Push for Carbon Saving

Stop Press! on the Church of England’s environmental campaign.

Carbon saving projects are underway across the country to reduce the Church of England’s footprint (estimated at 1.3 million tonnes) following an audit by the Carbon Trust*.

• Greening the Spires: the Church and Cathedral Energy Audit is taking a look at the energy use of six cathedrals and 24 parish churches. The energy audit* will be coming up with practical solutions for these buildings many of which are centuries old. More than a quarter of parish churches signed up to the Shrinking the Footprint audit to help identify distinctive solutions for church buildings particularly in respect of heating systems.

• Every diocese has an environment adviser; details can be found at www.shrinkingthefootprint. cofe.anglican.org The website also contains energy saving tips and resources.

• Vicarages, rectories and other clergy housing are also under the microscope in a scoping study from the Carbon Trust funded by the Energy Saving Trust. Clergy housing was identified as an area of potential carbon savings and the study will look at what practical measures can be taken in different categories of "typical" clergy housing across the country.

Case study - St Aldhelm's Church Hall, North London has three south facing roofs which have been fitted PV cells to produce enough power for the building and enable additional power to sell. The church has cut a good deal with Good Energy. They receive around 7p for every Kwh of electricity produced and pay a little more than that for any electricity they use. St Aldhelm's system will stop the emission of around six and a half tonnes of Carbon Dioxide emissions each year. That's the equivalent of driving 20,000 miles in your average family saloon car. (Total cost £92,000 of which £78,000 was covered by grants.)

* Funded by the Archbishops’ Council working closely with diocesan representatives the audit covers the energy use of the Church's offices, places of worship, clergy houses, schools and halls. This figure does not include the carbon footprint generated by institutional travel or other activities (or an estimated further three million tonnes generated by the homes and activities of regular churchgoers – based on Church Regular Sunday Attendance figures

and Energy Saving Trust standards).