Creating "The 40% Church of England"

Shrinking the Footprint is the Church of England’s national strategic campaign to enable its members and institutions to address - in faith, practice, and mission - the pressing issue of climate change. It aims to challenge, encourage and support the whole body of the Church to shrink our environmental footprint to create the "The 40% Church" by:

• Making a difference now by following the Shrinking the Footprint path - simple steps to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources by 2008
• Planning to make a difference in the future through a growing series of strategic initiatives and partnerships which will change Church activities, structures and processes, producing sustainable reductions in the Church of England’s carbon emissions to 40% of current levels by 2050 - "The 40% Church"

Shrinking the Footprint's first challenge to the Church is to lighten our energy load to mitigate our impact on future climate change. Measuring our Footprint - the Church of England National Energy Audit - is the first step. Later activities will look at issues such as biodiversity, waste and water management, transport and other contributing factors, and also at what steps we should take to adapt to climate changes already likely to occur in the next 20-40 years. Although the challenge is considerable both in scale and because of the timescales involved, by concerted and consistent action creating "The 40% Church" can be a reality - see Loaves and Fishes.

Why Shrinking the Footprint?

Your Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact your activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide, and is a measure of the relative impact of your lifestyle on the world's resources. Shrink your footprint and you contribute to slowing down and then reducing global climate change. Calculate your own carbon footprint at actonco2.direct.gov.uk.