Catholic church goes green in one of the UK’s largest renewable energy deals

The deal with the Catholic Church’s energy procurement group, Inter-diocesan Fuel Management (IFM), covers 2 800 churches from 20 of the 22 Catholic dioceses in England and Wales, including landmarks such as Westminster, Nottingham and Plymouth Cathedrals.

The contract also covers more than 2 200 schools, care homes and community centres across the country.

One of the largest green gas consumers

The Catholic Church is now one of the largest single consumers in the UK of green gas certificates based on annual volume. The volume of green gas and electricity to be supplied by British Gas Business is equivalent to supplying the annual needs of more than 20 000 UK households. It will also remove 32 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e) of emissions annually.

We commend IFM and the Catholic church for their desire to take the lead on renewable energy adoption, and hope that others will follow. We’re seeing more and more organisations looking to switch to both renewable gas and electricity, particularly given the recent ‘net zero’ commitment made by the government. This contract demonstrates that it is becoming easier than ever to cut carbon emissions from our public and private sector buildings, said Gab Barbaro, Managing Director of British Gas Business.

Part of Centrica plc, a leading international energy services, and solutions provider, British Gas supplies renewable electricity to more than 9 000 businesses across the UK.

As well as offering large business renewable electricity and gas, the company also offers existing SME business customers a 100 percent renewable electricity tariff at no extra cost when they sign up to a new fixed-term contract.

The company recently become the largest supplier to gain an independent certification for their renewable electricity products from the Carbon Trust.