Carbon Net Zero

The Church of England General Synod voted in February 2020 for the whole of the Church to achieve net zero carbon by 2030. This important vote recognised that the global climate emergency is a crisis for God’s creation and a fundamental injustice.

An action plan as to how this can be achieved was developed and subsequently approved by General Synod in July 2022 and is known as the Routemap and ties closely with our Five Marks of Mission

Sodor and Man discussed the Routemap and developed our own Net Zero Carbon Action Plan(link to doc) in 2023.

On this page, whether you are Clergy, staff, lay or an interested member, you will find all the information, sources of help and support for you and your Church community to become net Zero.

Give To Go Green *UPDATE*

The Give to Go Green July grant window has now closed. The applications received were assessed at a local level and then submitted to the UK Church of England panel for review and approval.

We are delighted to announce that three Manx Churches have been chosen to receive the Give to Go Green grant with a total allocated of £25,000, equating to a £50,000 investment in decarbonising our churches.

Our show case projects are:

St Thomas’ Church, Douglas

The provision of heat panels to assist in warming the congregation during colder months as an interim measure before further decarbonising efforts during a Church reordering project.

What the panel liked: a simple short term solution to assist in heating the people not the building which can still be utilised after the reordering.

St Olave’s, Ramsey

The grant will go towards part of a wider project repairing the roof of the church, specifically the ridge tiles which are allowing water into the building causing damp and making it challenging to look after and heat.

What the panel liked: larger projects address many issues and are costly to the church. There are economies of scale to benefit from, particularly when working at height by seeking different funders for different elements of the work.

Kirk Braddan, Braddan

The repair and protection of stained-glass windows to reduce damp and drafts within the main church building.

What the panel liked: To have a comfortable and conserved worship space it is so important to element drafts where possible. By repairing and protecting stained glass this drastically reduced both drafts and damp in the fabric of the building.

Next steps:

The match funding events will be held over a six-week period, the last two weeks in September and the month of October 2024. We hope that you will support the events (advertised here in due course) of the churches to help them achieve the match funding required to achieve their goals.

Contact Louise our Net Zero Carbon Officer by email if you would like to discuss further or would like more information:

Louise Whitelegg

Email: carbon.zero@sodorandman.im

What is Carbon Net Zero

Louise Whitelegg Sodor and Man Net Zero Carbon Officer talks about what Net Zero Carbon means:

“I hate buzz words! And try to avoid them where possible. But the phrase Net Zero Carbon has popped up in our vocabulary since the British Government committed to the Paris agreement in 2015 to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2050.

What does it mean? The good news for me is that as a Christian I understand this in terms of how we care for each other and our Global neighbours by working together to turn the tide on the global climate crisis and how we practically live our everyday lives cherishing God’s mighty creation. Everything we do has an impact. The question is how we can live our lives, meet daily needs, worship together and support our communities in a way that does not negatively impact on others. This train of thought for me is the foundation to understanding what Net Zero is.

The science tells us that our world is out of balance. Our activities are causing too much carbon to be released and impacting on global temperatures. There are two things that we can do to redress the balance, stop emitting carbon and increase carbon ‘sinks’.

Carbon sinks absorb carbon in our ecosystem, such as our woodlands and fields of seagrass – so it is really important to nurture and protect our environment. But importantly it is critical that we stop emitting carbon.

The ambitious target of Net Zero for our churches seems intimidating. But it is wholly possible when we work together, plan, use the technology available to us, think about our worship a little differently and exercise our commitment as Christians to Love God and all of his Creation.”

Our Giving and Income Generation officer is also able to assist with other funding streams. Please do contact him if you have an idea for a project that you would like to discuss giving@sodorandman.im

News of Grants now Available

Local News

St Mary’s Church in Port St Mary have recently made great steps towards Carbon net Zero and you read more about this following the link below.

St Marys Story NZC 2030 June 2024

Do you have good news that you would like to share?
Big or small – we love to hear your stories, please get in touch with Louise carbon.zero@sodorandman.im

Ideas and Inspiration

Join Eco Church – a great way to access where you are and what you can do
Request an hour workshop ‘carbon confidence in an Hour’. Commissioned by the Church of England to give a broader understanding of the headline issues: carbon.zero@sodorandman.im
Find out your Energy Foot Print
Think about your worship – some brilliant ideas and inspiration can be found here:

Follow the Church of England Seven planning principles:

Based in theology: treasuring God’s creation

We recognise that the global climate emergency is a crisis for God’s creation, and unjust to the poor and future generations. It is the context into which we are called to live and preach the Gospel.

We will link all our actions on net zero carbon to our Christian mission, as expressed in the Five Marks of Mission.

We will grow the Church while reducing our environmental footprint; Christ’s Gospel message will reach and engage new people, particularly the young.

Urgent, relevant and widely understood

Net zero is needed by 2030 but it starts now. We aren’t waiting; a significant reduction is needed every year, year-on-year.

We will communicate clearly the reasons for action, and for acting now recognising the existential threat that we all face.

We embrace the call to net zero carbon as an integral part of our mission; caring for creation, achieving climate justice, ending poverty, creating a viable future for ourselves and coming generations, and increasing engagement with our communities.

We will implement only tried and tested technology.

Data-driven, focused and transparent

We recognise this work covers all of our activities as a Church, as set out in the scope agreed by Synod.

We will gather good data on major sources of emissions, to inform our decisions e.g. energy consumption, EPC surveys and travel data.

We will be strategic, using our data to focus effort on the large, busy buildings such as secondary schools and our busiest churches. We know most small, rural churches already have a very small carbon footprint and the onus for action does not lie with them.

We will learn from others, sharing resources and collaborating.

We will estimate costs for the changes and actively seek funding.

Embedded in all we do

We will aim to integrate ethical environmental principles into everything we are doing as the CofE.

We will encourage every level and part of the Church to take a formal decision to answer the call from General Synod e.g. a motion by the PCC, school governors, cathedral chapter, diocesan synod. Leaders at all levels will need to prioritise action.

We will identify those things directly in our control, and the things we influence, and discern appropriate strategies for both (including co-benefits for wildlife, social value, health, community etc).

We will encourage each part of the Church to gather a team to work on this, including a champion in a leadership position.

We will include carbon footprints into our reporting systems, both nationally and locally, e.g. APCM reports.

We will also include climate adaptation/resilience to protect our buildings and communities in increasingly extreme weather.

Using less energy, and from cleaner sources

We will aim for quick wins, whilst planning ahead for the harder actions such as moving away from oil and gas.

We will first reduce demand for energy by maintaining our buildings well (tackling damp, fixing broken windows etc) and by reducing heat loss as appropriate. Then we will increase energy efficiency through steps such as LED lighting, zoning and controls.

We will ensure energy is supplied from cleaner sources: switching to ‘green’ tariffs and increasing renewables on our buildings.

We recognise the vital importance of decarbonising heat since any new oil/gas boiler installed now will outlast 2030. We acknowledge the challenge and will strive to ensure options appraisals take place for all heating replacements of fossil oil and gas systems.

We recognise that some decisions will need to wait until later in the decade, for more certainty on technologies, funding and regulation.

We will aim to avoid maladaptation and to remember the embodied carbon in our building projects; we will avoid carrying out big interventions for small savings, while recognising the need to future-proof buildings to comply with potential future legislation.

Travelling sustainably

We will avoid unnecessary travel.

We will encourage sustainable transport and remember the travel hierarchy: walking, cycling, public transport, shared journeys, electric cars, fuel efficient cars, less efficient cars, ferries, flights.

Offsetting only what we cannot reduce

We will reduce all the carbon emissions we can, offsetting should be a last resort.

We will protect and nurture the trees, soils and wild spaces we already have and the carbon they store. There are a range of nature-based climate interventions which are to be encouraged in appropriate places, but which will take time to come to maturity and do not offset the effect of the carbon we are producing now.