Durham Cathedral is pleased to announce that it has been awarded Silver in the Eco Church Awards, an achievement which celebrates the cathedral’s ongoing dedication to environmental sustainability.
The Eco Church Awards - Bronze, Silver and Gold - provide a framework for helping churches link environmental issues and their Christian faith and respond in practical action, on the journey to net zero.
Echo Church is a scheme run by A Rocha UK equipping churches to care for God's creation through their worship, buildings, land, community engagement, and individual lifestyles.
Over the past few years, the Durham Cathedral team have worked hard to make meaningful, and long-term changes - from replacing halogen lighting with energy-efficient LEDs, to improving heating controls through the Building Management System. They have carried out window repairs, draught proofing, and secondary glazing across the College properties too. These projects combined, have made a real difference in reducing energy use and improving comfort across the Cathedral's historic buildings.
Mick Corkhill, Head of Facilities, has been leading the cathedral's achievement to improve environmental sustainability and its role as a leader in eco-conscious church and world heritage site.
From the report submitted, the panel highlighted several initiatives which impressed them:
- Excellent governance and leadership to ensure sustainability is central to all decision-making
- A detailed Energy Audit in 2020 providing baseline measurements and leading to a thorough plan
- A strong commitment and financial investment to achieve carbon-cutting measures (e.g. window restoration, lighting updates) and on-going plans (e.g. solar panels)
- A Biodiversity understanding among key staff to monitor and enhance the cathedral land
- A clear approach to procurement including seeking to source local and regional supplies for the restaurant
Looking ahead, the Silver Award provides a strong foundation to build on, as the Cathedral aims to keep progressing towards the Eco Church Gold Award, which will mean going even further - not just in reducing the environmental footprint, but in showing real leadership on sustainability within the heritage and faith sectors.
This Silver Award reflects not only the Cathedral's achievements to date but also a continued dedication to caring for God’s creation - a core part of the mission, values, and witness of the Cathedral community.
