As stewards of God's creation, all members, staff, volunteers and tenants of Summerlea United
Church will make every effort possible to practice responsible environmentalism by adopting and
practicing the 4R principles of reducing, reusing, recreating and recycling.. We will continually seek new
ways to improve our environmental practices in our church, home and in our community. We will strive
to make environmental considerations an integral part of all our decision-making and goal-setting.
Summerlea United Church views the '4R's as: Reduce – reducing consumption and production of waste; purchasing durable, biodegradable and/or reusable items rather than disposable or short life items. Reuse – giving a second life to items that have been consumed and would otherwise be discarded or recycled. Recreate – transforming materials that would otherwise be discarded so as to give them added value (ie. composting). Recycle – reprocessing materials into new products. |
Reduce – reducing consumption and production of waste; purchasing durable, biodegradable and/or reusable items rather than disposable or short life items. | ||||||
Objectives: | Action Plans: | Action Person(s) | Done | In-Progress | Timeframe | |
1: To reduce car usage among members of the Summerlea community | A: Install a bike rack | AMBlinkhorn | ||||
B: Initiate a car-pooling program for Sunday service and for committees. | J.Osborne | Y | ||||
C: Ask all members of Summerlea Committees to e-mail in lieu of face-to-face meetings whenever possible | B. Lynn | |||||
2: To eliminate the use of styrofoam, plastic materials & other non re-usable products |
A: Survey the use of
styrofoam, plastic materials
& other non re-usable
products & identify where
their use can be reduced or
eliminated. Use washable dishes. Where necessary, use Biodegradable products. Avoid bottled water. |
All users | Y | |||
3: To eliminate the use of toxic cleaning products | A: Survey what is currently used & identify what products can be eliminated or changed | P&M Ctee MOW Coord | Y | |||
4: To reduce energy consumption & fossil fuel use at Summerlea | A: Survey energy consumption and fossil fuel use in our buildings & identify areas where consumption & use can be reduced or eliminated -heating -insulation -lighting -appliances | P&M Ctee | Y | |||
5: To reduce the use of paper & paper products | A: Identify, reduce or eliminate where possible the use of paper & paper products | Office users | Y | |||
6: To reduce consumption & the production of waste in our community | A: Whenever possible, purchase local products and in-season produce | All buyers Everyone | Y | |||
B: Purchase fair-trade coffee/tea for all church events | All buyers | Y | ||||
C: Purchase products with a minimum of packaging & inform retailers of this desire | All buyers Everyone | Y | ||||
7: To reduce water wastage. | A: Ensure faucets turned off. | Everyone | Y | |||
B: Repair leaky faucets. | P&M | Y | ||||
C: Install low flush toilets. | P&M | Y | ||||
D: Install rain barrel. | P&M | Y | ||||
Reuse – giving a second life to items that have been consumed and would otherwise be discarded or recycled | ||||||
Objectives: | Action Plans: | Action Person(s) | Done | In-Progress | Timeframe | |
1: To provide ways for members to donate items that can be given a 'second life' | A: Plan an annual Bazaar to sell items that can be reused |
Bazaar
Coord.
Committee |
  | Y | ||
B: Plan an annual Garage Sale to sell items that can be be reused | Garage Sale Committee | Y | ||||
C: Create a section in the weekly bulletin & quarterly newsletter to announce large items that are available for a 'second life' | AMBlinkhorn | |||||
Recreate – transforming materials that would otherwise be discarded so as to give them added value (eg. composting) | ||||||
Objectives: | Action Plans: | Action Person(s) | Done | In-Progress | Timeframe | |
1: To provide an opportunity for members to discard compostable organic waste | A: Install an outside composter for the discarding of compostable organic waste. | J. Osborne | Done | |||
B: Install worm composting | J. Osborne | Y | ||||
2: To provide members with organic fertilizer from the compost | A: Distribute fertilizer from the compost to Summerlea community | J. Osborne | ||||
Recycle – reprocessing materials into new products | ||||||
Objectives: | Action Plans: | Action Person(s) | Done | In-Progress | Timeframe | |
1: To provide an opportunity for members to recycle materials used at Summerlea | A: Install paper & plastic recycling bins in all rooms/offices | Done | ||||
B: Install recycling bins for batteries in public areas | Done | |||||
C: Install recycling bins for printer cartridges in public areas. | Done |
-Create a consultation process for all members of Summerlea community; send draft of document to all for
their review; have an open discussion evening for feedback (or with a 100 mile lunch) To communicate the final plan: -create page on Summerlea website (include e-mail for suggestions) -have a section on bulletin boards dedicated to the green plan (include area for suggestions) -have a section in weekly bulletin dedicated to the green plan (include e-mail for suggestions) -have a section in the newsletter dedicated to the green plan (include e-mail for suggestions) -copy of plan to send to all users and tenants (with their annual lease agreement); adherence to plan to be built into lease To continually update the plan: -create a permanent Summerlea Green Committee (with a written mandate) -annual reporting of accomplishments -annual updating of plan |
Heating Programmable thermostats are installed in the halls and are programmed to reduce the temperature at night when the halls are not in use. The sanctuary temperature is manually set down to about 10C during the week when the sanctuary is not in use. Weather stripping has been replaced on the Acadia hall door and the sanctuary doors. Reflective insulation has been installed behind the radiators in the main (Acadia) hall. Our perception is that this has improved the comfort in the room, so we hope to do the same for other radiators in the future. Insulation in accessible attics (about 25% of the roof area) has been increased from 3 inches to 12 inches in depth. Walls facing heated areas have been insulated with 3 inches of blown polyurethane insulation covered by cementitious fire-proofing. Geothermal heating was investigated and found to be not compatible with our hydronic heating systems. We currently heat by électricity for our small system (84 kW reduced to 36 kW) and oil on the large system. In this way our greenhouse gas production reduces by about 25 tonnes / yr compared to oil only (if hydro electricity produces none). Our two hydronic heating systems each have an oil furnace and an electric boiler (original rating 84 kW and 126 kW). The cost of electric heating is competitive with oil if the power demand does not exceed 50 kW. We have therefore disconnected elements in our electric boilers to reduce their power demands (84 kW reduced to 36 kW, 126 kW reduced to 72 kW). However, if we use electricity on the large system the power demand charge becomes excessive. We continue to search for ways to insulate the sanctuary and main hall, built in 1952 with cathedral ceilings and cement block walls. We have not found expertise in this domain. Electricity All lights and unused appliances (computers, printers, copiers, etc.) are turned off when not in use. All incandescent light bulbs have been replaced by compact fluorescents. In the sanctuary the electricity saving is more than 5 kW when they are on. However they are on only about six hours per week so the electricity saving is only about 1500 kWh/yr. All 17 Exit signs have been retrofitted from 30W incandescent to 3W LED. This saves about 17*27*24*365/1000 = 4020 kWh per year, and also eliminates frequent bulb replacement. Note. In the heating season, the heat that formerly came from incandescent lights (or from electric appliances that are turned off) has to be made up by the heating system. Where electricity is generated by hydro power and the heating system burns oil or gas, the result is actually an increase in combustibles consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Our buildings do not have air conditioning, so there is no saving in summer cooling load from reduced electricity consumption. (Where electricity comes from fossil fueled thermal generating stations (efficiency about 35%), a local oil or gas furnace (efficiency 50%+) uses less fossil fuel than the equivalent electric heat, so saving electricity saves fossil fuel.) Composting John Osborne of the Environment Committee has installed three compost bins outside the church for use by church users and surrounding residents. (The first one filled up quickly from apple peelings when we made apple pies last fall.) John is now working on worm composting at home, with a view to moving it to the church. Recycling "Blue boxes" are located in the kitchens and offices for paper and other recyclables. Our minister (Rev Howard Clark) installed battery and ink cartridge recycling bins in the church in the fall of 2008. In the first four months, nearly 100 pounds of batteries have been recycled. 100 Mile Lunch The minister and worship committee organized a 100 mile lunch in which all ingredients were to be from within 100 miles (160 km) of the church. There is additional information about some of these activities on the Green Church web site at Green Church Project. |
A committee has been set up to come up with an environmental policy for our Church members and users.
The members are Ann-Marie Blinkhorn, John Coffin, Bill Lynn and John Osborne. So far a couple of meetings have been held to review the policies of other establishments as a basis for our policy, with additions or deletions applicable to Summerlea. It has been agreed that the nucleus should be the familiar four R's: Reduce Reuse Recycle Recreate At the latest meeting, Ann-Marie agreed to establish a frame-work for the document, with details to be added within that framework by the committee members. Stay tuned! (And please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions.) |