What is your church's energy footprint?

First published 12th May 2020

If you’ve wondered what the size of your church's energy footprint might be, help is now at hand. The Church of England has launched a new, simple tool to measure the amount of carbon produced annually by heating and lighting your church buildings.

By inputting information from your energy bills from 2019, along with a few additional figures, into the existing Parish Returns system, the Energy Footprint Tool generates two useful graphs which show you your efficiency scores: one based on building size, and one for attendance. It can also take account of separate buildings such as church halls.

You can access the tool through your church's Parish Returns page. If you don’t have a login for this site, please contact your churchwarden or Chris Priddy.

Additional information about the tool is available here.

The Diocese of Bristol declared a climate emergency last year, and is committed to work towards net zero carbon emissions by 2030, and this tool is a vital step in helping us to achieve this goal. We strongly encourage every church to take 5 minutes to find out the size of your energy footprint, and then seek to reduce this year on year.

Climate change may be the most serious issue ever faced by human communities. As Christians, we must all play our part in safeguarding God's wonderful creation. A simple step is to tackle our carbon emissions as we work together to build a safer, greener future. 

For more information contact Chris Priddy (Clare Fussell, our Diocesan Environment Adviser, is currently on furlough). 

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