St Giles-in-the-Fields
This page forms part of the Diocese of London's Shrinking the Footprint microsite.
The Diocese’s Energy-saving Benchmarking project is a unique partnership with consultants Rickaby Thompson Associates, to assess the energy use and carbon emissions of churches in the Diocese.
Energy-saving Benchmarking forms part of the Diocese's Climate Action Programme, itself part of Route 2050.
Average consumption and carbon footprints for churches in the Diocese have already been calculated. But there is no such thing as an average church!
We are now discovering how efficient our churches are, compared to each other and a common standard.
Then we draw up plans for individual churches, aiming at percentage savings in energy and carbon at the right scale – according to their size, attendance and a church’s various activities.
The benefits of this project are free to any church in the Diocese of London.
Benchmarking can mean different things; what they all do is compare the performance of an organisation, its premises, services etc against a common standard.
The original ‘benchmark’ was the familiar mark on a wall in the street, showing the altitude above Newlyn datum used by the Ordnance Survey.
Our first aim is to avoid waste. A lot of energy is wasted by many people and organisations. Without benchmarking it isn’t easy to tell whether energy use is high or low, frugal or wasteful.
We aim to reduce our energy use and carbon emissions across the Diocese by 20.12% by 2012, at least 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
These are totals – different contributions will be appropriate from different churches, depending how efficient they are already. Each church needs to be set its own target.
There will be opportunities for improvement. We are finding out if one church is using a lot of electricity, but is economical on gas – while another is consuming large volumes of gas, but sparing on electricity. Does this reflect such a difference between different places? Could they learn from each other and make big savings?
We are also acknowledging good practice. Some churches manage to use comparatively little energy, whilst doing tremendous work in mission and ministry.
For the first time, Energy-saving benchmarking provides a way of comparing the efficiency of a church, before and after a reordering or extension project. It’s important not to stifle growth – to make sure of the best results from new heating and lighting systems – so that a church becomes more not less economical as a result of developments and improvements.
Like apples and oranges, churches come in all shapes and sizes. They have many uses – worship, community uses, public concerts, pre-schools, crypt cafes – as well as vestries and offices. These may share the same space, some or all of the time.
Some churches are used mainly for Sunday services, others very intensively, open 24/7.
Churches use energy in different ways. A few still burn oil; most gain their heat from gas – sometimes all or part from electricity. Gas may be used in kitchens. Electricity is used for lighting, for sound systems and computers.
All these different factors are taken into consideration in the Diocese’s Energy-saving benchmarking system.
We aim to become more efficient in the energy we use, the fuel we burn, and the carbon emissions these generate.
Oil and gas are taken together as ‘fossil fuels’. They are burned on site, whereas electricity is delivered from the grid having been generated elsewhere – the carbon emissions are in the power station, but we should still take responsibility for our share.
We should also take account of the increasing number of churches generating their own electricity, eg from solar panels – and encourage others to do the same.
Data has now been input for the 66 churches in London studied in Environmental Audits. Data from the Generic Building Solutions segment of the Diocese’s Climate Action Programme has also been input.
Then we developed a dedicated straightforward survey form, for the Diocese’s scheme of Climate Action Plans. This tabulates a church’s size, activities and energy use, to enter in our computer programme for Energy-saving benchmarking. Some of these completed forms have now also been input.
Download the Survey Form below. You can fill it up using Microsoft Excel, or ask for a paper version. Under ‘Energy use within the Church’, select fuels such as gas or oil, depending which your church has. In other tables, enter your own figures under the example entries (which aren’t used in the calculations). There are button whichs add extra lines if needed.
Please return the form by email, or address any queries, to 
.
| Benchmarking survey form |
XLS
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Each church is assigned its own benchmark or standard for energy consumption, based on its size and how the church is used. After comparing its actual energy use, A to G grades are worked out for energy and carbon emissions – leading to a combined measurement of overall efficiency.
A to G grades for energy efficiency and carbon emissions can be seen on:
Now we have an equivalent for churches! A certificate is produced for each church to display of the notice board.
Note that an EPC is also needed, by law, for premises being sold or let – that might include some church halls, but not any Church of England church in use.
| A typical certificate |
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Energy-saving benchmarking goes on to become a key part of the Diocese’s scheme of Climate Action Plans.
This includes:
To find out and take part in more about Climate Action Plans, contact the Diocese’s .
The system of Benchmarking developed by the Diocese of London is now also in use by the Diocese of Southwark and the Methodist Church.
Rickaby Thompson Associates, with whom the Diocese of London is collaborating on its Energy-saving Benchmarking scheme, is a specialist energy and environmental consultancy with long technical experience in the UK and EU building and housing industries.
For more information on Energy-saving Benchmarking, or about the Environmental Challenge, contact Brian Cuthbertson on 020 7932 1229, or email
Also download article in Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Building Conservation Journal, April/May 2011 here:
| RICS Building Conservation Journal article April/May 2011 |
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