mmanuel's Green Space
Our mission, simply stated, is taken from the words of Psalm 24, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.” Therefore, we all have a responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation.
Emmanuel’s commitment to environmental awareness is the result of an initiative first formulated by the Vestry at its 2008 retreat. A committee was formed to explore ways in which we could make our church “green” and increase our member's environmental awareness through education and example.
Our first task was to complete a series of audits covering the many aspects of church life which could impact the environment: adult, youth and children’s formation; communications; the kitchen; liturgy; and our consumption of energy, paper and water. The results of these audits have formed the foundation of subsequent implementation plans. With the ultimate goal of becoming a truly “green” campus, we continue to work steadily towards every aspect of caring for God’s creation.
Our committee meets at 1:15 p.m. in the library on the last Monday of every other month throughout the year. If you would like to join us, please email Jacqueline Stewart.
Emmanuel’s Environment Awareness Committee Report
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N.C. Interfaith Power and Light
Emmanuel Episcopal Church’s Environmental Awareness Committee was formed in February 2008 in response to a mandate to lessen the church’s carbon footprint and to educate the congregation in environmentally-friendly living practices.
The Committee’s first task was to audit every aspect of our church’s life in order to ascertain what had already been done, its present environmental practices and thereby establishing a baseline upon which to build a strategic plan. By the end of the first year we had completed audits in the following areas: The Business Office, Christian Formation, Communications, The Parish Hall Kitchen, Recycling, and Water/Power Consumption. The most comprehensive of those audits was the energy audit conducted by a North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources: Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance engineer, John Seymour. He conducted a thorough investigation into the majority of our buildings on campus including the Episcopal Day School, and the subsequent report has become the basis of our Buildings and Grounds Commission’s five-year maintenance and improvements strategic plan. Many of the suggestions that he made in the report have been implemented by Emmanuel’s Environmental Awareness Committee.
The Business Office
The Business Office personnel were dedicated to recycling all they could before the formation of the Committee, and have since made tremendous strides in cutting down on the amount of paper used. The logistics of recycling have been through many changes since when we started out. At first all recyclables had to be carried to a recycling center. We subsequently contracted with a private company because there was no municipal recycling program. Since that time the Town of Southern Pines has instituted a recycling pickup schedule. Cardboard recycling was initiated and thanks to staff efforts, it is all carried to the street for weekly pickup.
In 2008, we started to recycle our Sunday Service bulletins and in order to save paper and energy consumed by the copier, all the Sunday services were combined into one bulletin.
In September2008, the Business Office started e-mailing out the newsletter to members, using the mail only for those who requested it or didn’t have access to e-mail, thus reducing paper use, printing and postage costs. Additionally, the Business Office uses high-content recycled paper for the majority of its copying needs and is at present looking into the availability of recycled-content card stock.
Communications.
In 2008 the Environmental Awareness Committee started to produce a regularly published environmental column in our church’s newsletter, a practice which has continued to the present. In 2010, based on its achievements to date, the Environmental Awareness Committee produced an interactive pilot program for other congregations in our community called, “Greening our Congregations,” during which we talked briefly about the energy audit, conducted a tour of the Sanctuary, Business Office and Parish Hall, followed by luncheon and an interactive PowerPoint presentation. In 2011 we consulted with a representative of the Diocese of North Carolina to see if this would be a program that the Diocese would endorse. We have on-going work to do in the area. We have spent one session of our Sunday morning Adult Forum updating the congregation on the Environmental Committee’s accomplishments. Additionally, we have been involved in producing posters for local recycling events, posted an environmental statement on Emmanuel’s website and completed an assessment form for, and subsequently became of a member of Sustainable Sandhills.
Christian Formation
Starting in 2009 the church’s Director of Adult Formation compiled a Creation Season Devotional Booklet, in which devotions based on creation-centered bible passages were written by members of the congregation. This has now become an annual publication. Additionally, our Director of Adult Formation is responsible for organizing Vacation Bible School and during the past two years she has organized ecologically-themed programs. Our Rector has conducted several environmentally centered Adult Forum series on Sunday mornings, which our members have received enthusiastically.
Liturgy
Emmanuel Episcopal Church annually celebrates a Season of Creation, starting on October 4th (The feast of St. Francis) and lasting for four weeks, during which alternate creation-based forms of the Prayer Book are used and both the liturgy and the music are designed to bring our congregation into a closer relationship with, and greater appreciation for God’s creation.
The Parish Hall Kitchen/Food Preparation
During the past three years the Parish Hall Kitchen has undergone many changes. For example, when equipment has had to be replaced, Energy Star replacements were installed. In an effort to save water, leaky faucets have been fixed and aerators have been added to all faucets. Styrofoam is no longer used in the kitchen. For smaller events, paper plates and cups are used, and for large gatherings china and cutlery are used. Water temperature is regulated so that water temperature in Episcopal Day School meets state standards, but in the kitchen it is sufficiently hot to clean the dishes. Nearly all the waste from Sunday morning Adult Forums and other fellowship events is now recycled or composted. These days far less goes into the waste stream.
Composting
In 2009 the Environmental Awareness Committee applied for a “green” grant from the Diocese of North Carolina to pay for two indoor composters, one for the Parish Hall Kitchen and one for the Episcopal Day School (EDS). In December that year we heard that our application had been approved and the following spring we bought two NatureMill Automatic Indoor Compost Tumblers. Through the generosity of an anonymous donor, we were able to purchase a traditional outdoor tumbler composter for those items that could not be composted in the indoor model. Since volunteers were not available on a regular basis, our dedicated staff maintains both the indoor and outdoor composters.
Building and Grounds
Emmanuel is in the midst of a capital campaign to build a new sanctuary, business offices and EDS classrooms. Therefore only those Buildings and Grounds actions that will not be impacted by the anticipated building program have been undertaken. However there was still a significant amount of work that could be undertaken.
Maintenance throughout our campus is ongoing, and one of the most expensive outlays is keeping approximately 42 heating and air conditioning systems running. Inevitably on a campus as old as ours they do have to be replaced, but modern ones are far more energy efficient than the older models. The Building and Grounds Commission has started on a systematic weatherization program, in which all the single glazed windows are being replaced by double glazed ones and ill-fitting doors are either weather stripped or in some cases replaced.
Our facilities manager had started replacing incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs prior to the establishment of the Committee, and he has continued to do this as the incandescent bulbs burn out. Additionally, as a result of the energy audit, he has replaced T.12 florescent bulbs with T.8s. We set up a recycling program for the congregation so they could safely dispose of their worn out florescent bulbs.
Programmable thermostats have been placed in the Sanctuary, Parish Hall and Business Offices. The ceiling fans in the Sanctuary are used regularly during worship services and will be replaced with larger ones as funding permits. However the above list is really only the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to our dedicated staff cleaning products used throughout the church are environmentally safe, and “going green” has become fundamental in their decision making.
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