Green Facts About St. Mark

St. Mark has had a commitment to environmental preservation since its founding in 1962, and we have long had an environmental focus group, called the Ecophilians, helping to guide this important part of our mission.  

Our campus reflects that commitment, as it is the first church in the United States to enroll in the Audubon International Signature Program, which is sponsored by Audubon International and designates a project as a  “green” Low Impact Development.

In addition to use of recyclable paper products, recycling Sunday bulletins and other products, numerous environmental actions have been taken to ensure that St. Mark is as eco-friendly as possible, including:

•    Use of native plants to reduce water consumption, eliminate pesticides, and protect a diversity of wildlife.
•    Maintenance and replanting where needed of the coastal sage gnatcatcher habitat.
•    Certification from the National Wildlife Federation that the wildlife access corridor in the canyon has been retained.
•    State-of-the-art irrigation by a porous tubing system that prevents runoff from the church site.
•    A water capture system to remove oil runoff from the church parking lot.
•    Use of plant material filtration to clean drainage and runoff water that flow through the site.
•    Flow control to regulate the amount of water that returns to the nearby Big Canyon stream.
•    Use of local and regional manufactured materials.
•    Daylight and views in 90 percent of building spaces to reduce lighting needs.
•    Limited use of air conditioning.
•    Waterless urinals.
•    Very low floor area ratio of buildings to land.
•    Planting of 530 trees throughout the property.

Some of the native plants found on the campus and in the adjacent Canyon Nature Preserve include sycamore trees, elderberry, coastal sage scrub, California poppy, Indian hawthorn, tall fescue turf grass, pine, and plants of Mediterranean origin chosen for aesthetic and functional reasons.