A conversation with researcher and author, Karla Winham.

“With limited resources, places of worship can help the communities around them develop and heal. They can nourish people and accompany people. They can be models of what it means to walk gently on the earth.” Tom Urbaniak, Director, Tompkins Institute – Cape Breton University and Chair of the Board, Faith & the Common Good.

Thus begins the preface to researcher, Karla Winham’s study of 10 faith communities that have created gardens at their places of worship and the benefits such gardens entail. You can read her full essay, Gardens Built by Love: Faith-Based Community Gardens on our Resources page. Download the report here.

Communications Manager, Beatrice Ekoko sat down with Karla for a conversation about her research. We’ve condensed the conversation below.

*Note, this resource is not a guide about how to grow a garden. For ‘how to guides', click here.

In admiring the stunning Gothic cathedrals that overlook our downtown centres, we can all agree that places of worship hold our collective cultural heritage. But what about our smaller faith community buildings? The rural church in a Nova Scotia village that may not have been built by hundreds of people, but by a local shipwright in the off-season, or the chapel in an Alberta community constructed by one mason and farmers, bringing rocks off their farms?

PRESS RELEASE

25, 01, 2022

- Religious group launches Catholic Eco-Investment Accelerator Toolkit for climate justice -

A New Toolkit is designed for faith-based institutions to align their investments with their mission and vision, in light of the global climate crisis.

Recognizing the moral obligation and urgency of faith-based institutions to do their part in addressing the climate crisis and climate injustice, the Mouvement Laudato Si’ Movement - Canada and Faith & the Common Good have developed the Catholic Eco-Investment Accelerator Toolkit. It guides divestment from fossil fuels in favour of sustainable investments and a broader understanding of profitable returns.

Nestled in a beautiful village at the feet of the Canadian Rockies, Ralph Connor Memorial United Church (RCMUC) in Canmore, Alberta has a 130 year old sanctuary and a 40 year old hall. 

RCMUC’s Faithful Footprints story is one of how congregants’ connections and working together as a team led to incredible energy savings and conservation within their church building.

Rooftop Solar Installation, RCMUC

Rooted in ancient traditions of mimicking woodland ecosystems, food forests and gardens consist of diverse plantings of edible plants (fruit trees, nuts and berries, herbs), that provide year-round nutrition and medicines for Nature’s dependants--including people! 

Refurbished radiators installed with electric heating coil inside. St Paul’s United Magog. 

In a previous blog post, I recommended switching your fossil fuel-burning appliances over to heat pumps to heat your building. That recommendation still stands for everyone who has mid and low energy efficiency furnaces and boilers and anyone whose heating appliance is older than 25 years. I recently spoke with a congregation whose heating system predates their building from 1962 (it was used and donated to them). Their heating contractor estimates that it is currently operating at 15% efficiency! So keep that in mind folks.

But what if you have a pretty new boiler, for example, and still want to maximize efficiency? Is there anything you can do? Yes, there is! When we look at radiator systems with all the various parts, there are numerous opportunities to improve efficiencies.

Old fridges and freezers are energy guzzlers.

We all love to gather after worship and share food and drink together. It’s at these times that we grow as a community. For this reason alone, a major hub of activity in faith communities (post COVID) is the kitchen. So it is worth taking the time to look at the major energy consumers within this space in order to save some energy and money.

Fridges and freezers are present in every congregation’s kitchen. Typically, the efficiency of these kinds of appliances increases dramatically every few years with newer models. That means that the energy consumption of a new fridge compared to one made approximately five years ago can be half the energy! That’s a lot of energy savings to be had. 

David (blue shirt) at Unitarian Congregation of Mississauga, 2018

In the beginning……

FCG received program funding to deliver Energy Audits to 100 faith communities in Ontario through the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) in 2007 and 2008. These went very well, but what Stephen found, as the local Peterborough FCG area rep at the time, was that people wanted to know about composting, air quality, blue boxes and more. This was because everyone has their own passion within their faith community, beyond energy efficiency, and they wanted to make a difference as well. Out of this realization was born the Green Audit that looks at energy, air quality, food, water, waste, maintenance, heritage, religious architecture, rental agreements and more. 

As a result, Stephen, along with David, bounced around the format, process and report ideas to turn it into a reality. To help kick-start our efforts, John Patterson, who started a local environmental non-profit in Haliburton County called Abbey Gardens, wanted Green Audits to help local congregations. Their organization helped pay for the first Green Audits.  Eight in total, across 4 different Christian denominations, were delivered in January of 2009.