A Bristol church has been finding ways of cutting its carbon footprint with an Energy Audit of its building.
Energy efficiency is particularly important for churches to maintain comfortable levels of warmth and illumination without having a detrimental impact on the environment.
Holy Trinity Church in Westbury-on-Trym is one of a number of churches to sign up to an Energy Audit to help discover what positive actions it can undertake to save energy.
The 90-minute survey, which was carried out by expert surveyors with experience of historic places of worship, has helped to highlight some simple ways which the church can make a difference.
Keith Yeandel, a member of Holy Trinity, has been helping oversee the audit for the church.
He said: “We thought that it would be helpful in establishing a baseline for our energy usage to help us with our efforts to reduce the church’s carbon footprint in line with the Church of England’s recent declaration of a Climate Emergency.
“Although Holy Trinity church have been active in implementing energy saving measures in the past such as installing PV panels on the roof, replacing 130 tungsten light bulbs with low energy LEDs and Arc lamp uplighters with 30W LED units, the survey highlighted other areas where savings could be made.
“It was useful in being able to talk through potential problem areas, including insulation and draft exclusion, with the two very knowledgeable surveyors who attended.
“Every one of our churches in the Bristol Diocese can contribute to the national effort to mitigate climate change.”
The Church of England is currently running its first ever official green Lent campaign, #LiveLent.
The Diocese of Bristol declared a climate emergency at its Synod meeting in November 2019. It has pledged to achieve a net zero target by 2030 and is encouraging all its churches to become Eco Churches.
Find out more about the Diocese's commitment to the environment.