DIocese of Chicester Energy Stewardship Programme

Service: Bespoke Programme

Topic: Energy and Decarbonisation

The Diocese of Chichester set up the Energy Stewardship Programme in 2015 to allow parishes to deliver their mission in the most environmentally, economically and social way.  The Programme's vision is for each parish in the diocese to be self-sustaining and, where possible, create and provide energy to the wider community. SOENECS created this programme with the Diocese of Chichester to deliver this programme.

The main objective is to improve the community utilisation of church owned buildings and infrastructure. Currently many church buildings are not energy efficient and lack facilities such as toilets for wider community use. As such, programme aims include identifying cumulative energy cost savings across the diocese, the potential for the parishes to generate renewable energy, ways of increasing the resilience of parishes to energy spikes, and further opportunities for grants, funding and partnerships.