us.

When you email, you can also request a copy of the Basic Certificate Support Kit to guide you through the award process.

Advanced Level:

Who it is for: Only available to churches who have received the Basic Certificate and want to go further. It is designed for dedicated churches that really want to make a difference in their communities as well as their churches.

Method of completion: Given personal support and advice from the Five Leaf team through the whole process. There are five awards in total that can be completed, however there is no obligation to achieve all these awards.

Prize: Completion of an area in this level results in receiving a prestigious “Leaf Award”. Each leaf award recognises a higher level of achievement up to the “Five Leaf Award” which is the pinnacle of the program.

For any more information on the programs, please email us.