Tip Sheets

 
Our energy benchmarking team has created a series of graphics to help your faith community reduce energy and facilitate recycling efforts.

Each item shown here is available in both pdf format for printing and high resolution jpg.

If you are downloading resources for your faith community, we would appreciate you registering your faith community as part of our network by signing up your faith community.

 Download Resources

Let your sacred space be an example for your Care for Creation mission! Learn about sustainable practices for water and energy including xeriscaping, rain gardens, and waterwise strategies in the new Outdoor Greening Fact Sheets.

To support the Faith & the Common Good Outdoor Greening program and the Ottawa Interfaith Sustainable Garden Network program, the following Fact Sheets have been created. Within these resources you will be able to read about the possibilities of turning a section of your faith community property into an ecological haven for wildlife including pollinators such as insects and birds. Get to know more about the benefits of planting native species of grasses, flowers, shrubs, and trees for your new meditation or prayer garden or in your memorial grounds. A special thanks to our funders the Ottawa Community Foundation and the City of Ottawa (CEPGP) for supporting the creation of these local resources!

These Outdoor Greening Fact Sheets & Primer are available both as ONE BOOKLET (choose the link below "Set of 10 Fact Sheets with Primer") or they can be downloaded INDIVIDUALLY if you only want a few specific fact sheets or the Primer.

We recommend you download the BOOKLET (which includes the PRIMER) unless you only want a few fact sheets. Each individual fact sheet must be downloaded separately - so this may take some time. 

Download fact sheets

Download options are:

• Set of 10 fact sheets (with primer)
  
  
• Individual fact sheets (download each separately):
  • 1. Sustainable Lawns, Groundcovers and Alternatives
  • 2. Landscaping for energy-savings
  • 3. Stormwater Management
  • 4. Water Conservation and Drought-tolerant Landscaping
  • 5. Hedgerows
  • 6. Choosing and planting Native Trees & Shrubs
  • 7. Wildlife-friendly Garden
  • 8. Bird-friendly Garden
  • 9. Urban Meadows
  • 10. Special Purpose Gardens: Healing, Meditation, Medicine Wheel, Labyrinth Gardens

• Gardening Primer

Need help to green your faith community? Find rebates and incentives to help get you started in the following areas:

• Energy
• Renewable Energy
• Water
• Hot Water
• Heating
• Cooling

Please note: This was last updated in 2016. Rebates and incentives may be outdated at times due to changing governments and private sector programs. Please visit the listed website of each program to determine if they are still active.

 Download PDF (1 page)

Two double-sided informational sheets with tips on reducing your ecological footprint are available:

• Reduce Your Footprint — Faith Community Tips
• Reduce Your Footprint — Household Tips

 Download tip sheet(s)

Steps to Greening is intended to give you and your faith community a quick overview of what is possible as you plan to green your sacred spaces and a ‘path’ to follow.

 Download PDF (1 page)