Submitted by Nancy Hannah for Sacred Earth Matters
As a Creation Justice church, UCUCC is committed to reducing our carbon footprint. Sacred Earth Matters has been interested in what this really means in hard data relating to the solar panels we installed on the roof in 2014. Searching the website for our panels, and the Seattle City light bills, we came up with a graph that shows how much these panels have moved us to a carbon neutral goal. It is not exactly what we had hoped it would show, but it was not insignificant either.
Time period | Mwh | Kwh | $per Kwh | Saving
|
Rebates from SCL |
6/2014 – 10/2022 (108 months) |
222.2 | 222,200 | 0.0803 | $17,842.66 | $12,470
|
Total $ saved since installation | $30,312.66 |
In addition, we installed energy efficient windows on the West side of the church, changed out lighting fixtures to have LED lights, and made upgrades to our filtration systems. The BIG fossil fuels energy costs are now in our heating system. This begs questions about how we move to being a carbon neutral church.
We plan to talk with the Asset Evaluation Committee and the Facilities and Equipment Board to hopefully come up with a long term plan to move us forward. Sacred Earth Matters is anxious to partner with other groups in the church to meet the goal of becoming carbon neutral.
The Earth is Sacred Not Ours to Wreck.