| Snapshot from Coventry Diocese | |
| Other useful links and resources |
Church Buildings and the Challenge Ahead
Church buildings (and halls) make up 40% of the Church of England’s carbon emissions. Inefficient heating is the main offender, culminating on average 85% of church energy consumption. The Shrinking the Footprint Energy Audit Report, produced in 2012, reported that over 70% of church heating was produced by fossil fuels. Moving to more environmentally friendly heating systems and using controls more efficiently would improve this. The technology associated with this might be expensive, and sometimes not ideally suited to large, spacious, historic buildings. However, as more suppliers enter the marketplace with low carbon technology, solutions are becoming more affordable.
It is therefore very clear that as a Diocese we need to consider how we can support our PCCs in making their church buildings more energy efficient, and reduce our carbon emissions more widely. Our local response is on this page of the Diocesan website.
Snapshot from Coventry Diocese
Data collated from the 2024 Energy Footprint Tool submissions (based on a high 74% return rate) indicated that the total carbon emissions for church buildings in the Diocese were approximately 1,897 tCO²e in 2023. To get to the net figure of 403 tCO²e per year reported for 2023, churches reduced emissions by just less than 1,500 tCO²e by buying via renewable energy tariffs from their suppliers.
The results from the 2024 data weren't so positive. The proportion of churches submitting EFT returns dropped to 64% which meant the overall data wasn't as reliable. The way we considered authenticity of 'renewable' energy also became much stricter. We believe the measurement of actual energy used is becoming more accurate through the wider adoption of smart meters, but importantly, the calculation for the whole diocese may have been skewed (upwards) by a higher proportion of our more active churches completing the EFT, compared to those with smaller congregations. The larger churches use more energy for their activities. For these reasons, for the year from 1st Jan 2025, we estimated and reported a gross figure of 2,527 tCO²e per year for 245 churches, reduced to net 2,172 tCO²e .
We are looking to achieve a higher return rate for the 2025 data so that some of the anomolies and inaccuracies will be reduced. We are also hoping that some evidence of energy savings measures introduced in 2025 will reflect in lower usage.
For our local resources, please click across to the Net Zero main page.
A good starting point is to find out what the carbon footprint of your building is. You can do this via the Church of England's Energy Footprint Tool (please note, this has reopened for 2025's submissions).
Following this, the Practical Path to Net Zero is a short guidance note, produced by the Church of England, sumamrising actions churches can take to reduce their energy consumption and associated carbon emissions.
The Church of England have also produced a host of resources (including webinars) on a range of subjects that aim to support and eqip churches in getting to Net Zero.
Other useful links and resources
Local Case Studies in Coventry Diocese
Caring for God's Acre (website)
Historic England - energy efficiency (website and resources)
Eco Church (website and resources)
Church Buildings (DAC)