Knox, Waterloo, Ontario
The original church was built in 1888. The current building was erected in 1927 and enlarged in 1957.
Rev. Linda Ashfield said, "There is lots to learn about the environment. I want to be educated. I am grateful for the community of faith. I like it when people push us to try new ideas."
Some of the congregation's initiatives include: purchasing environmentally friendly products for cleaning; not using pesticides on the church grounds and being more conscious of water usage. They don't use disposable cups and do use recycling paper bins. The church also has a paper shredder.
Ashfield said that the congregation uses fair trade coffee and sells it. The children were encouraged to ask for reusable water bottles as stocking stuffers.
An occasional workshop, Unplug the Christmas Machine, encourages environmental friendly gift giving. Some forms of alternate gift-giving considered by the congregation include Habitat for Humanity, Presbyterian World Service and Development and purchasing from the Mennonite Church's Ten Thousand Villages, which is a fair trade retailer. – Hilda Young
Renfrew, Ontario
The beautiful stone church and adjoining manse are located on the banks of a ravine, which creates a buffer zone near a creek, surrounded by green space, in an attractive area of downtown Renfrew. Over the last 10 years, says Rev. Brian Sharpe, developers have come looking to purchase the church's "vacant lot." Each time the session has said no. Money is not always important. The session is more concerned with having the land available for everyone to enjoy. It has become part of the town's Millennium Trail. Deer and other wildlife come on the ravine so the congregation enjoys the location.
Sharpe said church members are continually looking for ways to reduce waste. The recycling bins are used for all church functions. If they are not put out in time for the garbage, Presbyterian neighbours put them out. Bulletins are also recycled and a generic bulletin is used all summer. Unused bulletins from church office are cut up and used for note pads. The old Sunday school curriculum is also reused and revamped. Surplus books and Bibles have been donated to Christian salvage. When the new hymnbooks were purchased, the old ones were repaired and donated to two congregations in the presbytery. The congregation recently purchased LED Christmas lights as they are more environmentally friendly and will last seven years. – HY
Pinawa Christian Fellowship
Pinawa Christian Fellowship is a 42-year-old multi-denominational congregation in rural Manitoba. It worships in an elementary school gym and uses the classrooms for Sunday school.
Members do not use throwaway cups, plates and cutlery. Dishes are washed either at members' homes or in the school sinks. Members are encouraged to bring their own mugs for coffee.
They have been active in the non-profit Pinawa Recycling Inc., which is run mostly by volunteers. It has grown from a back of a pick-up truck processing several hundred kilograms per year to one that occupies two buildings that processed more than 115 tonnes of recyclable material in 2002. Pinawa Recycling is the story of many a volunteer's persistence, sacrifice and skill.
Derri Evans, the current PCF recycling volunteer, believes, that "as Christians we are called to be caretakers of the Earth. God has loaned us the Earth. We should minimize our impact on it to the best of our ability."
Money raised by recycling has been poured back into the community, including starting a food bank. – HY
Camp Glen Mhor
Our methods of controlling our energy and waste usage:
- all interior incandescent bulbs switched to compact fluorescents (CF)
- all exterior spots switched to CF (where fixtures allow)
- all lights in areas with intermittent use set to timers (except places like the kitchen, health centre, etc.)
- we turn off the lights inside cabins for the summer (you can't turn them on)
- we use solar-powered garden lights for each cabin
- we use raw (untreated water) in our toilets (cuts down on the amount of chlorine in the septic system, therefore in the groundwater; also means less energy treating toilet water unnecessarily)
- retrofitted both four-season buildings with new windows
- exterior lights are on a photo sensor so they won't be left on during the day
- we meter all of our water so that we have a daily record of how much water we use; this way we can compare one year to the other in order to show the campers the amount of water a group of 160 people uses in a day
- our county has an excellent recycling program; its only draw back is that there isn't any pickup; so, two or three times a week we take one minivan to the local dump where it is put in to approriate bins
- we reuse one-sided paper
- we recycle: paper (office paper that has been used on both sides, all toilet paper, paper towel rolls, any paper packaging), plastics, cans, metal and cardboard
- we had an energy audit done in the mid-90s and have based a lot of our changes on that audit
- we are part of the Managed Forest Tax Incentive Program and we work with a forester to improve the condition of our 200 acres and also to create forestry program to teach our campers
- we also have a number of future plans to improve things: solar water preheats (which use less electric and propane in the water heaters because the water is hotter to start with); tankless hotwater heaters (which use less than 33 per cent of the energy as hot water tank).
