Greening Sacred Spaces is a practical program developed by Faith & the Common Good to assist faith communities in taking actions to create a more sustainable and energy efficient place of worship and to educate members of the community about ecological issues. It also provides an opportunity to save money, help save the planet, and engage in meaningful conversations about the spirituality of eco-sustainability.
Under the program, the United Church of Canada funds a Green Audit of the church in exchange for the church committing a minimum of $750.00 in retrofits recommended in the resulting audit report. As the St. Davids-Queenston United Church Board had already approved a number of infrastructure projects for 2012 that have an eco-sustainability component this became a no-cost item for our church.
This was a great opportunity for us to assess our day to day operations and whether there were ways to reduce our environmental footprint, improve our environmental sustainability and even lower our operating costs.
The resulting 34-page Green Audit Report is available here.
The following actions have been completed:
- Replaced old (1964) forced air furnace with high efficiency forced air gas furnace
- Replaced old (1964) electric hot water tank with vented gas hot water tank
- Replaced single-glazed windows in church basement, in the kitchen and on stage with double-glazed windows
- Replaced all exterior doors with steel doors
- Participating in the Save On Energy Program, all interior lighting has been replaced with energy efficient lights
- Installed two rain barrels to capture rainwater for watering plants in the cemetery. Two more to be added in 2014
- Implemented a Green Bin program to complement our Grey and Blue bins in the church kitchen
- Started a bring-it-back program for used batteries within the congregation. Batteries are then disposed of at a local recycling depot
- Replaced wax candle on the alter with a flameless LED candle