Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! Thanks to Bill Cutler for pointing me to Wave One, a Palo Alto organization that helps businesses and churches go through the Green Business certification process.

LED lighting

Although it's still quite expensive for high lumen output, I think LED lighting will be increasing important - about 1/2 the power requirements of CFLs and much longer life (at least from what I've read so far.)

Pharox is one that I've heard about. Any other thoughts?

Green Business Application for Grace

One of my goals between now and May 31st is to submit an application for Grace to become a certified Green Business through Santa Clara County; this is something that I started working on last year but didn't finish. If anyone has input on this idea, let me know.

Charlie

CIPL meeting on Solar Power on Thursday, April 23rd 2009

I am planning to attend the California Interfaith Power and Light Solar Stewardship Info Night at 7 pm on Thursday, April 23rd at Beth El Temple in Berkeley. I am hoping to gather information on solar power and whether it would be a good choice for Grace.

Charlie

UPDATE 4-26-09:

Meeting Report

I attended the California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL) meeting on solar power for congregations on Thursday, April 23^rd at Beth El temple in Berkeley. CIPL president Sally Bingham opened with some remarks on the history and mission of CIPL, and Jennifer Toth, the Northern CA outreach director of CIPL, introduced three speakers.

Alexander Cotton, the outreach manager of CA Youth Energy Services (CYES), part of Rising Sun Energy Center in Berkeley, described a program to train 15-22 year olds to perform free green house calls in Marin, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties in which the young people educate residents about energy efficiency and install energy efficiency measures in the home. The program is funded through a contract with CA utilities, but needs advertising through word of mouth to expand.

Clark Bisel from St. Stephen’s church in Orinda described strategies for congregations to secure financing for solar power installations, including a Parishoner Ownership Group that owns the solar installation and sells power to the church, solar endownments, and soliciting tax-advantaged donations. CIPL has a solar financing guide and is working with One California Bank to develop a low-interest solar fund.

Finally, Michelle McGeoy, director of Solar Richmond, described their program that trains people to install solar panels on low-income homes. They work throughout the Bay Area and installed a 25 kW system at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Solar Richmond performs free analyses of solar capacity, cost estimates, and ecological impacts for congregations. They also evaluate bids from solar vendors and perform installations. In addition, they can perform eco-analyses of congregants’ houses, increasing their capacity to interact with solar vendors. The meeting was very encouraging, and I think it would be great to have someone from Solar Richmond come to Grace to do an analysis of the feasibility of installing a solar system.

Welcome!

Welcome to the online forum for discussing Environmental Stewardship at Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto, CA. This forum is designed to present ideas about how Grace can, as a congregation and as individuals, become even better stewards of the Earth that God has given to us. A note about posting: each new topic or event should get its own post, whereas responses to a post can go in the comments for that post.