Next Earthing Faith gathering: 7-9pm, Thursday 14th June 2012 (in Reading) – Focus on church projects and buildings: http://t.co/YZ1FdGwe
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Switch your church to green electricity
Energy can be the most significant spend for churches therefore good pricing is important as is good contract management to ensure tariffs remain competitive and parishes are not "rolled over" into uncompetitive contracts.
Switching supliers not only can save you money it can also be complicated - so below we provide details of negotiated deals that make switching easy and include the best deals for churches on green renewable electricity suppliers.
The Diocese of Oxford schemes
The Dicoese of Oxford, which hosts the Earthing Faith website, has negotiated schemes with two of the UK’s leading green energy providers. With each new sign-up a donation is also made to the Church of England’s Climate Justice Fund*.
- Good Energy: For every new customer referred by us Good Energy will make a donation of £25 to the Church of England’s Climate Justice Fund – and they’ll also give you £25 off your first bill. Good Energy is the UK’s only dedicated 100% renewable electricity supplier. Its energy is sourced from a community of over 1500 small-scale generators.
To enquire call Good Energy on 0845 456 1640 and quote GE611, or visit www.goodenergy.co.uk/affiliates/dioceseofoxford
- Ecotricity: Churches will benefit from a discounted tariff, and for every new customer Ecotricity will make a donation to the Climate Justice Fund (£60 for every church and £40 for every new domestic customer) – or alternatively new customers can opt for a free energy monitor to help them cut their electricity usage. Ecotricityoffers two tariffs:
- New Energy Tariff – 41% green electricity from Ecotricity’s own windmills, which is topped up with brown electricity. This tariff price matches the ‘Big Six’ energy companies standard brown electricity for domestic customers.
- New Energy Plus Tariff – 100% green tariff (green electricity Ecotricity produce is topped up with green electricity produced by others), which has a small premium, around £20 more per household per year.
To enquire call Ecotricity on 08000 302 302 or visit www.ecotricity.co.uk and quote OXF01 (domestic customers) or OXF02 (church and church hall customers).
Parish Buying website schemes
The national Church of England has created the Parish Buying website to provide churches access to negotiated schemes with two of the UK’s leading green energy providers, as well as 'brown' energy providers.
Parish Buying have appointed the two leading national green energy suppliers, Good Energy and Ecotricity, to provide green electricity to churches. By purchasing green electricity through Parish Buying your church will be eligible for discounts off the standard tariffs.
Find out more and register for free at: www.parishbuying.org.uk/categories/energy.html
Note on rate of VAT
Irrespective of which company supplies your energy, as a church undertaking charitable activities, you should be eligible for exemption from the Climate Change Levy and also benefit from a reduced rate of VAT (currently 5%) . Do check your bills to ensure this is the case, and if not request a VAT declaration certificate from your energy supplier for you to complete and return to them.
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* The Climate Justice Fund is the Church of England’s national environmental fund working in partnership with Tearfund. The Climate Justice Fund gives you and your church the opportunity to compensate for the size of your carbon footprint. The website also provides campaigning actions, and resources to help you pray and talk about this issue with others. www.climatejusticefund.org