April 22, 2010, forty years after the first Earth Day, the earth is in greater peril than ever. While climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity – an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future.
Earth Day 2010 can be a turning point to advance change in climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day Network is galvanizing millions who make personal commitments to sustainability. Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day. We can all do our part.
Check out the Earth Day Network website to learn more at http://earthday.net/earthday2010
Houses of worship in the United States now have an array of online tools for managing energy use and reducing their carbon footprint with help from the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program.
The EPA announced the availability of the Energy Star toolkit for congregations on September 1, 2009.
See http://greenerbuildings.com/news/2009/09/01/epa-introduces-energy-star-toolkit-houses-worship for the rest of the story.
Like many churches, Belmont UMC has found itself in a common scenario. We are managing our operating and mission budgets in an environment where net worth is dropping and expenses climbing. The Finance Committee approached the Green Team to see if we could assess the energy usage. We were asked to make recommendations where the church could save money while being better stewards of God’s creation.
The GreenTeam has been asked to facilitate an Energy Assessment for the Main Building and the adjacent, but separate Community Center on the grounds of Belmont UMC. This assessment is to be the initial evaluation of Belmont's energy usage, with a particular focus on determining areas where efficiency can be improved upon as we move into the summer cooling-months. The draft findings of this report were presented to the church's executive committee and more recently to the July 12th meeting of the Administrative Board.
Key findings include that:
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