Energy Footprint Tool

The Energy Footprint Tool (EFT) is now open for churches to enter their 2024 energy use.

Why complete the Energy Footprint Tool?

The Church of England's General Synod voted in February 2020 for the whole of the Church to achieve net zero carbon by 2030. The vote recognised that responding to the climate crisis is an essential part of our responsibility to safeguard God's creation and achieve a just world.

The Net Zero by 2030 programme was then established and as part of this, the EFT has been created to collect data to establish a baseline and help churches locally find out their carbon footprint.

It should take less than an hour to fill the EFT in and the results will really help each church kickstart carbon reducing projects as we journey together to reach net zero carbon.

Other reasons to complete your EFT returns include:

The EFT is a free-to-use tool that enables parishes to measure their annual carbon emmisions for churches, halls and other parish buildings.
The results help you understand your journey to net zero, as well as helping the Diocesan teams in their approach to your parish needs.
Increasingly the results are important, as their completion is often a condition of funding and grants.

All in all - it is a worth taking the time to complete these returns each year.

What's new this year?

New questions have been added to find out about all the buildings within your parish.
When you have finished your survey, you will now see a report which shows the total carbon emissions for your parish and the carbon emissions for each building you have reported energy use data for.
The list of approved green tariffs is changing. This has impacted whether the EFT will automatically offset some of your carbon emissions when you select a particular supplier. Look out for an extensive list of approved green energy suppliers later in the year.
You don't need to enter work-related travel expenses this year.
The EFT is closing earlier this year (30th June 2025) to give more time to analyse the data and share the results before Diocesan Synods in the Autumn.

Who completes the Energy Footprint Tool returns?

Communication for the EFT is sent to Incumbents, Treasurers and Churchwardens. However, the returns can be completed by anyone within the church family.

We recommend that you assign a member of your church family to take responsibility for completing these restuns by the deadline on 30th June 2025.

What information do I need to start?

To complete the form you will need:

Your energy bills for 2024
Your building usage for 2024

If you have solar panels, please find information on their generation for 2024 before you begin.

How do I complete my return?

Each church needs to complete a separate return for each building. If you need to determine whether a building is 'in scope', please use the new online building scope checker. Esentially, if the building is not owned by your church, parish or benefice, then you do not need to report on it.

If you do not need to complete your returns, please email the environment team on: environment@peterborough-diocese.org.uk to let them know your church name, parish name and reason for not needing to complete your returns.

The Diocesan Environment team appreciate that the Parish Returns Portal is not always the easiest approach for all users. We have, therefore, provided you with three different means of completing EFT returns for 2024.

Please take the time to ensure that you have completed your returns in one of the following three ways:

Option 1 – The Church of England Parish Returns Portal

You can log onto the Church of England Parish Returns portal and submit your data.

If you do not have a log-in for the Parish Returns portal, please email the environment team on: environment@peterborough-diocese.org.uk The team will then set you up with a user log-in and password, which will remain the same year-on-year.

If you would like some extra guidance, please do watch the video below, created by the Diocese of Manchester, which talks through how to use the Church of England portal.

Option 2 – The Diocese of Peterborough online form

If you do not enjoy using the Parish Returns Portal, but would like a green and online way of submitting your returns, then this option is for you. You can complete your returns using these Diocese of Peterborough online forms. A member of our Environment team will then submit your data onto the Church of England portal and send you your new energy rating via email.

Click here for the 'Church Buildings Form'.

Click here for the 'Other Buildings Form'.

Option 3 – The Church of England pdf

The final option is the Church of England pdf. These documents make collecting data simpler for those who do not enjoy technology. Once downloaded the options are to:

Either, print it, complete it and scan it to: environment@peterborough-diocese.org.uk
Or, print it, complete it and post it to: The Environment Team, The Diocese of Peterborough, Unit 1 Bouverie Court, 6 The Lakes, Northampton, NN4 7YD

If you have any other buildings that you are completing this for, please do complete a form for each building.

On receipt of the form, a member of the Environment team will input your data onto the Church of England portal and send you your annual carbon footprint via email.

If you do not have a printer and would like a printed copy, please click here to email the Environment Team.

Click here to download the pdf for 'Church Buildings'.

Click here to download the pdf for 'Other Buildings'.