Having won the A Rocha Gold Eco Church Award in 2020, St Mary's Church in Beaminster was inspired by the Archbishop of Canterbury's request that all church buildings should aim to be carbon zero by 2030. So, during the height of the Covid Crisis, the team set about thinking about how to achieve this lofty goal!
It was a seemingly impossible task as preparations began in the first half of 2020. The act of bringing the Grade One listed medieval building to carbon zero status would require immense work and planning, so praying for God's help and wisdom was the first thing on the agenda.
After deliberation, it became apparent that Low Carbon Dorset (LCD) – a grant awarding department of Dorset Council for green initiatives – was the place to start.
St Mary's arranged a visit from LCD's Erik Blakely, who made a thorough assessments of the sort of changes the church could consider. Upgrades such as solar panels and air source heat pumps were at the forefront of his suggestions, along with encouragement to apply for a grant offered by the programme.
As the project continued to gather momentum in November that year, they began their Faculty Application, and started contacting local renewable energy installers to get their expert opinions.
Progressing into 2021, the church was busy gleaning the help and advice they could get. This included the many webinars on net zero, solar technology, and church heating ran on Zoom by the Church of England's Environment Program.
At this point, St Mary's decided that Air Source Heat Pumps could drastically reduce 60,000 kW of their annual gas heating and was the way to go.
After an energy audit, roof structural survey and acoustic survey, the information was passed on to the PCC for approval and selection of the installers to go ahead. All this happened whilst dealing with closures and restrictions due to Covid-19.
Encouraged by LCD grant for 40% of the project in May 2021, St Mary's pressed ahead with the project; to which Dorset Council granted planning permission the following October.
With a faculty finally being granted in June 2022 after a lengthy visit from the DAC and Archdeacon, the stage was set for renovations to begin and the church to take its next steps towards carbon zero.
All installations were completed in August 2022, and St Mary's are happily generating renewable power!