South Gloucester United Church; A Green Audit Update from Cara Prest
What a difference a year makes!
In the spring of 2022, our 140 years-young church building had the benefit of being assessed by the talented Stephen as part of the Green Sacred Spaces delivery of the virtual green audit program for the United Church of Canada.
We were very blessed to be one of six faith communities in the region to be selected for this free offering, valued at nearly $1000. With expertise in heritage faith community buildings, his insights and understanding of these types of buildings were invaluable.
His friendly and easy to understand approach was so appreciated and left us with a page of recommendations. With sixteen observations including 13 actionable items, the suggested changes ranged from do-it-yourself fixes to more substantive updates such as replacing appliances and increasing insulation. After receiving his report, and recovering from the De Recho, a small but mighty crew of SGUCers started tackling the recommendations and exploring our options. These have been guiding our greening initiatives which include changing lightbulbs and installing a new hot water heater.
For the former, we qualified for the Small Business Save on Energy Program which covered the cost of our fellowship hall while the sanctuary LED bulbs were funded by the congregation. We have replaced our 19 year-old hot water heater with a new energy star model. Our new toilet uses 20 per cent less than the very very very old one. By having the green audit completed, we were able to apply for (and secure ) additional funding: 50% matching for qualified expenses from the United Church. A win-win-win for the environment, SGUC and our budget.
Our wee red-brick country church owes a debt of gratitude to Green Sacred Spaces Ottawa, Charlie in particular. It is with their support and guidance that we’ve been able to access expertise such as the virtual green audit, and the energy benchmarking program before it. They have helped us along the way, suggesting sources of funding and contractors.
This is not all for South Gloucester United Church; we are still aiming to check more items off the recommendations list.
Who knows what we’ll have accomplished in another year!
