The UK is committed to reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, and this will require all sectors of society to rapidly decarbonise, including faith institutions. The Catholic Church in the UK sits within the national political context, and must operate within local policy opportunities and constraints; however, the challenges of decarbonising a diocese compared with other sectors of society are unique and need special attention.
Catholic dioceses are often asset-rich but cash poor in the extreme compared with private and public sector organisations of equivalent size. They must comply with both the law of the land and canon law – for example, while making financial decisions about decarbonisation initiatives, diocesan leaders are obligated to preserve the subsidiarity of their parishes. Moreover, the decarbonisation plans must consider buildings that are architecturally and operationally distinctive, namely churches. Finally, the change-makers must win the support and encourage the participation of congregations as diverse as the society they are nested within, which include parishioners passionately engaged in care for our common home, as well as those who may still question the veracity of the ecological crisis.
The idiosyncratic challenges presented by diocesan decarbonisation spurred the development of the Guardians of Creation Project. The project’s goal is to support the Church in forging the path towards ecological sustainability by responding to Pope Francis’s call to develop policies to drastically reduce the global emission of carbon dioxide.[i]
In an article published in the Pastoral Review in 2021, Edward de Quay discussed extensively the history, context, and initial stages of the project.[ii] Here, we would like to outline the journey the Guardians of Creation Project has taken since.
Support from the Bishop’s Conference
Although not a project of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales, the Guardians of Creation Project, from its beginnings, has worked closely with the Conference, and it has been formally and explicitly endorsed by the Bishops’ plenaries from 2022 onwards. The Bishops’ Conference plenary has commended “the practical work that is being undertaken through the Guardians of Creation project, which provides practical guidance and resources to support transition in dioceses and parishes, and through Cafod’s Live Simply programme.”[iii]
The Conference has asked dioceses throughout England and Wales to disclose their carbon emissions, as well as their decarbonisation targets. The Guardians of Creation Project has been instrumental in bringing this about, and our resources have been recommended in plenary resolutions. Before the project, asking dioceses to report on their carbon emissions might have been unreasonable, as we did not have a practical understanding of how to do it. Dioceses in England and Wales are not obliged to engage with the project’s outputs, of course, but the fact that our resources are available guarantees that some degree of decarbonisation is at least possible for those that chose to. With a method for doing so, it is now reasonable to ask all dioceses to develop carbon-reduction targets and to disclose their emissions.
Although the processes and prescriptions of the approach that the Guardians of Creation Project has developed will not solve all of the dioceses’ problems, they do at least beat a path through the Catholic-specific considerations that have made decarbonising the Church such a distinctive challenge.
Decarbonising built environment
In consultation with experts in decarbonisation and faith-based organisations, the Guardians of Creation Project has proposed a model for developing a diocesan decarbonisation strategy, with a specific focus on the diocesan built environment. We also offer guidance on accounting for carbon emissions, including a comprehensive step-by-step process that can be followed by any diocese.[iv]
Although decarbonising churches presents the biggest challenge, luckily these building types constitute a relatively small part of dioceses’ carbon dioxide emissions. It is presbyteries, offices and schools that should be prioritised, and for two reasons: firstly, they are used more intensively; secondly, reducing the carbon footprint in the cases of these buildings is better understood. Professionals with experience in retrofitting will be able to offer advice on effective ways to decarbonise both domestic and non-domestic properties found in the dioceses. The strategy to focus on presbyteries, offices, and schools will help to reduce both the costs and the long-term carbon footprint.
[Figure 2. Strategic framework for decarbonising diocesan building stocks. Adapted from: The Guardians of Creation Project (2024). Guidance on Developing Strategy for Decarbonising Catholic Diocesan Building Stocks.]
The Diocese of Salford leads by example in this area. In the diocese, there are 548 parish buildings, which, in addition to other building types, include 171 churches, 157 presbyteries, and 85 parish halls. There are also around 200 schools with numerous properties of their own. Approximately 360 building audits have been completed, which included determining the levels of energy consumption, use patterns, and the building fabric. The audit resulted in hundreds of potential projects, addressing the specific areas for improvement in the parishes. In parallel to the work carried out by parishes, several Catholic schools in the diocese has completed an initial decarbonisation survey, and are now developing detailed heat decarbonisation plans. Most schools have had solar PV arrays installed, generating green energy and contributing to the powering of their buildings.
Gauging and transforming attitudes
Pope Francis noted how environmental education, while undoubtedly belonging in schools, can also take place in other settings.[v] Taking up this insight, the Guardians of Creation Project has set out to find out about the enablers of, and the barriers to increased ecological sensitivity among both children in Catholic schools and adult parishioners. The good news was that, in both contexts, we found a lot of pro-environmental beliefs already circulating; the bad news was that this ecological potential was often misaligned when interacting with the institutions of the Church. For example, some parishioners were channelling their pro-environmental energy outside of the Church, while others remained inactive, expecting diocesan leaders to step in. Furthermore, when it came to ecology, parish priests were not seen as an important source of influence – the positive impact of priests was ranked lower than those of celebrities and work colleagues, and higher only than advertisements.[vi]
Importantly, the Guardians of Creation Project’s work with schools demonstrates that targeted educational interventions can reverse worrying trends.[vii] Our resources for use in classrooms, inspired by Laudato Si’ and Catholic Social Teaching, helped students to feel more confident in their knowledge of, and their ability to engage with climate change.[viii] Importantly, following the inclusion of Laudato Si’ in the new Religious Education Directory for England and Wales, [ix] our teaching materials can directly support RE classes on creation and ecological stewardship.
The sense of self-efficacy among young people is inseparable from the context in which they find themselves; thus, to further support students’ sense of ecological empowerment, we advise schools to develop a holistic approach to sustainability, based on a cyclical process of whole-school understanding and transformation.[x] It is worth noting that our Caring for Creation model, employing the imagery of “planting seeds” and “bearing fruit,” echoes the language of the recent framework for creating flourishing schools issued jointly by Catholic, Anglican and secular educational organisations.[xi]
[Figure 3. The “Caring for Creation” model. Adapted from: The Guardians of Creation Project (2022). Developing Whole-School Approaches to Sustainability in Catholic Education.]
Working with people on the ground
In the course of our research, we regularly encountered diocesan staff already balancing multiple roles; decarbonisation efforts can compound this reality – most dioceses are not in a position to hire an extra colleague with expertise in ecology.
To support diocesan staff, and to make sure that there was someone in every diocese with a responsibility to promote care for creation, a “’Diocesan Environmental Leads” network was established. This forum, which meets almost every month, is attended mostly by volunteers and staff members for whom the environment is only one aspect of their job. The network has proven invaluable for forming partnerships, sharing progress, and bringing updates on the Guardians of Creation Project to all dioceses, ensuring that they are consulted as our work develops. With that in mind, we also get involved in other parishioner-led efforts, including the Northern and Southern Diocese Environment forums (the Northern group was meeting long before we started), as well as networks of Laudato Si’ Animators. It has always been important to us that our work meets the needs of the intended end users: the change-makers on both parish and diocesan levels.
To inform our research through learning from the experience and expertise of others, to extend our reach, and to make our resources available to different audiences, we also work closely with other like-minded people and organisations, both nationally and internationally. As members of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform’s diocesan working group, we have a regular opportunity to share our research with a global audience. We have collaborated with the Ecological Conversation Group on our report on parishioners’ attitudes and behavioural change. We have partnered with the Churchmarketplace – a major supplier of energy for Catholic-owned buildings; and we have strived to understand the concerns of diocesan finance directors and building managers.
Looking to the future
We understand that around half of the Catholic dioceses in England and Wales are now using our reports to inform their work. What happens after the reports leave our hands is down to the dioceses so, of course, we do not take credit for the work they have done since, but we are certainly pleased to see the amount of activity in evidence throughout the project.
We have been particularly pleased at how the Bishops’ Conference have supported the promotion of our work through plenary resolutions. We were also delighted to receive an invitation from the British Embassy to the Holy See to present our work in Rome. In addition to discussing the Guardians of Creation Project on Vatican News, we had a chance to showcase our research and resources in meetings with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and Caritas Internationalis.
As we look to the future, we hope that the project will develop in several ways. We intend to deepen our work nationally, addressing more facets of the Catholic response to the ecological crisis, and in greater detail. We would like this to include more work with religious orders and more work on questions related to how the Church manages its land.
We also hope to expand our collaboration with partners internationally. Through our webinars and participation with the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, we have been able to reach a wide international audience, and there is some evidence that Catholics from dioceses all over the world are reading and have begun to engage with our resources and approach. Although our guidance has been developed primarily with the UK context in mind, we believe that Catholic dioceses all over the Global North share many of the idiosyncrasies that make decarbonising dioceses in England and Wales so challenging – consequently, we are certain that our international colleagues across the Global North will find in our resources at least some suggestions that they could pilot in their dioceses.
The school strand of our work is shaping up to become truly international. We are currently in conversations with charities and religious orders who work in schools outside of the UK, and who declared an interest in disseminating our classroom resources in North America, Europe, East Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Undoubtedly, it is through dialogue and collaboration, both locally and globally, that the Church’s move away from a reliance on fossil fuels and towards ecological sustainability can be accelerated; and it is by actively taking part in this process that countries from the Global North can begin to repay the “ecological debt” to people of the Global South.[xii]
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This article was first published in Pastoral Review, vol. 21, issue 3, July/August/September 2025 and is republished here with kind permission
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Footnotes
For more information and to access The Guardians of Creation Project’s resources visit our website or email gocp@stmarys.ac.uk
[i] Francis, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. London: Catholic Truth Society
[ii] Edward de Quay, “Guardians of Creation.” Pastoral Review, Vol 17 Issue 4, October/November/December 2021, pp. 21-25
[iii] Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (2023). “Plenary Resolutions: Environment, St Winefried, Eucharistic Congress and Conflict in Gaza.” Available online: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/short-plenary-resolutions-autumn-2023/
[iv] The Guardians of Creation Project (2024). Guidance on Developing Strategy for Decarbonising Catholic Diocesan Buildings Stocks; The Guardians of Creation Project (2023). Guidance on Catholic Diocesan Carbon Accounting. Both reports are available online: https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/research/areas/theology-and-ethics/guardians-of-creation-project/about.aspx
[v] Francis, Laudato Si’, §213
[vi] The Guardians of Creation Project (2023). Understanding Catholic Parishioners’ Responses to the Ecological Crisis. Available online: https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/research/areas/theology-and-ethics/guardians-of-creation-project/about.aspx
[vii] We would like to thank Ruth-Anne Walbank for her invaluable work on the first stage of the Guardians of Creation Project’s school strand.
[viii] The Guardians of Creation Project (2022). Educating and Empowering Laudato Si’ Champions in Catholic Education. Available online: https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/research/areas/theology-and-ethics/guardians-of-creation-project/laudato-si-champions.aspx
[ix] Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (2023). To Know You More Clearly: The Religious Education Directory for Catholic Schools, Academies and Colleges in England and Wales. Available online: https://catholiceducation.org.uk/schools/religious-education/item/1000034-religious-education-curriculum-directory
[x] The Guardians of Creation Project (2022). Developing Whole-School Approaches to Sustainability in Catholic Education. Available online: https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/research/areas/theology-and-ethics/guardians-of-creation-project/laudato-si-champions.aspx
[xi] CST, CES, NSE (2024). Flourishing Together: A Collective Vision for the Education System. Available online: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2024-11/flourishing-together-a-collective-vision-for-the-education-system.pdf
[xii] Francis, Laudato Si’, §51
