Net Zero and Church Buildings

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 would hypothetically improve this. The technology associated with this might be expensive, and often 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 2022 and 2023 Energy Footprint Tool submissions (based on a good 74% return rate) indicate that the total carbon emissions for church buildings in the Diocese is approximately 1,897 tCO²e per year. To get to the net figure of 403 tCO²e per year, you'll spot that churches reduced just less than 1,500 tCO²e per year by buying via renewable energy tariffs from their suppliers.

For our local resources, please click across to the Net Zero main page.

Taking Action

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 will reopen in early 2022).

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 NetZero.

Solar Panels at St George's Church, Rugby

In 2022, the PCC of St George’s Church in Rugby installed solar panels on to the roof of the church – the first such project of its type in the Diocese! The solar panels were part of a wider strategy by the PCC to reduce their carbon footprint and seek to reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030.