Greening Spirit

Rev. Ken Watts 3690 Brown Road West Bank, BC V4T 1Z1 250-768-5818

In January 2004, at our Congregational AGM, St. George's made a formal commitment in writing to engage in the ongoing education and activities in the following areas: Energy use reduction, best practices as related to environment, reduce, reuse and recycle,water issues, transportation and GHG's, building audits and retrofits, environmental worship and liturgies and activities celebrating Earth Day, Environment Day, Water Day, Feast of St. Francis, outdoor services, and Environmental Education Board in a prominent place in the parish hall, articles in the parish newsletter. In October of 2006 the parish committed to reduce energy consumption by 2% over the next three years. This was preceeded with an Advent study in 2003 with weekly bulleting inserts and questionnaires which helped identify our ecological footprint, a study of our resources, where and how best to use them and other educational material as it pertained to St. George's in particular. In 2005, the parish was able to receive a profession environmental building audit by ScanTech Engineering through a grant from the Provincial Environmental Task Force. Since then, we have been working on recommendations from the audit and have installed programmable thermostats, lowered the temperature on the hot water tank, insulated the windows for the winter season to prevent heat loss. Ceiling fans were already installed in the church. Exit lights now use LED lighting, interior lights are being replaced with compact flourescent bulbs, outdoor lights will all be motion sensor activated. There is also signage on all the doors about turning off lights, making sure temps are turned down and electricals turned off when not in use. The church and gardens are surrounded with large shade trees, and flower beds are planted with butterfly/bird friendly plants that require low moisture. Recycling is done as much as possible. Locally grown produce is used as much as possible for parish events, and staple items are bought in bulk when on sale. The dishwasher is used only for full loads. Some parishioners use waterless wash products for their vehicles, etc. as well as some Bitron products in their vehicles that drastically reduce the tailpipe emissions into the environment. For more information on this, contact Cathy Haig (250) 763-0469. Contingency funds are being set up for replacement of boilers, roof & electrical appliances when they need replacing.