Greening Spirit

Rev. Ken Watts 3690 Brown Road Westbank, BC V4T 1Z1 (250) 768-5818

As part of an Advent study in 2004, the parish of St. George's did work around bulletin insert questions on such things as: Ecological Footprint Questionnaire; Reduce, Reuse & Recycle; Transportation and GHG; Water - source of fresh water for community and sewage treatment - use of fresh water resources; Environmental review of building and green space. At the AGM in January of 2005 the parish passed a motion stating: "Our congregation, St. George's, Westbank, recognizes the need to promote awareness of and care for Cod's creation. To meet this need, we are making a formal commitment to become involved in a five year environmental stewardship program to reduce our ecological footprint on the environment. We will strive to work with other Dioceses, Earth Ministry, KAIROS and other groups with similar initiatives to acheive "Green Parish Accreditation"." Since then, the parish received a formal environmental audit from ScanTech Engineering through the generosity of a grant from the Provincial Environmental Task Force. We have been working on the recommendations from that audit and have installed programmable thermostats, reduced the temperature of our hot water tank, used window insulation during the winters to reduce heat loss, and are still in the process of replacing lights inside with compact flourescents, LED's in exit signs, and outside with motion sensor lights; we already had ceiling fans installed prior to the audit. We have a complete recycling program, and reuse as much as possible. Our grounds outside are bordered by a row of large trees with the grass being cut with an electric mower, and flower/butterfly/bird gardens along two sides of the church. We have environmental Sundays complete with liturgies for Earth Day, Environment Day, World Water Day, Feast of St. Francis and Blessing of the Animals which will be held in 2007 for the first time. We hold church services outdoors as well as other events. We have an Environmental information board in a prominent location in the parish hall to post educational material and advertise events and initiatives. When possible we also include artilces on the Environment and Green Congregations in our parish newsletters. Some members of the congregation use such items as a waterless wash to clean their cars in addition to Bitron products in their vehicles which greatly reduce the tailpipe emissions to the environment. For information on these products, contact Cathy Haig (250) 763-0469. The congregation also is involved with the Husky/Mohawk Oil community rebate program to assist in raising funds to carry out environmental upgrades in addition to Christian Education programming. We have set a goal of reducing our energy consumption by 2% over the next three years.