St Giles Cripplegate, Barbican
This page forms part of the Diocese of London’s Shrinking the Footprint microsite.
The Diocese of London’s programme of Environmental Audits forms part of Climate Action Programme, itself one strand in the Diocese’s strategic plan to address the challenge of energy use and carbon emissions from its buildings. See Route 2050.
Working alongside environmental consultants Aardvark EM Ltd, Environmental Audits to measure energy, carbon, water and waste in individual churches are being carried out, with a view to meeting at least the Diocese’s interim target of 20.12% reductions by 2012.
So far, 60 churches have been audited in the Two Cities Area, and six churches in other Episcopal Areas of the Diocese.
The purposes of these audits are two-fold:
The scope of each survey in Environmental Audits is the church building and site, its installations and services, and use of them by occupants. Buildings to be surveyed are those on one site together with the church, including any church hall or parish room.
Surveys are to analyse each church’s performance and impact in relation to the following:
Reports include banded ratings for each of these. An estimate of total carbon footprint in tonnes of CO2e pa is also given.
Public buildings above a certain size, other than churches, are required by law to post Display Energy Certificates (DECs). Houses and other buildings are required to have Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) – mainly when they are built, bought, sold or rented. Churches do not have to have EPCs or DECs. However these audit reports provide information equivalent to DECs, and more.
Outputs are fed into the Diocese’s Energy-saving Benchmarking scheme, from which a certificate is provided to each parish – as well as their audit report.
Before visiting, a detailed questionnaire is provided to each church, so that as much information as possible is gathered before the Assessor visits. It is helpful to return the questionnaire quickly. It does involve some work by a parish – but this is extremely useful in order to gain a good result from the survey. Together with the questionnaire, parishes are requested to provide energy and water bills. It’s a good idea to keep these handy, all in one place!
Some churches may also be able to supply the Assessor with plans of the building. Where these are not available, either the Diocese will supply plans, or the Assessor will prepare a plan. Every report includes a key plan.
Individual reports are prepared, one for each church. They are packed with information – but bright and attractive, accessible to the non-technical reader and user-friendly.
The report for each church makes recommendations on where and how improvements can be made.
Clear recommendations and action lists are included for:
Where expenditure is needed, budget costs are indicated.
An estimated total feasible percentage reduction in carbon footprint is stated.
Reports are issued in draft first. When the results from Energy Saving Benchmarking are available, performance Bands for each church are inserted in the reports.
Then a final report is issued at the end of the process, for each participating church.
In addition, a summary report applicable to all churches may be downloaded below.
| Environmental Audits generic report |
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The Environmental Audits programme in the Two Cities area was generously supported by grants arranged by the London Archdeaconry office, supplemented by small contributions from parish and guild churches.
Any churches outside the Two Cities, or not paying Common Fund, will need to pay for their own audits. However, they will still have the benefit of competitive prices based on tenders for the Two Cities audits. Grants or loans may be available for individual churches from the Diocese, in case of need and subject to available funds.
The fee paid to the Assessors is in four bands, according to the size and complexity of each church (these bands are similar to those for church quinquennial inspections). Charges to parishes are therefore also banded, in similar proportions.
The full fee for each church is typically less than the savings which should be possible every year in fuel costs, once recommendations are acted on. For churches supported by grants, that will increase the relative benefit up to several times above the charge made, every year.
For more information, and to take part in, Environmental Audits, or about the Environmental Challenge, contact Brian Cuthbertson on 020 7932 1229, or email 
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