Nine Local Congregations to Reduce Their Energy Use by 25% or More – and Receive $20,000 Grants for Solar Panels

Other Hoosier Congregations Have Already Done the Same; Three More Grants Available

 

Six congregations in the Indiana & Michigan Power (I & M) service area have committed to steeply reducing their energy use, which qualifies them for grants of $20,000 or more to install solar panels. Three more grants are available to congregations that are I & M customers in Indiana and sign on to the same energy conservation goals.  To maintain the project’s breadth, Catholic, evangelical Protestant, and primarily Hispanic and African-American churches are particularly encouraged to apply.

As participants in Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light’s Seventh Day Initiative, the congregations commit to reduce their energy use by at least 25 percent and to help their members reduce their energy use by one seventh at home. As part of the grant, the congregations receive technical support to achieve these goals. 

One of the congregations, Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend, is already saving over $10,000 a year on its energy bills. By simply conserving, the church has reduced its electricity use by 35 percent and its natural gas use by 48 percent. The solar panels will reduce Kern’s electricity bills even more. 

According to Kern Road’s pastor, Rev. David Sutter, “Being good stewards of all God’s creation is a part of our faith commitment and our priorities as a church.  Learning about and trying to reduce the use of the earth’s resources in our homes and meeting spaces seems to be a natural and tangible way to live these out.  Hopefully, in the process, we pass on to our children and grandchildren what it means to live our faith in practical ways andalso a healthier world as God dreamed it.”  

Six congregations in Indianapolis and Bloomington that made the same conservation commitment in 2013 have reduced energy use in their houses of worship by an average of 33 percent. Over a third of their members have taken measures that would lower the energy us of a typical Hoosier household by an average of 27 percent. 

So far, the grantees include:  Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren, Plymouth Congregational Church, and Turner Chapel African Methodist Episcopal in Fort Wayne, and First United Methodist Church, Kern Road Mennonite Church and the Islamic Society of Michiana in South Bend. The earlier set in Indianapolis and Bloomington includes congregations that are Episcopal, Lutheran, Jewish, Evangelical Protestant, and Unitarian Universalist.

Englewood Christian Church, an Evangelical emerging church in Indianapolis’ that was one of the original six congregations, is saving upwards of $15,000 a year. As Englewood Pastor Mike Bowling puts it, “Cutting our energy use has been straight-forward and is a matter of mission: we channel the savings directly into service for our neighbors. We are not owners of creation but its stewards, summoned by God to ‘watch over and care for it’ (Gen. 2:15).” 

Together, these faith communities are raising the bar, making Indiana a national leader for energy conservation by congregations. One of the original six received first place in a national competition and a cash award for itshousehold energy conservation achievements. Two others were among twenty congregations nation-wide to berecognized for energy conservation in their houses of worship.

How are these congregations so dramatically reducing their use? According to Ray Wilson, a volunteer engineer who supports the program, “It’s all about cutting out waste – focusing heating, cooling and lighting on where people are – not on vacant rooms;  sealing holes and insulating to avoid heating and cooling the great outdoors; and replacing ‘energy hogs’– outdated high-energy lighting and HVAC systems – with cost-effective alternatives.”

According to Molly O’Donnell, a building professional who also volunteers her support, “What one congregation does might be a fluke. When you see congregations as diverse as these all reaping the same benefits, you know that this is fairly straight-forward. It can work for pretty much any congregation.”

Including the six new grantees, the first twelve congregations hail from eleven different faith traditions, Evangelical and mainline Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Unitarian Universalist.

The grants are administered by Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light (H-IPL), one of forty state affiliates of the national Interfaith Power & Light. According to Rev. Larry Kleiman, H-IPL’s executive director, “We’re so pleased to see Indiana congregations heeding the call and lighting the way in conserving energy and caring for God’s good creation.”

The funds come from American Electric Power, I&M’s parent company, under a legal settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, eight states, and 13 citizens’ groups. The settlement included an agreement by AEP to invest $2.5 million to improve air quality in Indiana through various projects. The AEP settlement monies are being overseen by an oversight committee that includes the Citizens Action Coalition, Hoosier Environmental Council, Indiana Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and Environmental Law & Policy Center.