End of Project

The Energy Awareness Initiative for Faith Groups project officially ends this Friday 13th. We had one last screening of Crude Awakening (March 2) and one workshop (March 9th) both at the Church of the Ascension. We also had an EcoHouse tour at Green Venture (March 10th) in the evening.
We will continue to offer screenings of a Crude Awakening- and we have 8 locations where this will be shown. For more information please contact Beatrice
905 549 0900

Energy Workshop

March 7th, 2009
We had an audience of 13 people-with representatives from 2 faith groups (St James Anglican Church and Knox Presbyterian Church both in Dundas.
We have been invited to work with the newly formed,still to be named 'eco-churches' group. They are planning a walking tour of the participating eco churches for the spring of 2010. They are looking forward to Environment Hamilton's collaboration in this new venture.

Energy Conservation at St Helen's School, Hamilton

Last Thursday, (26th February) I spoke to a most engaging group of little people about energy conservation-or should I say they presented to me. I learned from this delightful class of 21 kids that many of their mothers hang the wash in the basement to dry, that many use fans rather than air conditioners, that they make sure to turn off the lights when not in use and the TV goes off with a big switch on the power bar. These little 6 year olds know more than many grown ups I have encountered. What's more they mean business. As we have learned from the example of Woodward school (that thanks to the efforts of the school children and Environment Hamilton,Brenda Johnson's initiation reduced their garbage out put from 94 black bags to 4!!!) kids are passionate about do right action. Pay attention grown ups.
The kids, accompanied by the adults tested plug in appliances with our electronic meters (one of which was accidentally dropped and now no longer works) and I left them with a 14 page colouring book each and an energy conservation planner to bring home to mom and dad.
See this link for the colouring book we used:
http://www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/seco_links-kids.htm

Energy Wisdom For Church and Home

Saturday February 28th, 2009

Energy Wisdom for Church and Home

Building a Geo-Thermal Church: Retrofitting a 1950s Bungalow

The tour and talk was attended by about 25 people.

Meadowlands Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Ancaster is the only exclusively geo-thermally heated and cooled church in North America.

Denise Neutel gave a talk and tour of this building constructed in 2005.

She also shared her experiences with the ecoEnergy retrofit of her 1950s bungalow, describing the process to achieve super, high energy-efficient standards, while benefiting from government incentives and rebates.

HAMILTON BURLINGTON KAIROS EVENT

Saturday February 21st 2009
Our volunteer Richard Reble was a guess speaker at the
HAMILTON BURLINGTON KAIROS EVENT "TOWARDS AN ECONOMY OF LIFE: ADVOCATING FOR A JUST AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FUTURE”
He spoke to an audience of 60 people.

Truec City Conference Break Out

Sat February 21st 2009
I attended the True City Conference Breakout session-Digging into Environmental Concern:Exploring stories of how churches have tangibly worked to decrease their collective environmental footprint as a broader witness within our culture.
I was impressed by the attendance- most of the room was filled with young men in their early 20s. The focus seemed to be around food, conserving farm land,but also the need for commitment and support in sustainability ventures at church. One lady expressed frustration and getting congregation members to simply recycle! The suggestion was that children out to get involved since they have grown up with this drummed into their psyche!
100 energy saving kits were distributed at the conference.

Screening Updates

Screenings:
Feb 11th -Environment Hamilton Volunteer, Richard Reble screened A crude Awakening for the Baha’i youth committee (30 Renata Court in Dundas). He also did a screening at Holy Sacrament School to an audience of mostly parents. Richard gave away close to 40 kits at this event.
Richard will be offering another screening at Church of the Ascension,
64 Forest Avenue in Hamilton on March 2nd at 7pm.

Energy Workshop

Sunday February, 15th at Meadowlands Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Ancaster.
We had a great turn out thanks to Denise Neutel who worked really hard to get members of her congregation out. A good 35 people showed up to learn about energy conservation, and we are hopeful that from this event a working group might emerge,that will focus on sustainability.
We look forward to Denise's talk on the 28th which will be about her experience retrofitting her 1950s bungalow to super energy efficient standards. She will also be giving a tour of the church which is the only geo thermally heated and cooled church of its kind in North America!

Jan 31st-Eco House Tour

Eco House Eco House tour:

EcoHouse is a place where healthy living principles are upheld and demonstrated to encourage, inspire, and support people in their efforts to reduce their impact on the environment by adopting sustainable living practices and retrofitting their homes.
Tour:http://ecohouse.greenventure.ca/

Dave Braden Tour

Dave Braden House Tour-January 18th

This was our 6th Dave and Cathy Braden tour of their super energy efficient off the grid house.

A chartered HSR bus left from the Go Station down town and took passengers up to the tour.
There were over 40 people crowded in Dave and Cathy's living room, learning about how he built his house but also what they can do to make their own homes more energy efficient.

Temple Anshe Sholom-Breakfast

January 18th
Climate Change Champions and Energy Awareness Initiative presented these 2 Environment Hamilton Projects to an audience of about 22 people at Temple Anshe Sholom Breakfast.
We distributed some materials and about 8 energy kits.
This faith group is anxious to start a green team in the coming months.

Environment Hamilton's Energy Awareness for Faith Groups is organizing a chartered bus to Green Venture's EcoHouse.

EcoHouse shows citizens that it is possible to live in a sustainable manner, in harmony with our environment. Visitors are able to view and use environmentally friendly products, and discover where they can be purchased.

An HSR bus will be leaving the Go Station at 9.30am on Saturday, January 31st 2009.

There is no charge for the bus ride but EcoHouse charges $4 per person taking the tour.

For more information or to register contact Beatrice at 905 549 0900

Email environmenthamilton@gmail.com or beatrice.ekoko@gmail.com

Walk through Energy Audit at St James Anglican Church

Jan 02

What a great way to kick of the new year-completing a walk through energy audit of your faith group's structure. Green Venture's Jordan Fysch took 13 interested people (representing other area faith groups) on the walk through of St Jame's Anglican Church in Dundas.

We went room by room starting from the kitchen,examined doors, exit signs, counted lights, looked in at the boiler,inspected washrooms, walked through the main church, offices,down to the basement where the day care runs.
This took about 2.5 hours since the church building is so huge. Jordan will share the report with those who attended.
We also spent time after, looking at charts (computer modeling) he has developed that tell how much energy is spent at what season, based on the churches hydro and gas bills.
Over all we looked at:

• electricity and water use to identify potential savings
• utility bill data collection
• inspection of the building envelope
• inspection of the heating and cooling systems
• inventory of the energy use of all electrical appliances and fixtures such as lighting
• inventory of water fixtures

Jordan talked about how the church can reduce its GHGs not only through energy conservation but also by tackling over use of water, waste reduction etc.