Footsteps members joined the Faith Covenant Greener Birmingham Workshop at Birmingham Council House on 25th January. Birmingham City Council (BCC) have identified the Climate Emergency as on of five ‘grand challenges for the city. The aim of this workshop was to identify how this ‘grand challenge’ will be incorporated into the Birmingham Faith Covenant Partnership’s (BFCP) work programme.
The workshop was led by David Evans from the Council Net Zero team and Surinder Jassi, Cohesion and Equality Manager. About 20 people attended, including those with a climate interest who might not normally attend the Faith Covenant meetings. A general introduction by David Evans was followed by Phil Beardmore speaking about energy saving in faith buildings – including Footsteps’ faith building energy assessments. Footsteps will be holding a ‘lessons learned’ workshop on our faith building energy assessment in May – watch this space for more details.
Phil highlighted Sutton Coldfield Quaker Meeting House as an example of best practice in making faith buildings more sustainable. He noted that following one of our energy assessments, the Meeting had taken a ‘fabric first’ approach to improving insulation, followed by installing an air source heat pump based heating system. The workshop was reported on in The Friend, a national Quaker publication, and on the Central England Quakers website.
The Birmingham Faith Covenant Partnership is chaired by Cllr Nicky Brennan and is part of Birmingham City Council’s ‘commitment to work with the faith communities to serve the people of Birmingham, particularly the most vulnerable members’. The Covenant was renewed in 2022 to also include the NHS, Police, BVSC and other third sector groups. Footsteps is a member of the Partnership and has been working to ensure that responding to climate change is firmly on the Partnership’s agenda.