​Greening pilgrimage cities or places

Receiving, accommodating, feeding and clearing up after millions of pilgrims is a significant undertaking for sacred sites. As it becomes easier to visit pilgrim sites, the carbon emissions generated by the world's 300 million pilgrims each year is considerable.

That's why the members of the European Green Pilgrimage Network believe that protecting the environment and reducing the impact of pilgrimage is an essential expression of their faith. It is also an opportunity to inspire pilgrims to consider caring for the environment as a faith duty – and to take this perspective back with them to their home countries.

This page offers a guide to some of the key areas to consider when greening your pilgrimage city, place or pathway. Many more ideas are found in the Green Pilgrimage Network handbook developed by Alliance of Religions and Conservation for the Green Pilgrimage Network.

'As we commue with nature, we must 
never forget to commune with one 
another. We should be asking people 
to 'smell the green pilgrimage": to eat 
our olive oil, apricots and cucumbers, 
to eat at local restaurants and 
​have green hospitality

​– Bishop Munib Younan, President, 
​Lutheran World Federation

​Key areas for greening to consider

Buildings

Transport

Accommodation

Faiths and municipalities often own many buildings in pilgrim cities and along pilgrim routes. Much of the carbon footprint generated by buildings is caused by heating, lighting and cooling them.

What you can do

• Improve the ecological footprint of all your faith and municipal buildings and places of worship by developing a sustainable management plan.
• Establish trusted green building certification criteria systems.
• Publish or distribute a handbook on making your places of worship greener. ​
• Reduce your use of light, power, heat and air conditioning.
• Use energy saving lightbulbs it will save money as well as reduce your carbon footprint. 
• Switch to green energy providers that use a high proportion of renewable energy.
• Install renewable energies such as solar power, and insulate your buildings more efficiently.
  

Transport causes 75% of carbon emissions contributed by tourism, including pilgrimage, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation. This is why it should be a major focus of greening initiatives.

What you can do

• Encourage pilgrims to walk, cycle and use public transport through faith outreach, travel agencies and tour groups.
• Work with municipalities to establish safe cycle routes, walkways and buses, and provide good bicycle parking.
• Work with rail and coach companies to promote pilgrim rail and bus passes to help people not to choose air flights
• Reduce the use of on-site vehicles in your events.
• Switch to electric or bio-diesel powered car. Consider using shuttle buses powered by green energy. 
• If donkeys or other animals are used for transport, make sure they are treated humanely.

Accommodation accounts for around 20% of carbon emissions generated by tourism (including pilgrimage). Work with hostels and hotels to ensure the accommodation is as environmentally friendly as possible. 

What you can do

• Recommend hotels and hostels that commit to environmentally friendly principles for how they use resources and nature. 
• Use the EGPN logo to identify eco-friendly accommodation.
• Produce a green map of your pilgrim route, showing where pilgrims can find the more eco-friendly hotels and hostels.
• Ask hotels to conduct an environmental audit and see whether they can improve their carbon footprint. 
• See the UNEP-supported European Hotel Energy Solutions project. It comprises: a carbon calculator, an energy benchmarking tool, information on best practice and capacity building materials.

Water resources

Not only is water vital for drinking, washing, flushing and preparing meals, but it is considered sacred by many faith traditions. Yet in too many holy sites around the world, water provision is either inadequate or is in fact polluted.

What you can do

• Conserve water and promote the importance of using it wisely. 
• ​Install water butts to harvest rainwater for garden use.
• Work with municipal authorities to ensure enough clean water is available for pilgrims and local people alike. 
• Provide water fountains or other sources of clean, fresh water for pilgrims.
• Consider following the example of the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, and banning plastic water bottles. 
• Work with municipal authorities to ensure adequate sewerage and sanitation facilities in your pilgrim city, place or path. 
• Raise awareness and campaign against pollution of water sources by industry or farming.

Greening food

Faiths run cafes, restaurants, hostels and retreat centres, and food is a core part of faith celebrations. Up to 30% of our carbon footprint comes from food; choosing planet-friendly food protects the environment and local economy. ​

What you can do

• Develop standards for food sourcing and provision. The Green Pilgrimage Network advocates that food should be:
  • 70% fresh or unprocessed;
  • 50% local
  • 30% organic
  • 100% free-range eggs 
• Review all pilgrim hospitality and retail outlets to ensure the food provided is ethically and environmentally sound.  
• Develop a green award scheme and use the GPN logo on maps to show eco-friendly cafes. 
• Support less intensive and more compassionate food systems such as organic or low-pesticide farming with higher standards of animal rearing. 
• Advocate eating less meat to reduce carbon emissions.  

Land, biodiversity & wild places

The faiths own or manage 7% of the planet's habitable land surface and more than 5% of the world’s forests. They can be leaders in working out how to protect the land and its species in better and more compassionate ways.

What you can do

• Look at how your sacred sites are maintained and develop policies to manage them with ecological and sustainability principles. 
• Reduce your use of pesticides and chemicals on your land.
• Pilgrim trails often pass through long stretches of land: can you work with the landowners to make this holy land more environmentally sustainable? 
• Consider the impact of pilgrims on biodiversity and nature, and develop plans to protect them.
• Include the theme of wildlife protection in religious teachings and sermons. 
• Establish city gardens where birds, bees, butterflies, bats and other pollinators can thrive. 
• Plant more trees to green urban spaces. 

Greening faith celebrations

Faith festivals are times of great celebration and an opportunity to bring the community together, but they can also create a lot of waste. If faith groups start changing their own festivals, others will follow. ​

What you can do

• Make all your festivals, services, conferences and other events more eco-friendly.
• Encourage followers to adopt a simpler approach and consume less in their own celebrations.
• Celebrate a religious eco festival. For example, after the Orthodox Church proclaimed in 1989 that September 1 would be a World Day of Prayer for Creation, many Christian churches have adopted it as part of a month-long Season of Creation, ending on St Francis Day on October 4 . 
• Celebrate your achievements with services, rituals or blessings with special prayers, and share them with others.

Waste management

Hosting millions of pilgrims inevitably results in waste problems. Minimising rubbish, recycling and managing wast, is essential for pilgrim places, both to protect holy sites and to reduce the impact on the environment.

What you can do

• Work with the municipality to find solutions to waste management and sewage problems in your area.
• Ensure faith buildings, schools, cafés, and faith meetings are disposing of waste in environmental ways.
• Introduce waste management policies to all your pilgrim sites.
• Provide bins to separate rubbish to ensure as much refuse as possible is recycled.
• Promote campaigns against littering and rubbish in schools, colleges and faith community
• Why not plastic bags? Studies indicate there are six kilos of plastic for every kilo of plankton caught in the Pacific.  

Wisdom, education and awareness

All faiths have traditional teachings about nature, some of which may have been forgotten. Many also have traditions of simple living that can inspire people to tread more lightly on the earth.

What you can do

• If you don't have one, or if it is very outdated, work with your scholars and faith leaders to develop a theology of the environment for your faith tradition as a basis for action.
• Distribute your theology of the environment to your clergy and congregations.
• Train your clergy and teachers in environmental issues. Could the training colleges in your pilgrim cities be models for training colleges in the rest of the country?
• Develop action plans for greening your holy sites and your places of workshop, based on your theology of the environment.​

FIND OUT MORE

 With thanks to Creative Commons photographers. Photo credits: from top, left to right: St Francis of Assisi by the Catholic Church in England and Wales; Solar power: Michael Cochlan; bicycle by Esteban Chiner; ​Hostel bedroom by Oriol Salvador; ​Assisi water fountain by Susie Weldon; Vegetables by Oakley Originals; Butterfly by Conal Gallagher; Incense sticks by Meena Kadri;
Rubbish by Andrew Gustar; Prayer by Essem Saad.