The Protestant Church of Westphalia assigned the Wuppertal Institute and the E&U Energy Agency Bielefeld to develop a comprehensive action program for climate protection in the church communities. This project was supported by the National Climate Initiative (NKI). The Church strives to reduce its CO2 emissions by at least 40 % compared to 1990 until 2020. The following sectors of the Protestant Church of Westphalia were analysed:

• Purchase,
• Transportation,
• Land use (forestry and agriculture),
• buildings and properties.

The biggest savings are in energy consumtion for heating and warm water and also in transportation. Further savings are in energy efficiency office and kitchen equipment, modified land use (eco-farming and sustainable forestry) and renewable energy production. Based on this analysis specific recommandations for climate protection actions were developed to reduce the emissions in this sectors. The reduction of the GHG emissions is associated with high economic savings for the church communities because of a reduced consumption of electricity.