The Islington Sustainable Church Buildings Project has been awarded a prize by the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN).
The project has been awarded second place in the 2018 ECEN Roman Juriga Award, which recognises inspirational innovation in church environmental projects across Europe. The prize includes an invitation to accept the award at the ECEN Assembly in October 2018, as well as 1000 Euros.
The Islington Sustainable Church Buildings Project is a partnership between Cloudesley (an Islington based charitable trust), the Diocese of London and the Islington Deanery. It is the first time these three partners have worked together so closely to deliver a joint project. It was initiated by Cloudesley’s Trustees as part of Cloudesley’s 500th anniversary year.
The Sustainable Church Buildings Project has four parts; environmental audits of 24 of Islington Deanery’s Church of England churches; Energy-saving Benchmarking carried out by the Diocese of London; a dedicated Cloudesley grant fund of £440,000; and a learning programme to raise awareness and understanding of environmental issues and how to apply this to their buildings.
As a result, Islington Church of England churches are now applying to Cloudesley for grants to undertake a variety of energy-efficiency measures, such as LED lighting, solar panels and draught-exclusion.
The Revd Jess Swift, the Islington Area Dean, says:
“The Sustainable Church Buildings Project is brilliantly placed by being both visionary and inspirational in promoting environmental responsibility, and also facilitating churches into being able to take practical action. It has revitalised our churches’ commitment to prioritising global sustainability and their own local environmental impact. We are so grateful to be a part of this project.”
The Diocese of London Head of Environment and Sustainability, Brian Cuthbertson, says:
“Cloudesley’s 500th Anniversary programme of environmental audits to Islington churches has been a magnificent opportunity to take a really thorough look at how these buildings are functioning in terms of their energy and carbon emissions. The Cloudesley grants mean the churches can turn their audit report recommendations into reality in double-quick time. The project has shown excellent teamwork, and we are looking forward to achieving dramatic reductions in the energy use and carbon emissions of our churches.”
Catherine Ross, Anniversary and Sustainability Officer at Cloudesley, said:
“We’re so delighted by this award. It recognises how innovative it is for a grant funder to work in partnerships in this way with the Diocese and Deanery. The project is helping the churches in Islington make really significant savings both in energy and in their running costs.”
Read more about Cloudesley’s Sustainable Church Buildings Project.
Read more about the Diocese of London’s Climate Action Programme.
This was written by Linu George.
