Energy Footprint Tool

You will need your utility bills for the year before; electricity, gas, oil, or whichever other fuel you use. For example, if you are completing it in 2024, you need your 2023 bills.  If you have solar panels, information on their generation over the preceding year.  

If you want to include a separate church hall or other building, then you need the bills for this too.  If you want to exclude an area which is permanently rented out to tenants and sub-metered, you will want this information to hand.  

You can find a paper copy of the questions here (word or pdf) - you might find it helpful to use this to collect all the information you need.

Completing the EFT might take you an hour the first time you complete it, but if you have all your information to hand and have completed it before it take you as little as 20 to 30 minutes. 

If you find you don’t have everything you need, you can save your progress and return to complete and submit the EFT at a later point. 

Each Church in your parish should be entered separately – and you will only be able to enter one church or one combined church and church hall per EFT entry. 

To choose each church in your parish in turn please do the following: 

1. Use the <Select Church> menu at the top of the EFT screen. 
2. Select the Church in your parish for which you want to enter information from the table at the bottom of the screen. 
3. Under the Energy Footprint Tool 2023 Section, click on <Enter Your Data>. 
4. Complete and Submit the EFT for this Church. 
5. Repeat steps 1-4 above for each Church in your parish. 

1. Select the Church in your parish for which you would like to enter information about a separate Church Hall. 
2. Under the Energy Footprint Tool 2023 Section, click on <View Report/Submit Data>. 
3. In answer to the first question “For how many buildings would you like to enter data?”, you will need to enter 2 (or more buildings if you have more buildings for which the parish pays the energy bills which you would like to include). 
4. Answer the following questions about your Church: 

   • “Building Name”: Leave as “Main” for your Church 

   • “Type of building ?”: Select Church 

   • “What sources of energy does this building use?”: Select the relevant energy sources. 

5. Then click the <Add a building> option. 

6. This will create a new block of questions for your Church Hall.  

7. Complete this second set questions about your Church Hall: 

   • “Building Name”: Enter a meaningful name (Church Hall is sufficient unless you need to differentiate between multiple Church Halls) 

   • “Type of building ?”: Select Church Hall 

   • “What sources of energy does this building use?”: Select the relevant energy sources.

8. Click <Next> 

9. The first Data Entry screen displayed will relate to the Church, when you have completed this you will see a second Data Entry screen for the Church Hall.

   • You can tell which building you are entering information about by looking at the tabs on the left hand side of the screen. The tab which is not highlighted shows the building you are currently entering information for.

1. Select the Church in your parish for which you would like to enter information about a separate Church Hall. 
2. Under the Energy Footprint Tool 2023 Section, click on <View Report/Submit Data>. 
3. In answer to the first question “For how many buildings would you like to enter data?”, you will leave this as 1 (unless there are other additional buildings for which the parish pays the energy bills which you would like to include). 
4. Answer the following questions about your Church and Church Hall: 

   • “Building Name”: Leave as “Main” for your Church 

   • “Type of building ?”: Select “Church and Church Hall combined (shared meter)”.

5. Complete the EFT as per the standard instructions, but entering energy information for your combined building, with information from your single energy bill. 

Yes, as the EFT also allows you to capture work-related travel expenses. 

To complete the EFT for this church: 

1. Select the Church in your parish for which you would like to enter information. 
2. Under the Energy Footprint Tool 2023 Section, click on <View Report/Submit Data>.
3. Click on the checkbox “If you do not have any buildings to enter data for click here”, this will change the number of buildings to 0. 
4. Click <Next>. 
5. You will be taken directly to the data entry screen for work-related travel. 
6. Complete the EFT as per the standard instructions.  

Each church in a parish can enter mileage and costs related to work-related travel. This will be the expenses your church has paid out to paid staff and volunteers for travel relating to official Church activities. 

After you have completed the information on energy type and use for each building you will automatically be taken to the data entry screen for work-related travel. 

The best way to tell if a property has a three phase supply is by looking at the electrical fuse.  

Check your electrical meter, meters are sometimes labelled “Single-Phase,” “Mono-Phase,” or “1-Phase” and 3-phase supplies sometimes say “3-Phase,” “Tri-Phase,” or “Polyphase.  

Count 3 fuses for 3-phase or 1 fuse for single-phase.  

Or your utility bill may say what type of power you have. 

If you do not know the answer to this question, please do not guess, but select the option “I don’t know”. 

The Energy Footprint Tool calculate the carbon footprint of your energy use (oil, gas, electricity).  It shows both the ‘gross’ and ‘net’ carbon footprint.  The gross figure represents all the energy your church has used, whilst the net figure deducts any electricity or gas which is either generated on-site or purchased from a 100% renewable tariff meeting certain criteria.  

The list of companies meeting these criteria is reviewed each year.  

You can find here the list of providers who meet the criteria in 2024. 

This list is backward looking, applying to 2023 utility data entered into the EFT in 2024. 

To exclude an area of a building which is permanently rented out to tenants and sub-metered, you will need both your main energy bills and the sub-metering bills. 

To complete the EFT you will need to subtract the sub-metered energy from your total energy use for the year and record this value in the EFT. 

Yes, on the Energy Footprint Results or Summary Screen, select the option <Print/Download Report>. 

Clicking this button will produce a pdf of your energy footprint results which can be taken to your APCC meeting for discussion.  

To save this report, follow the instructions in the pop-up window. 

The link from the EFT to Climate Stewards Carbon 360 tool is currently not working, but work is in progress to resolve this. 

When fixed the Carbon 360 tool will pull through data from your Church’s EFT record for this year and pre-populate this information, as long as you have completed and submitted an EFT for your Church. 

If you notice that EFT information for previous years are incorrect or missing for your church, please feel free to provide this information either directly to your diocesan office contact, or directly to the Data Services team, by emailing [email protected]. 

The easiest way to share the necessary information, is by completing a paper return - available above or on the parish returns login page.

1. Select the Church in your parish for which you would like to see previous information. 
2. Use the menu <View Data> at the top of the EFT screen, from this dropdown menu, select <Archived Returns>.  
3. You can view EFT return data if it was previously submitted by clicking on ‘View’ under the relevant year in the Energy Footprint Tool column. 
4. The EFT Results Page for the data submitted in that year is displayed. 
5. To see individual fields entered and calculated for that year, click ‘Show/Hide’ under the “Submit Data” section. 

1. If the EFT is still open, you can edit the data and re-submit it as follows. 
2. Select the Church in your parish for which you would like to see previous information. 
3. Under the Energy Footprint Tool 2023 Section, click on <View Report/Submit Data>. 
4. Click on the <Unsubmit> option. 
5. Confirm that you would like to unsubmit this entry by clicking <OK> in the pop-up dialogue box.  
6. Click on the <Enter Data> option, you can then walk through the entry form and correct your mistake. 
7. Please remember to click <Submit> again when you have completed your corrections. 

If you get stuck you can find help in the following ways:  

• If it relates to how to fill in the forms click on the “?” help symbols you will find throughout the forms.
•  If it relates to getting access to the system or if you want to let someone know about problems with historic data contact your diocesan office.  
• If you think the system is not doing what it should be then use the Report Problem / Give Feedback facility at the bottom of each page. 
• If it relates to something else, then the answer may be contained within the user guide, available via the <Users Menu> then selecting the <Download Users Guide> option. 

The tool also offers some helpful tips to reduce your carbon emissions. Using the tool each year will help you to track the impact of the different steps you are taking to reduce your carbon footprint. 

You can use the Practical Path to Net Zero Carbon to plan your action, and our Net Zero Carbon church webpage to get informed. Refer to our net-zero carbon webinar programme and see how Parish Buying can support you.