Current Projects in Toronto
Faith & the Common Good is encouraging faith groups to explore how to serve their communities by helping vulnerable members prepare for and cope with climate induced extreme weather impacts (ex. extreme heat, ice storms, flooding). Why is this work important? Extreme weather events are no longer once-in-100-year occurrences. The Insurance Bureau of Canada reports that claim payouts from severe weather have doubled every five to ten years since the 1980s. Municipalities and traditional emergency response actors are struggling to meet the overwhelming needs of simply maintaining critical infrastructure in the face of these unprecedented stresses. Too frequently, our most...
Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Energy Benchmarking Program: Project Completed “You can’t change what you don’t measure.” – Understanding your energy use is the first step in reducing it. Why Benchmark? Supports stewardship of environmental and financial resources. Allows you to target carbon consumption (buildings account for about 42% of a typical faith community’s carbon footprint). Saves time and money, allowing you to target lowest hanging fruit. Assists future reporting requirements. Launched in 2017 and completed in 2020, Faith & the Common Good’s Energy Benchmarking Program helped over 100 faith communities from across the GTHA take their first steps towards...
We at Faith & the Common Good believe that the environmental crisis is, at its root, not merely a crisis of pollution and extinction, but a crisis of alienation and fragmentation, a crisis of the spirit. Only when we can work together and communicate meaningfully with one another at the heart and soul level can we hope to bring about the necessary changes required to live in peace, harmony, and health. Renewing the Sacred Balance requires fundamental reconciliation with the whole Earth community. We cannot remain silent, nor remain isolated in our actions when so much of the world is...
Greening Sacred Spaces (GSS) is our longest-running program. A practical program, GSS assists faith communities with both the educational and spiritual dimensions of greening as well as the “how to” side of audits, retrofits, and generally reducing a faith community’s footprint. We have developed a number of resources to help faith groups become community leaders in working towards a more sustainable future for all. Click on the links below to find out more about our: videos and webinars, case studies, posters, guides, tip sheets, building audits, energy benchmarking, certification, awards Visit your local chapter page or contact your local animator...
