How energy smart is your faith group?

Energy ministry backs faith group project

Ontario’s Ministry of Energy is providing Environment Hamilton with $16,500 to deliver an energy conservation project to Hamilton faith groups. The 8-month project will provide workshops on energy reduction, free energy saving kits, and loans of energy meters that allow individuals to do a self-audit of their home energy use.

The funding allows EH to continue providing tours of Dave Braden’s super energy efficient home, and to encourage some faith groups to investigate energy audits for their religious buildings. On this aspect of the project, we’ll be working with both Hamilton Green Venture and a provincial organization called Faith and the Common Good. We’ll also be encouraging individuals to tour Green Venture’s eco-house on Weever Street and sign up for comprehensive home energy audits.

The project continues EH’s climate change work over the last year with local faith groups. Beatrice Ekoko has led that work and is the coordinator of this new project.

Green Faith?

Hamilton faith organizations are on the move; they want green. This weekend EH volunteer Jessica and I attended a workshop on 'creating an eco team in your place of worship' lead by True City's Greg Reader. There was about 25 people in the room all eager for help on how to get things moving in the green direction.

It was revealing to hear many people admit that their places of worship still use Styrofoam cups and still don't recycle. Just a week prior to that I along with 2 other EH staff were invited to help brainstorm ideas for a local church which faced the same problems of waste reduction although they have been at it for years already!
Environment Hamilton is wiling and ready to be of service; we have film screenings with an environmental message, we have workshops that we offer free of charge as a practical response to climate change, we have a newsletter and a monthly column on climate change we can offer your faith group to include in their newsletter, we have resource information and we have partners we work with such as Green Venture and Faith and the Common Good that can be of great assistance if people are interested.
Contact me Beatrice, at environment Hamilton to get more information.
905 549 0900