During the celebration of Pentecost 2012, the three churches NEK, PEK and ELLM merged to one church, the North Church. The church now includes the areas Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern making it one of the largest Evangelical-Lutheran churches in Germany. Following the CO2 reduction targets of the Evangelical Church of Germany, the North Church plans to cut emissions by 25% by 2015 (as compared to 2005). The North Church is a pioneer in this area, with the additional goal to reach CO2 neutrality by the year 2050.
Within the project the three areas are examined: real estate, procurement and transport. Already the real estate includes more than 8,000 buildings.
In addition to a detailed inventory of energy consumption and CO2 emissions a business as usual scenario was developed. This shows how the CO2 emissions of the church would develop by 2050 if no additional measures related to climate change were carried out. Subsequently it will be shown how the church can reach the goal of CO2 neutrality. Relative measures will be developed together with the different actors of the church in a total of five workshops.