Part of the Parish Returns system, the Church of England’s Energy Footprint Tool is now open. The data collected from the tool will help your church understand its carbon footprint and mean you may be eligible for grants to kickstart net zero projects. This work is an essential part of caring for God’s Creation, by helping to combat global heating and climate change.
The easy-to-use online tool will tell your church what carbon footprint is, based on the energy you to heat and light buildings.
Video from Diocese of Norwich - How to fill out the Energy Footprint Tool: A short walk through
How to use the EFT
Firstly, it only takes about 30 minsutes and it is quite simple to fill in the form! You’ll need to gather together:
- Names of your gas and electricity suppliers, and whether they supply 100% renewable energy or offset your consumption
- Utility bills for whole of 2023, and/or meter readings from the beginning and end of the year
- Bills for any purchases, including oil if you still use oil
- Other heating systems you may have eg heat pumps, capacity of your solar PV panels (if any), and units generated during the year
- Size of the church and any hall in square meters.
Don’t forget to enter data for any separate hall or other building(s) on the site, as well as the church itself.
The system is set up to give you ratings for efficiency compared to the church’s size and how busy it is. So you can also enter estimates of numbers attending services and using the buildings at other times, and details of work-related travel by church staff. This helps to get a full picture of how you’re getting on with improving your efficiency.
Deadline
The deadline for entries is the end of July 2024.
The Energy Footprint Tool will however remain open until the end of the year for churches to submit their details. This will then ensure dioceses can apply on their behalf for Net Zero Carbon Programme grants and schemes being launched this year.
Further help
If you need any help with the tool, please contact our Net Zero Carbon Officer, James Rolls who will be happy to assist you. Or, if you need help to login to the Parish Returns portal, you can contact our statistics team at statistics@cofesuffolk.org.
Find out more about the tool here.