Climate Action
Cloudesley is a signatory of the Funder Commitment on Climate Change, which commits us to the following:
- Education and learning
- Committing resources
- Integrating climate into existing funding programmes, priorities and processes
- Stewarding our investments
- Decarbonising our operations
Below is a summary of our progress in 2022/23, as well as some current plans.
1. Education and learning
Staff and Trustees have attended a range of related webinars and events, including on the impact of climate change on health, helping churches reach net zero targets and how Trustees can respond to the climate crisis. Our Grants Managers have completed Carbon Literacy training. Our Finance Manager took part in a roundtable meeting on ethical investing and visited an Eco Show Home to learn about opportunities in relation to our investment properties.
For the Islington churches that we support, we ran a focused session on heating resilience plans and sustainable heating options, bringing them together to share their experiences and to hear from the Diocese of London’s Head of Environment and Sustainability. Our quarterly church newsletters have shared details of funding and resources to help with energy efficiency/ environmental projects.
2. Committing resources
Through our Church Grants programme 2020-25, Islington churches can apply for grants of up to £65,000 for sustainability and environmental works. Over the past five years, 25% of our Church Grants funding has been agreed for environmental church buildings projects, such as the installation of solar panels, LED lighting and insulation.
Since July 2023, we have been running a second Sustainable Church Buildings Project for churches in the Islington Deanery. Cloudesley’s Trustees have agreed an additional budget of £500,000 for the project, which will build on the successful programme we ran in 2017/18.
3. Integrating climate into existing funding programmes
Our 2020-25 Church Grants priorities include funding for major sustainability/environmental works and buildings projects, and for related professional fees and development work.
All our grant-making application and assessment processes are now online, with support available from the staff team as required.
4. Stewarding investments
We’ve asked our investment managers to report on sustainability issues whenever they attend our committee meetings and to prepare an updated analysis of the carbon footprint of the portfolio twice a year. In 2022, we updated our investment policy, including additional criteria about not investing in companies that needlessly emit excessive quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. Our 2023 tendering process for investment managers included specific questions about their approach to environmental issues.
The charity has c. £30mn invested in property, mainly residential. We’ve arranged for our property managers to report quarterly on green audit issues and to develop proposals for improved energy efficiency during the refurbishment of one of the charity’s properties.
5. Decarbonising operations
We continue to hold some committee and working group meetings online, with other meetings offered on a hybrid basis. Paper copies of reports for Board, committee and working group meetings are no longer produced. Our annual review is now an online-only document. Our flexible working offer means that most of the small staff team work remotely for the majority of their working week. We offer a cycle loan scheme. Catering at our events is vegetarian.
Cloudesley is a member of the Islington Sustainability Network and we’re keen to work with others in Islington and beyond.
As a signatory of the Funder Commitment on Climate Change, we’re required to report annually on our progress. You can find the latest FCCC report here. We will continue to update this webpage as we move forward, including through the addition of specific targets.
