“Cool” Houses of Worship
Are you a member of a religious congregation seeking to practice good stewardship of creation? Is your congregation tightening its collective belt, and trying to reduce its energy bills? Here’s an answer.
STEM for This Old House of Worship is a program that teaches church members how to conduct their own comprehensive energy audits of all their buildings—much more comprehensive than what RISE can offer to churches for free. It’s a 15-hour, 5-session course taught by Wilson Educational Services in CT. It covers building envelope, heating and hot water, electrical systems, energy calculations and bill interpretation, among other topics. This effort is purely educational, and the company that teaches the course is not promoting any systems or products. It’s already been taught to well over 100 congregations in New England. Up to ten congregations can take part at a time, and each can send up to three people. The tuition is divided among the Participating congregations, so with ten congregations, it would cost $300 for each group. We have a commitment from National Grid’s “Energy Action: Aquidneck and Jamestown,” to cover 50% of the tuition, so that brings the cost down to just $150 each. A different congregation hosts each session, so the topic for that session uses that group’s buildings to study the topic.
The web site for Wilson is www.wilsoned.com, and the page for this program is www.wilsoned.com/Genesis.html. For a syllabus, a list of congregations that have taken the course, and congregational endorsements, email me at info@neighborhoodenergychallenge.org.