Nuns arrive at eco-convent and leave behind high-carbon habit

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/21/green-nunnery-move

Nuns arrive at eco-convent and leave behind high-carbon habit

Move sees convent swap fuel-hungry abbey for new home with solar panels, grass-covered roof and reedbed sewage system

Alok Jha
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 May 2009 16.48 BST

It is not often that the Benedictine nuns of the Conventus of Our Lady of Consolation leave their monastery. It is even rarer for them to move monasteries entirely.

But today, the nuns left their http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/nov/27/benedictine-nuns-stanbrook?picture=340123198">Worcestershire home of 171 years to take possession of their new residence in the North York Moors national park – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/01/catholicism-religion">a new building that they insisted must remain as environmentally-friendly as possible as they lead their quiet life of prayer.

Among the £4.7 million building's green features are solar panels to provide hot water, a woodchip boiler that will be fuelled by locally-sourced trees and a roof covered in sedum grass to better insulate the buildings and attract local wildlife.

Rainwater from some of the roofs will be collected and used to flush the toilets and, instead of an electrically-driven waste water treatment plant, the architects have installed a reedbed sewage system. The effluent from the monastery will filter through the reedbed and, after it is processed through natural anaerobic digestion, the resulting water will trickle out onto the surrounding land.

…