Resources for Greening Houses of Worship

GreenHomeNYC got a request recently from Brooklynite Adrienne Teleki to help her find information and resources about greening houses of worship. The board and Partners in Practice Advisory Board sent some ideas her way, and Adrienne very kindly summarized them to share with you, our blog readers. Read her note after the jump! Thanks to all of the GreenHomeNYC board and advisory committee members who weighed in on precedents and leads for finding experts in greening houses of worship. I was looking for both energy and financing information to support work on a 1920’s building in Brooklyn…and really appreciated the direction, so wanted to share what I learned. I would be very happy to hear more on this topic as well – especially related to funding sources targeted for houses of worship. The resources that have emerged thus far are: Pratt Center for Community Development is developing a Sustainable Houses of Worship project to assist religious institutions with energy assessments and in navigating the retrofit process. Their pilot report includes three case studies. An upcoming workshop series will train maintenance staff of religious buildings to operate their buildings more efficiently. Michael Kriegh, Pratt’s lead architect, is the contact. [email protected] Andy Rudin, an energy auditor, has extensive experience with energy efficiency in churches in Philadelphia: http://www.andrewrudin.com Faith-based initiatives have tackled this issue including Interfaith Coalition on Energy of Philadelphia and a New Jersey Jewish Initiative to green synagogues Bright Power was very helpful in thinking through whether solar might be a solution. Andy McNamara is the contact there. “Interfaith Power and Light“ was mentioned as involved in CFL bulk-buys and the like for congregations. They may have done some deeper retrofits, too. Finally, someone mentioned that there are Energy star rated Churches. Again, thanks to all for responding. Adrienne Teleki Special thanks to:

• Wendy Fleischer, Director, Sustainability Services, Pratt Center for Community Development
• Bomee Jung , Senior Program Director, Green Communities, Enterprise Community Partners
• F.L. Andrew Padian , VP for Energy Initiatives, Community Preservation Corporation
• Jeff Perlman, President, Bright Power Inc.