St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's & the Environment

Care for the environment is a key Christian duty, expressed by the Church of England as the need to conserve the Earth’s complex and fragile ecology while recognizing the need for responsible and sustainable development and the pursuit of social justice. 

The Dean & Chapter of St Paul's are firmly committed to the protection of the environment in which we live and work and place great value on a responsible approach to sustainable environmental management, the value and principles of which are also considered to be sound business practice. Please find a list of action updates below. 
 
May 2011: Route 2050

Route 2050 is the Diocese of London's long-term plan to reduce the carbon footprint of its buildings and property by 20.12% by 2012, 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, relative to 2005 – its primary purpose to plan and manage reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for which the Church in the Diocese is responsible.

St Paul’s Cathedral is the cathedral church for the diocese of London and has its part to play in this project. The cathedral is therefore looking at opportunities to reduce its carbon footprint. These include investigating a replacement heating system for the cathedral and, in conjunction with the Corporation of the City of London, preparing to design a new low emission external lighting system. Rain water harvesting is also being considered.

2010: Chapter House enabling work
The Chapter House, the 'engine room' of St Paul's, is a detached building originally designed by Wren which needs full renovation to designs already approved by the City Corporation. 

Enabling work has already begun and includes the introduction of a ground source heat pump system to replace the building’s conventional boiler. Once funds are raised to carry out and complete the main works on the Chapter House, including much improved insulation and modern electrical circuits, this low emission heating system will be connected. 

March 2010: WWF's Earth Hour 2010
On 27 March 2010 at 8.30pm the external lights of St Paul's Cathedral will be switched off in support of WWF's Earth Hour. WWF's Earth Hour aims for a billion people around the world to switch off their lights for one hour - to show their support of climate change.

September 2009: Recycling initiatives
St Paul's is continually looking at ways to recuse, recycle and reduce. We have recently introduced a cardboard baler to further reduce our internal waste by recycling more effectively and to help reduce landfill.

13 February 2009: Turning the lights off in support of tackling climate change

On the 4th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol, St Paul’s turned its exterior lights off in support of tackling climate change, in collaboration with the Department for International Development.

2008: appointment of Harbour & Jones as in-house caterers

Harbour & Jones passion for sustainable local sourcing, environmental concerns and working within the community, were all factors that contributed to the success of their bid to develop the cafe and restaurant at St Paul's.

A sustainable approach to purchasing food, equipment and disposables is one of Harbour & Jones’ core values. Since their appointment at St Paul’s, Harbour & Jones has:

  1. Introduced using sugar pourers on our condiment stations rather than using sugar sachets in order to reduce the amount of packaging
  2. Ensured that all coffee, tea, sugar and chocolate is either Fairtrade or ethically sourced
  3. Is now recycling all of its food waste, this will be converted into fertilizer for arable crops and renewable green electricity for use by the national grid. 
Re-lighting scheme for the interior of the cathedral

A design for a new lighting scheme at St Paul's tackled the issue of sustainability through limiting energy consumption, reducing lamp replacement and improving the general management of the lighting systems. This has been achieved through the following:

  1. General reorganisation of the lighting system into a series of controllable 'layers'
  2. Specification of highly energy efficient state-of-the-art lighting technology
  3. Introduction of a sophisticated lighting control system 
2007: Environmental Review

In February 2007, the cathedral underwent an environmental review, carried out by students at the Imperial College London Centre for Environmental Policy. The review highlighted some key areas where the cathedral could work to improve its carbon footprint, including waste management, energy use, travel, communications, contractors and IT. In response to the audit, the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral agreed and adopted an environmental policy in order to tackle these key areas.

2005-2006:St Paul's Institute

In 2005 and 2006 the St Paul's Institute's annual programmes focused on global poverty, climate change and globalisation, with speakers including Gordon Brown, Jeffrey Sachs, Rowan Williams, Kofi Annan, Shirley Williams and David Attenborough. The two series, 'Costing the Earth: The Quest for Sustainability' and 'Global Poverty: A Challenge to the G8' were both hugely successful in their outreach and highlighted some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

The Church of England: Shrinking the Footprint

Shrinking the Footprint is the Church of England's national environmental campaign to aimed at resourcing the Church's 44 dioceses (including the Diocese in Europe) and 16,000 churches to reduce their footprint. The Church is committed to a carbon reduction target of 80% by 2050 (in line with Government commitments), with an interim target of 42% by 2020.

The Green Room

The cathedral's bimonthly staff newsletter, Whispering Gallery, includes a column called 'The Green Room' in every edition. 'The Green Room' provides tips and advice for St Paul's staff about what we could be doing as individuals to help reduce our carbon footprint. .