Over the past two years, 27 congregations in the Diocese of Newark have enrolled in the Energy Services Program, an initiative designed to help faith-based and nonprofit groups reduce their energy use and costs while cutting their carbon footprint. “The program offers faith communities a range of resources to save money that can then be used to support their important work in the community,” said Anne Rahikainen, the Energy Services Program Director at GreenFaith.
Successes growing!
Congregations have a variety of opportunities to cut their energy use, and a number of congregations have stepped forward and shown strong leadership. Here are some brief success stories:
- Grace Church, Rutherford has upgraded its lighting and HVAC (heating and cooling) systems. Total cost of these upgrades was $103,000, of which 70% was funded through state grants secured through the Energy Services Program. Grace Church also signed up for a third-party energy supplier, which lowered their electricity rates and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Grace Church Van Vorst, Jersey City made significant improvements in building temperature control by installing and utilizing smart Wi-Fi thermostats that can be controlled remotely from a computer. The church also completed an in-depth energy audit of its buildings that provides a roadmap on how to lower energy usage through improvements in HVAC, lighting, and the building envelope. The cost of the audit is normally $7,000-$10,000. Through the Energy Services Program, Grace Van Vorst received the audit for free.
- St Mary’s, Belvidere substantially lowered its winter heating costs by converting its heating system from oil to natural gas and upgrading to more energy efficient lighting. Both projects were funded through rebates and incentives secured through the Energy Services Program.
- In addition to making improvements in its energy management practices, Grace Church, Nutley was among the first churches in the diocese to sign up for a third-party energy supplier, which generated substantial savings on its annual electricity costs. Again, GreenFaith identified the supplier.
Benchmarking – and room for improvement
As part of the Energy Services Program, each participating congregation provides its utility bill data for the past two years and has this data entered into an on-line energy tracking system called Portfolio Manager. Once the data has been entered, for only a few minutes of work each month the system enables congregations to track their savings, and to identify negative energy use trends before they cost thousands of dollars. The Portfolio Manager report also gives vestries and executive committees access to high-quality graphs and charts showing their savings.
Portfolio Manager ranks each facility on a scale of 1-100, comparing each church to other churches in the same climate zone. St Luke’s, Phillipsburg received an ENERGYSTAR score of 82 on EPA Portfolio Manager benchmarking, which is the highest score any church from the Diocese of Newark to date. The high score reflects very good energy management practices on behalf of St. Luke’s Energy Team members. Congratulations!
Convention workshop
At Diocesan Convention, deputies will have the opportunity to learn from representatives of many of these congregations – hearing first-hand what’s involved in saving energy, and how the Energy Services Program can help. Watch for the workshop listing in the Convention Program.
To learn more about the Energy Services Program, contact Anne Rahikainen at arahikainen@greenfaith.org.
