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Diocesan Green Ambassador the Revd Jan Nobel says, "It's not just another chore – but part of our journey to reduce energy, save money, and care for creation."

The price of energy is rising, leaving some churches with rocketing utility bills. Perhaps there has never been a better time to reduce energy use, saving the planet as well as church funds. Start the journey today, by completing the Energy Footprint Tool.

What is the Energy Footprint Tool (EFT)?

The EFT is a national Church of England tool for churches to help them record energy use and calculate carbon emissions. It forms part of the online Annual Parish Returns.

Each year, churches are asked to enter their energy figures from the year before. Once a church has entered all its data, they immediately receive a report and results on their computer or smartphone. This includes:

The church’s carbon footprint in CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent)
A simple assessment of their buildings’ efficiency compared to their size, and compared to how busy the church is.

The Charity Commission is expected to announce that reporting on carbon emission will become a statutory requirement for all charities. In 2021 York Diocesan Synod followed the example of General Synod by adopting the target of achieving Net Zero Carbon (CO2e) by 2030. The Diocese needs to track progress, by measuring its use of energy. Churches will soon be asked to provide carbon reduction progress updates at their AGMs and at Archdeacon’s Visitations. The EFT provides a quick tool to track progress.

In 2021, the EFT won a National Energy Award for ‘Innovation of the Year’. The Church of England competed successfully with nine other shortlisted candidates, ranging from utility companies to technology companies to building services analytics.

What is our Diocesan Carbon Footprint?

The annual emission of the Diocese of York is estimated to be around 10,000 tonnes of CO2e. Just over half of these emissions originate from churches (see illustration).

An estimated 84% of churches’ emissions (and 85% of housing emissions) arise from energy used for heating. Consequently, we need to prioritise making our buildings more energy-efficient by:

reducing heat loss (e.g. draught-proofing, insulation, and basis maintenance such as broken windows and roofs),
making heating systems more efficient (e.g. better controls, zoning, and matching heating to usage),
and starting to replace gas/oil heating with lower carbon solutions (e.g. pew heaters and heat pumps).

How does completing the EFT make a difference?

Not only will the EFT figures provide a record of progress, but it will also show trends in energy use between different buildings and contexts, which will help the Diocese to provide support where it is most needed, and which support is most effective.

For example, national data has revealed that around 80% of the net carbon emissions come from the 33% highest emitting churches. Less than 1% of the total net carbon emissions come from the 25% lowest emitting churches.

This contribution can be seen in the next illustration.

There are far more small buildings (under 250 m2) then there are large buildings (over 650m2) in the Church of England.

Nevertheless, the total carbon footprint of the (smaller number of) large building is greater than the footprint of the (higher number of) small buildings, as is highlighted in the third illustration.

Apart from size, the location (whether the church is located in a rural or urban parish) of a church seems to have a significant impact on its carbon footprint.

The fourth illustration highlights the differences, with an average large urban church emitting approximately 21 tonnes of net CO2e, around 15 times the amount of an average small rural church, which emits just under 1.5 tonnes of net CO2e.

Apart from size, the location (whether the church is located in a rural or urban parish) of a church seems to have a significant impact on its carbon footprint.

Such national data offers a valuable insight for where we need to prioritise our efforts in reducing our carbon footprint. It may also offer reassurance to small rural churches that are worried about the Net Zero target.

However, the data would be more reliable, and localised to the Diocese of York, if more of our churches would complete the EFT. So, why not do that today?

Completing the EFT

In 2021, only 21% of the churches in the Diocese of York completed the EFT as part of their annual returns. A further 7% of churches began their entries but did not complete them. Almost three quarters of our churches did not attempt the EFT at all. We want to make it easier for every church make good use of the EFT and get complete results. The Church of England hopes for a 90%+ returns rate by 2023 – we have a long way to go!

How to use the EFT?

You get access to it as part of your annual Parish Returns, through the Church of England's online Parish Returns system (more advice here).

Detailed guidance and frequently asked questions on how to use the EFT can be found here.

The system opens each year in March or April. Churches need to complete their entries by the end of July, when the system closes to new entries.

Energy use figures can be taken either from energy bills for the whole year, and/or meter readings from the beginning and end of that year. It is helpful to have those bills or readings to hand before logging in. However, if your energy is supplied through the Parish Buying energy basket, you will find these figures are already populated, making it even easier to complete the EFT!

If not all the data needed is to hand, it is possible to save and come back later.

If you have any questions about the EFT, do not hesitate to contact the Diocesan Green Ambassador, Revd Johannes (Jan) Nobel.

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