General Synod has called upon all parts of the Church of England to work to achieve year-on-year reductions in carbon emissions in order to reach net zero by 2030. Where can churches committed to the care of God’s Creation begin?
This short film, produced by the Church of England and featuring Manchester Cathedral and Christ Church Brunswick, provides inspiration and encouragement as we work towards Net Zero Carbon by 2030.
Energy Footprint Tool - Open for 2025 Submissions
The Church of England’s Energy Footprint Tool (EFT) is now open for churches to enter their energy use data for 2024.
The information gathered will help your church understand its carbon footprint and could make you eligible for grants to support your net zero projects. This initiative is a vital step in caring for God’s Creation by addressing global warming and climate change.
The user-friendly online tool calculates your church's carbon footprint based on the energy used to heat and light your buildings. The Energy Footprint Tool (EFT) was developed to collect data and help churches assess their environmental impact. Filling in the EFT should take less than an hour, and the results will be invaluable in helping churches launch carbon-reducing projects and will support applications for grant funding.
What do I have to do?
Simply gather together your energy bills from 2024 and enter your church’s energy use figures into the online survey. This includes your actual energy consumption, as well as costs – you can find all this information on your bills.
Once you have entered all the data, you will immediately receive a report and results on your computer or smartphone. This includes the church’s carbon footprint in CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) and how this has changed in recent years.
What’s new this year?
The EFT has been updated to reflect feedback from users last year and to help the Church of England better understand all the buildings we own or use.
Key updates:
- New questions have been added to find out about all the buildings in your parish. A new online building scope checker tool can help you determine which of these buildings you need to report on and what information you need to provide for each.
- When you have finished your survey, you will now see a report which shows the total carbon emissions for your parish and then the carbon emissions for each building you have reported energy use data for.
- The list of approved green tariffs is changing. This has impacted whether the EFT will automatically offset some of your carbon emissions when you select a particular supplier. Look out for an extensive list of approved green energy suppliers later in the year – the Church of England has appointed specialist consultants to work on this.
- You don’t need to enter work-related travel expenses this year.
- The EFT is closing earlier this year - Monday, 30th June 2025, to give more time to analyse the data and share the results back in time for diocesan synods in the autumn.
What do I need to get started?
You will need your utility bills for all your church or Parish buildings for 2024: electricity, gas, oil, or whichever other fuel you use. If you have solar panels, find information on their generation over the preceding year.
Before you start collecting energy use data for your buildings, you need to determine whether a building is ‘in scope’. This online building scope checker tool will help you work this out. But essentially, if a building is not owned by the Church of England then you do not need to report on the building.
The EFT is open until Monday 30th June 2025 and you can find it on the online Parish Returns system if you need help accessing this system please contact DanielBainbridge@manchester.anglican.org.
This new film explains how to complete the Energy Footprint Tool.
Taking Your First Steps Towards Net Zero Carbon
You will find some practical suggestions to reduce the carbon footprint of your church building on the Church of England's website The practical path to net zero carbon for churches
Funding for Eco Boilers
The new Boiler Replacement Hardship Grant Fund is designed to help churches and church halls with limited budgets, by offering grants of up to 45k to cover the difference in cost between a low-carbon heating system and an oil or gas heating system.
The fund is from the Church of England’s Net Zero by 2030 programme, which aims to equip, resource and support all parts of the church to tackle climate change by reducing carbon emissions from the energy used in its buildings, schools and work-related transport.
This document explains more about the scheme and how to apply.
If you would like any help, please contact robchilton@manchester.anglican.org