Energy Footprint Tool 2023 now open

The national Church of England Energy Footprint Tool (EFT) is now open for churches to enter their energy use from 2022.

Entries from 2022 have to be in by 31st July 2023. This is now the second year with this deadline, which is earlier than previous years. Hopefully churches will be getting used to logging on and entering their information to the new timetable. It will help the Church of England to report results from all over the country in good time before next year.

Why do we need the EFT?

In 2020, the Diocese of London, with the Church of England, set itself the target of achieving net zero carbon (CO₂e) by 2030.

The Diocese needs to track progress, by measuring churches’ use of energy.  EFT calculates emissions of CO₂e from those measurements.

Most of churches’ emissions comes from energy used by their buildings (mainly electric and gas for light and heat).  Therefore the energy use of church buildings needs to be radically reduced, while still keeping the church warm and well lit.

As everyone knows, our energy use also needs to be cut to the bone because it has become so expensive.

How to make your entries

Your entries can be made at Church of England Annual Parish Returns. You’ll need first 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 2021, 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.

Don’t forget to enter data for any separate hall or other building(s) on the site, as well as the church itself. You’ll need to enter:

• Size of the church and any hall in square meters.

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.

For more information including an introductory video, see Energy Footprint Tool.

How far have our churches progressed towards Net Zero?

2020 was a record year. Then 2021 beat the 2020 record.

From 2005 to 2021, our churches improved their efficiency by 28.1% in terms of their energy use, 34.6% in CO₂ emissions.

The equivalent figure for 2020 were 21.7% and 31.3% – so we’ve seen a big year on year improvement.

Well done to all the parish staff and volunteers who are taking part in EFT by getting together their churches’ energy data and entering it each year.

Let’s make sure we keep making progress! We hope 2022 results will turn out even better than 2021. Then we can redouble our efforts to make further progress in cutting energy and CO₂ in 2023.

More help and support

To help parishes use EFT, see:

• Introductory video and supporting notes.

See also:

• Energy supplies and prices crisis

• Measuring your energy use
• Green energy suppliers
• Environment and Sustainability landing page.

For more help and support, contact Head of Environment and Sustainability.