Summerlea United Church
225 50 Av, Lachine, Québec, H8T2T7, Canada. 514-634-2651
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Summerlea Green Church Project

Our efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of our church and community

October 2008 update
2008-10-31
Recycling: So far we have recycled 45 lbs of batteries of all shapes and sizes. People speak about boxes or bags at home that had been accumulating batteries and they hadn't any idea where to dispose of them. An audiologist and supplier of hearing aids brought in two boxes of used hearing aid batteries.

Haven't counted the number of printer cartridges we have saved from landfill. (It takes about a gallon of oil to make a new laser cartridge. In North America alone, over 350 million cartridges per year are discarded in our landfills, and that number increases by 12 percent annually! and a laser cartridge takes 450 years to biodegrade.)

Composting: The composter was inaugurated on September 20th. Primarily it takes the vegetable waste from the twice weekly Meals on Wheels program. In addition, folks who do not compost at home, bring their waste in for composting. The first composter is already nearly full and a second has been installed. When winter really gets going here, we'll start up the worm composter indoors.

Environmental Policy: A work in progress.

Heating the buildings
Plans are in progress for insulating as many of the roof cavities as are accessible.

We are researching geothermal, although the price tag of about $200,000 seems staggering, even when set against the savings.

Our Property and Maintenance Committee has converted the boiler electric elements to use less power (kW) than they were originally designed for. This means that we can heat with electricity cheaper than oil at the moment, whilst still having oil for back- up.

Reducing our own environmental footprint:

Outreach Sunday - October 2008

People were encouraged to bike, walk, roller blade, car pool or otherwise reduce their carbon emissions to get to church.

The church service focused on the theme with a guest preacher - the animator of the Green Church Project - the scripture reading was the parable of the mustard tree and the sermon "enlarged upon the theme of small steps leading to larger conclusions.

Following the service we had a lunch based on the "100 mile diet" principles (100 miles =161 km). we did not strictly enforce the 161 km, but encouraged folks to enter the spirit of the day and, at least, try to use Québec ingredients. The main course was provided by the Committee, guests brought the desserts pot-luck style.

The meal and the distances from which each product came, comprised:

Main course:
Pumpkin soup (pumpkins grown by a member of the Outreach Committee) from .9 km
St. Albert, Ontario Old Cheddar Cheese from 139 km
Première Moisson bread from 11.7 km
Cherry tomatoes from 10 km
Salad

Desserts:
Apples from Québec - Empire/MacIntosh/Lobo/Courtland
Baked apples
Blueberry custard tarts
Blueberry squares (Harrowsmith cook book)
Carrot/honey/apple muffins
Coaticook ice cream from 176 km
Strawberries, l'Île d'Orléans from 310 km

Other:
Québec Apple juice
And we spoilt ourselves with Fair Trade Coffee from Dix Milles Villages/Ten Thousand Villages and Québec milk.

Everyone present enjoyed themselves and many rose to the challenge.

Some local food sources

Laiterie de Coaticook Ltée
Par écrit :
1000, rue Child
Coaticook, Québec
J1A 2S5

Première Moisson
189 Harwood Blvd
Vaudreuil-Dorion (Quebec)
J7V 1Y3
Phone: 450 455-2827
Fax: 450 455-7199

Fromagerie St-Albert,
150, St-Paul St., PO BOX 30
St-Albert, ON K0A 3C0
Tel : 613.987.2872
Toll free : 1.800.465.1553

Dix mille villages Pointe-Claire
290 Bord du Lac, Suite 108
Pointe Claire, QC H9S 4L3
Telephone : 514-428-0450

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