Faith & the Common Good was back at the Parliament of the World’s Religion (POWR)!  I was honoured to moderate two incredible learning conversations at the 2021 Parliament, a virtual event that featured 500 learning sessions over October 16-18th. 

Decolonizing Eco-Investing

In a special "repeat performance" of their Laudato Si Movement Canada's Catholic Eco Investment Accelerator presentation, Stephen Nairne of Raven Indigenous Capital Partners and Mark Sevestre of the National Aboriginal Trust Officers Association guided POWR attendees in a discussion of how faith-based investors, utilizing the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can ensure that their investments are contributing to vibrant Indigenous economies. 

"The economic empowerment of Indigenous communities is vital to the restoration and guardianship of our living world,” Nairne highlighted. 

A small sample of the growing number of Indigenous resources to guide responsible investors.

Dundas Cardigan, PEI

For faith communities, replacing a heating system is one of the single largest capital cost expenses (the other one is replacing the roof). Most congregational spaces have either boilers with radiators, or furnaces with ductwork that consume oil, gas or propane. While the typical lifespan may be 25 years for these appliances, I have seen many span decades of service.

Sure, they keep going, so why change them? Well, just like you and I, we get less efficient with age. For instance, a furnace from the 1990s may have started out at, say, 84% efficient (meaning, for simplicity’s sake that 84% of the fuel is turned into heat, and 16% of the energy is wasted), but after 25+ years may be operating in the low 70% range. Older furnaces and boilers could be much, much lower efficiency. Now take your gas/oil/propane bill for the year and find what that 30% costs you per year. It is a lot! Your payback to switching becomes much clearer.

Instead of swapping out old units for new ones and carrying on, many congregations are switching to air source heat pumps.

M. Tracey Whiteye and companion. Photo credit: Matt Martin