An Amazing Resource to Reduce your Carbon Footprint!
On Thursday, April 30th, an intriguing webinar was held by Interfaith Power and Light about the NEW Cool Congregations calculators from the creators of the tools at Cool Climate Network, Dan Kammen and Chris Jones. Anyone can participate in using this special calculator, whether for your home or congregation.
Download the checklist to gather your congregation’s energy use data – this is the best way to keep a record of your inputs at this point. Save it to your computer.
Learn about Certification – If your congregation has reduced by 10% or more and you can provide a record of your “before” and “after” records of your energy use – you qualify for certification. Fill out the application on the website to start the process. Free. It’s a great way to celebrate your accomplishments and share them with your congregants to build support for further energy saving measures and encourage your congregants to reduce energy use at home.
Learn about the Cool Congregations Challenge – Deadline every year is December 15 for projects completed in that year. Free to enter. Prizes in five categories.
IPL has co-branded the EPA Energy Star for Congregations workbook.
It’s awesome! Find it here and use it to guide your efforts.
Carbon offsets – Watch this video to see why trees – and the soil – are an important part of the mix of climate solutions.
Offsets are a way to help others reduce emissions if you have already completely reduced your own, or can’t afford to completely reduce your own because the remaining measures you need to take are too expensive. It’s a way to help a bit until you can afford to reduce your own emissions completely. You can contribute to the development of NEW renewable energy projects, encourage more photosynthesis, and more.
Carbon Covenant, IPL’s tree planting effort reported 16,000 trees planted through the For Love of Trees campaign so far this year.
One last thing… check out this interactive carbon footprint map from the CoolClimate Calculator and find out how you compare to local averages!
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