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Recognition
for this program:
U.S. EPA Energy Star Program, 2004
Congreation Award Winner St. Therese Catholic Church, Appleton (one of four
recipients nationwide, along with Madison Christian
Community)
National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Programs "Success
Stories" (one
of five named)
Offers your congregation a practical and thorough process
for taking positive steps to:
•Plot energy use
and cost for at least the past year;
• Improve energy efficiency
• Reduce expenses
• Increase comfort
• Make a strong stewardship witness
• Help reduce global warming
• Help save God's Creation !
in association with
•The Wisconsin
Interfaith Climate & Energy Campaign
• The Bradshaw-Knight Foundation
• Rapid Improvement Associates, LLC
• EnAct Environmental Action Teams
• Madison Environmental Group, Inc.
• Wisconsin Green Building Alliance
Total Stewardship
"Stewardship is everything you do once you've said 'yes' to
God." It's not just about money or giving. It includes every
choice you make - including how you will impact the world and its
resources.
As good stewards, we are responsible for our property as well as
our choices and actions. Religious facilities are as much a part
our ministries as people, religious services and programs.
Yet, in proportion to the amount of use, on average, religious buildings
waste more energy than any other kind of structure in America. Many
of our buildings were built long before we were concerned about global
warming, air pollution and resource depletion. Now we know better
and are building more efficient, greener, buildings. But many of
our congregational "homes" have not caught up.
We encourage congregations to join the Collaborative, not as a separate
program, but as part of their ongoing stewardship education and commitments.
In addition to increasing energy efficiency at your facility, the
Collaborative includes a component for small groups in each congregation
to examine their own family lifestyles and take positive actions
to model better stewardship.
Help for Doing the Right Thing . . .
What is It?
Using collaborative methods, you will receive expert guidance and coaching
as you make positive changes in your worship community's energy consumption
and reduce your congregation's ecological footprint throughout a nine-month
program of assistance and instruction.
The Method
•Each participating
congregation selects three interested members to represent them
in the Interfaith Energy Stewardship Collaborative.
• Starting in August, there will be some "pre-work" where baseline
information about the congregation and building(s) are gathered.
• Some will be able to gather real-time energy use data from their own
buildings to guide the best understanding and decisions.
• There will be three "joint work sessions" over the 9-month
period of the Collaborative. At these one-day sessions, participants will gather
at a central location, typically a congregation where interesting work is taking
place - to learn from experts and each other.
• The first joint work session is tentatively set for Sunday afternoon,
Oct. 10, with the second in January 2005 and the final in April.
• Between the joint work sessions, collaborative participants will be expected
- and get support in - trying out the improvement ideas that seem best suited
to their situation. They will share their lessons learned with each other.
The Benefits
As a participant in the Interfaith Energy Stewardship Collaborative, your congregation
will:
•Learn about the
best-proven energy efficiency practices from experts in the field.
• Learn from your peers about what is really working well in their situations,
and get support on adopting these lessons learned into your own setting.
• Conduct a valuable walk-through of your building so you have an up-to-date
understanding of what exactly are your specific opportunities.
• Get help in doing the no-cost or low-cost improvements first that can
help save a lot. And then can gain confidence in cost justification for larger
projects with bigger paybacks.
• Show how and support your members to reduce their own familys' ecological
footprints.
• Get information in how environmental stewardship fits into your ministry
and how it can help grow your leadership role in your community.
Cost:
The program fee for the 9-month collaborative will be as follows:
Up to 200 members - $200
200 to 500 members - $300
Over 500 members - $400
This includes all materials and support throughout. You will also be able to
rent at modest additional cost an energy monitoring system that can provide
real-time energy use feedback for natural gas, electricity or both. Scholarships
are available for very small groups or congregations with special needs. Tell
us how much you might need in order to participate.
We fully expect that that you can realize 10% savings on energy bills with
little or no investment and substantially more savings with higher levels of
investment. For many groups, a year of savings would cover the participation
fee. In addition to this fee, there will be modest personal costs for participants'
travel and meals. We suggest that these costs not come from current budgets,
but rather from capital improvement funds, memorial funds, church groups, or
gifts from individuals as an investment in the future.
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Registration Form
or No Obligation Advance Interest Form
Yes, we are interested in participating. Check One or more options:
_____ We are ready to become a participant. Register us now. Enclosed
is our $100 deposit which is refundable up to Aug. 1.
_____ We are interested but please tell us more.
_____ Tell us about scholarship availability.
_____ We aren't sure, but contact us and tell us more.
_____ We aren't interested in this cycle, but might be interested
in future offerings.
_____ No, we aren't interested, but we think a neighboring congregation
might:
Name of Congregation:
Telephone:
Contact Person:
Congregation Name ______________________________________________
Denomination ___________________________________________________
Address ________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Office Phone ____________________________________________________
Fax ____________________________E-Mail __________________________
Contact Person & Home Phone ______________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Note: Expressing interest with this form does not obligate your
congregation to participate at this time. It is an expression of
interest for our planning purposes. However, space is limited and
will be assigned at registration giving priority to those who register,
and then those who express interest in the order your interest form
is received. Checking the first option and including the deposit
will
register your congregation.
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HISTORY
Aim of the
Wisconsin Energy Stewardship Pilot Collaborative:
Primary #1 -- Run a pilot comprehensive collaborative
training and coaching program assisting religious communities
in Wisconsin to use best practices for improving their energy
efficiency in their buildings and among their members, saving
money and reducing their impact on the environment.
Primary #2 -- Teach religious communities an
effective process for making their stewardship of Creation and
faith commitments a visible and concrete witness in their local
community, and to learn to rapidly disseminate that witness,
as well as significantly reduce their congregation's share of
climate changing emissions.
Secondary --
To test the usefulness of the collaborative implementation model and the use
of SenseDat meters in guiding participants to accelerate energy efficiency
measures. To serve as an awareness building/marketing vehicle for spreading
need to implement these best practices among others -- in other words, "This
collaborative is making real improvements; everyone else can too!" We
would like to learn from this collaborative so it leads to a larger one next
time.
Sponsoring Partners: Interfaith Climate
and Energy Campaign of Wisconsin Interfaith IMPACT, Wisconsin
Green Building Alliance, Rapid
Improvement Associates, Informing
Ecological Design, and Wisconsin
Focus on Energy.
Supporters: Utilities & suppliers that join in per to be determined specifications.
Launch:
February 2003 with Prework to be completed by participants.
1st Joint Session -- Saturday, March 1, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
2nd Joint Session -- Saturday, June 21 (to be confirmed)
3rd Joint Session -- Saturday, Sept. 6 (to be confirmed)
Location for Joint Sessions: Some
centrally located facility, ideally one that is pioneering this work, such
as Community of Hope on Madison's west side.
Participants: We need/hope for a minimum of
6 participating organizations. We welcome many, including those who want
to listen in during the process, hopefully aiming to have them be participants
in later collaboratives. Cost is $500/participating organization, which
covers materials, meals and support. It does not cover travel or the
cost of a monitoring meter on their electrical panel; we will seek utility
support to cover these costs in this pilot.
Participant Pre-work: In the month of February,
each participating group must:
•Plot energy use
and cost for at least the past year;
• Outline use of their building during a typical week;
• Identify an internal team to support the two or three attending the collaborative
sessions. This team (hopefully including teenagers) will help test changes, provide
documentation and -- in this process -- build support within the organization.
• Complete an inventory of their facilities, including lighting, HVAC,
insulation and appliances;
• Send copy of recent electric bill so we can best set up meter.
• Seek participation of members within the congregation to do a similar
energy efficiency work-out in their homes or businesses over the 9 months as
the participating organization goes through the process for the congregation's
building.
Results of Pilot Collaborative [In PDF-312kb]
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Wisconsin Interfaith Climate & Energy Campaign