All Saints Fulham
This page forms part of the Diocese of London's Shrinking the Footprint microsite.
The Diocese of London's Climate Action Programme forms part of its strategic plan to address the challenge of energy use and carbon emissions from its buildings. See Route 2050.
Climate Action Programme looks at how to cut the energy use of churches across the Diocese by at least 20.12% by 2012, 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
These projects offer parishes across London useful information on how to make big energy savings.
The programme will help the London Diocese achieve its commitments under the Shrinking the Footprint Campaign – the Church of England's national programme of climate change measures. Chaired by the Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres, the campaign asks churches to take steps towards the long-term aim of reducing carbon emissions by 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
With 479 churches and 149 schools which reach out to a community of 3.6 million people, the Diocese of London has the potential to make a huge difference to the Capital's carbon footprint!
Working alongside environmental consultants Aardvark EM Ltd, environmental audits to measure energy, carbon, water and waste in individual churches have been carried out, with a view to meeting the Diocese's interim target of 20.12% reductions by 2012.
Environmental Audits began with 60 churches in the Two Cities Area of the Diocese, generously supported by grants arranged by the London Archdeaconry office, supplemented by small contributions from parish and guild churches.
Churches outside the Two Cities Area are also being audited under this programme, at a competitive price to the churches concerned and further benefiting from grants from the Diocese in some cases. Five such audits have been undertaken so far.
Aardvark EM are the winners of a DTI Smart Award for Innovation.
Read more about Environmental Audits in the Climate Action Programme. A summary report by Aardvark EM is downloadable from the Environmental Audits page.
In partnership with the Carbon Trust, a sample of churches from around the Diocese have been used to devise typical solutions for radical change to buildings, so as to move rapidly from the 2012 target towards the longer-term aims of at least 42% savings by 2020 and 80% savings by 2050.
The churches sampled were selected as representative of a range of different buildings, in order to generate guidance applicable to churches across the Diocese, and nationwide. No charge is made to the churches sampled.
These churches were visited and a report produced by the noted multi-disciplinary firm Arup.
The Carbon Trust is an independent company set up in 2001 by Government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy. It works with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.
Read more about Generic Building Solutions in the Climate Action Programme. Arup's report and supporting guidance are available to download from the Generic Building Solutions page.
In partnership with Rickaby Thompson Associates, this project has created a computer spreadsheet from data gathered in the previous two projects, and from Parish Annual Returns (see introductory Shrinking the Footprint page).
Average consumption and carbon footprints for churches in the Diocese had already been estimated from Annual Returns. But there is no such thing as an average church! Benchmarking enables plans to be produced for individual churches according to their size, attendance and the various activities which take place there. More than 90 churches have taken part so far. The benefits of this project are free to any church in the Diocese.
Rickaby Thompson Associates is a specialist energy and environmental consultancy with long technical experience in the UK and EU building and housing industries.
Read more about Energy-saving Benchmarking in the Climate Action Programme.
