Germany's Green Rooster: About 1,000 Congregations Audit Their Heating, Power, Water and Waste

The Grüner Gockel (called Grüner Hahn in northern Germany) is an environmental management certificate for church congregations and church or diaconal institutions, based on the EU's EMAS III regulation. It was introduced in 2000 in the Evangelical Church in Württemberg and is now supported by the ecumenical KirUm network, which trains auditors and reviewers. The Württemberg church says around 1,000 congregations and church institutions across Germany work with the system. In Bavaria every Protestant congregation has had to record heat, electricity, water, paper and waste data in the free Green Data Account since 2018, and the programme was relaunched in 2025 as a simpler five-stage concept. Regional church offices still run training in 2026, including a Westphalian Grüner Hahn course starting 5 May 2026.