The Church of Christ, Union


 
BEREA - Union Church was nationally recognized by Interfaith Power & Light as a 10% Challenge Certificate Recipient for their commitment to redicing their impact on God's creation. "These congregational activities demonstrate that people of faith are united by concern about climate change. They are also providing the antidote to the gridlock in the U.S. Senate, where a climate bill is languishing," said Susan Stephenson, executive director of Interfaith Power & Light. Here is the detailed plan as submitted by Union Church:

Brief description of the Union Church Response to the 10% Challenge

I. What we have done already.

Part of our response has been to think more carefully about what we have done over the last two years. This section of our response provides a summary.

Starting September, 2008, several Union Church groups have worked at learning about energy efficiency (EE) and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) problems and possibilities at Union Church. We have gathered ideas and analysis from a number of organizations and individuals outside the church. As a result of all this, we have (a) formulated and completed a few ?low hanging fruit? action plans and (b) formulated some incomplete perceptions of problems/issues/possibilities as well as some thoughts about ?next step? and ?longer term? strategy.

Action plans completed to date:
  • Studied the HVAC systems at Union Church
  • In September, 2008, we became a client of new program of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) called Energy Efficiency Enterprises (EEE). This involved a great deal of interaction between Union Church people and Joshua Bills, MACED's certified energy manager assigned to our EEE project. After many site visits, conversations, and much data gathering, Mr. Bills completed an energy audit and generated two reports that have been very helpful: "Utility Billing Analysis" based on the twelve months of natural gas and electric bills from October 2007 through September 2008 and "EEE Assessment Report: Energy Saving Opportunities."
  • 10/7/09 Malfunctioning heat reset switch (or boiler reset controller) and pressure relief valve were replaced. The Heat reset switch controls the temperature at which the boiler maintains its water in response to the outside temperature (the water which is then circulated through the hydronic system to heat the education wing and the sanctuary/community-room).
  • 12/16/09 Completed lighting upgrade to the office area, hallway outside office, community room, and kitchen. Upgrade consisted of replacing T-12 lamps with T-8 and magnetic ballasts with electronic. Due to the superior light quality of the new lamp-ballast combinations, most fixtures have two lamps replacing four despite the fact that the new T-8 lamps have lower wattage than the old T-12s.
    The upgrade also involved replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs and, in the case of exit light, incandescents with LEDs.
  • 1/20/10 Installed a programmable thermostat for the Cowan Chapel heat pump
  • 5/1/10 Completed installation of the new Cowan Chapel HVAC system replacing a 27 year old heat pump with a dual fuel system (95% efficient 120,000 Btu/hr gas furnace and SEER 16.5, HSPF 9 heat pump).
  • To have a basis for monitoring change, we have compiled monthly electricity usage (kwh), electric peak load (kw), and natural gas usage (100 cubic feet) from January 2007 to current time and plan to update the file each month. This information can be used to generate reports (e.g., graphs and interpretive comments) to be shared with the congregation through the monthly newsletter and/or board meetings. It is possible that energy use has already been reduced by 10%.


II. Some of what we plan to do over the next three years

We are just launching a $625,000 capital campaign that is coordinated with developing renovation plans with help from, among others, a LEED certified architect and several consulting engineers. On August 3, 2010, the congregational leadership group (the Church Council) agreed to pursue the 10% challenge as a mission component of capital campaign/building renovation planning. While it is too early at this point to know what building shell and HVAC improvements will result, some promising possibilities in relation to carbon footprint have been identified as high priorities:
  • replacing single pane, loose fitting windows with energy efficient models
  • replacing a highly inefficient and leaky hydronic HVAC system that account for nearly half of the buildings energy use with a much more efficient variable refrigerant flow system
  • replacing an old cast iron gas boiler with a smaller, more efficient model
  • adding insulation, particularly where it is lacking altogether (e.g., in concrete block exterior walls of our education/office wing)
  • completing the lighting upgrade throughout the building
  • installing a low-level direct digital automated control system for sanctuary and community room.
We plan to give these possibilities further careful consideration as the capital campaign/renovation effort unfolds over the next three years.

We also plan several responses to the 10% challenge not driven by the capital campaign and building renovation:
  • reconvene our Sustainability Work Team, formed in 2008 to consider where we go from here
  • consider the extent to which our monitoring of sustainability indicators should expand beyond energy to a more complete view of carbon footprint
  • learn about the Unitarian Green Sanctuary certification program and decide whether to pursue it for Union Church
  • challenge our congregation to commit to reducing their own personal carbon footprints by 10% in 10 months with a 10% response goal - a Union Church 10/10/10
  • consider adopting and promoting a list of "creation-care decision screens" for everyone to use in making home and church decisions.