'Greening Up' Gethsemane

These days, you can’t turn on the news, go online or open a newspaper without seeing more and more about global warming, the environment and being ‘green’ (environmentally friendly.) By doing what we can to conserve energy here at Gethsemane and at home, we are contributing to a much larger effort that can produce massive results!

For instance, if every household in America replaced just one normal, incandescent bulb with an EPA certified compact fluorescent bulb (available at all hardware stores), it would save enough energy in one year to light more than 3 million homes and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equal to more than 800,000 cars!

So what can we do here at Gethsemane? Replacing light bulbs is a great idea, but not inexpensive. To replace the bulbs in the Sanctuary and Narthex areas (about the only area in the building that does not use fluorescent lighting) would cost around $1,800 and provide a savings of about $200 year – requiring 9 years to recover the initial cost! However, it’s not just about the cost savings. Replacing those same lights would reduce our energy use for those fixtures by 60% - a big step toward reducing overall energy consumption!

We can ALL make an immediate difference by just doing a few simple things when we are at church.

• Simply wiping your shoes well on the way in can make a difference in the energy and resources needed to keep the carpets clean.

• Turn off lights and air conditioners when you are finished using a room.
• Recycle instead of just tossing in the nearest garbage can. We have can recycling containers around the building, and containers for paper, glass and plastic are located next to the walk-in cooler in the kitchen, as well as a large red barrel for paper in the work room.
• Ink cartridges, cell phones and cell phone batteries can be recycled in a container located next to the front desk.
• Cardboard can be recycled in the paper dumpster located behind the garage, or left next to the maintenance office downstairs.

Other steps being taken include using paper products such as towels and tissues from recycled materials and certified ‘green’ industries, and researching bio-degradeable cleaning products and methods to reduce cleaning waste.

In addition, we have applied for an Energy Audit from Centerpoint Energy, who will evaluate our entire facility and make recommendations to improve our energy use and hopefully cut energy costs.

Together, we can all take little steps towards making a big difference at Gethsemane, and hopefully be an inspiration for others in our community to work toward a cleaner, better environment for our future generations to enjoy!