Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Direct Install Program: For congregations in LADWP territory, this utility offers a FREE assessment of your house of worship, and free energy- and water-efficiency measures. For more information, click here. This is an easy resource that can save you money!
Cool Congregations and Carbon Calculator
Check out Interfaith Power & Light’s Cool Congregations page for excellent resources that your congregation will benefit from.
Start-Up Kit for Congregations to get you on the way, or to inform your already-existing sustainable path. This kit includes the valuable $25 Steps Under $25.
Use our Congregational Carbon Calculator to measure your baseline energy use. Measure your energy usage before and after you implement energy-efficiency and conservation techniques to get a good idea of how much energy you have save. There’s even a carbon calculator for residences!
Go Styrofoam-free! After one cup of coffee at your congregation’s fellowship time, how many years will it take for a Styrofoam cup to degrade in a landfill? 500 years or more! Styrofoam comprises 25% of material in America’s landfills and 25 billion Styrofoam cups are used and disposed of in the U.S. annually! CIPL’s friends at the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese Creation Sustainability Ministry (CSM) say “NO!” to this practice. Require folks to bring a mug from home or, at least, use paper cups for coffee and let us know how many Styrofoam cups your congregation got rid of! Let Barb Barn of the CSM know at navigatetocreativity@hotmail.com. Beautiful Earth will thank you!
Top 10 Tips of energy efficiency for household and congregations
Educational Resources for Children and Youth
Climate Change Lessons for Middle School Students
Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) is California’s groundbreaking, first-in-the nation K-12 environmental education curriculum. It’s California State Board of Education-approved, teaches select California science and history/social science standards and helps support Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Search for climate lessons across a wide range of environmental topics and grade levels.
Energy audits:
Thinking about doing an audit on your congregation in preparation for energy efficiency retrofits and/or solar energy? You have several options: check with your local utility company to see if they provide audits (just call the number listed on your utility bill;) hire a professional auditor; or conduct a do-it-yourself audit. The latter is especially effective if you have an energy professional in your congregation. Please note that, depending on where you are located in the country, energy usage can vary depending on the time of season and weather patterns in your locale.
Do-It-Yourself Audit Forms:
Cool Congregations/IPL Self-Audit
Kansas Interfaith Power & Light Self-Audit
Free Energy- and Water-Efficiency Program for Households!
The Low-Income Weatherization Program assists regionally- and income-qualified households to obtain free energy- and water-upgrades. If your household is eligible, you will receive a call from a contractor to set up a home assessment, and be informed of the energy/water upgrades that can be installed. These upgrades will most likely lower your monthly bills, save energy, and make your home more comfortable. To see if you qualify, look here. For more information about the Low-Income Weatherization Program click here.
For more information, contact Gregory Stevens or gregory@interfaithpower.org