When the Dorot programme was launched in 2022 we committed to measuring and reducing our Synagogues’ and Head Office’s energy consumption as part of a wider plan to reduce the US’s burning of fossil fuels and carbon emissions.
We had already completed phase I and phase II of the government’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) audit on 9 sample synagogues and our Head Office in 2020.
Our energy consumption was benchmarked against the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) for places of religious worship and cemeteries. The findings were:
- The heating fuel usage for the majority of the properties in the sample fell within or below the CIBSE benchmark for heating fuel energy consumption in places of worship.
- Electricity use across the US portfolio was significantly higher than the benchmark with almost three quarters of shuls having kWh/m² consumption results greater than 20 kWh/m², up to sixteen times higher than the CIBSE benchmark figure.
- The audit identified energy efficiency measures to achieve annual energy savings for both gas and electricity usage.
- The ESOS audit concluded that alternative energy and heat sources such as solar panels or ground source heat pumps were generally found to be impractical for the United Synagogue buildings estate, which consists of dozens of synagogues and other buildings of different ages, scale, materials and usage patterns. Simple, often low-cost measures were deemed faster, cheaper and more sustainable.