St Matthew's is a member of the A Rocha UK Eco Church Community. We use their environmental audit questionnaire to help identify and drive areas to improve in our:

• worship and teaching

• buildings and energy

• land and nature

• community and global engagement

• lifestyle

We currently hold a Bronze award but are striving to improve and reach the Silver award level.

We continually seek to modify and transform how our church operates and impacts the world in which we live. Some of the sustainable changes and improvements we have made recently include:

1. In 2022 we replaced all the halogen lighting in the church with energy efficient LED lighting.

2. 2023 we installed solar panels on the south facing church roof. The panels generate approximately 8kW of electricity an hour in sunny weather - 4kWh are fed to the church and 4kWh to the adjacent church hall. Any surplus electricity is exported to the grid. In the first year of operation we calculated that the panels saved us just over £1k. The panels were mainly funded by grants from the Rampion Community Fund and the Benefact Trust.

3. In 2024 we replaced a gas boiler heating our church office and meeting room with a 5kWh air source heat pump. The cost of the heat pump was mainly funded by a government grant of £7.5k.

4. In January 2025 we fitted a suspended ceiling in our church hall with 300mm of insulation above the ceiling. Previously the arched roof of the 125 year old hall was uninsulated. Much improved LED lighting was incorporated in the suspended ceiling. The cost of the ceiling was mainly funded by another grant from the Rampion Community Fund and a grant from the Diocesan Net Zero Quick Win fund.

We are a Fairtrade church and only use Fairtrade products such as tea, coffee and sugar. All our toilets are twinned with toilets in the poorest areas in the world, helping to transform lives through the provision of better sanitation.