Melrose United Church and Grace Lutheran recognized for their efforts to reduce energy consumption, improve the environment and build community resiliency.
The Green Sacred Spaces Awards of Excellence are coordinated and judged by Greening Sacred Spaces Hamilton, a collaboration between Faith and the Common Good and Environment Hamilton.
Locally, Greening Sacred Spaces comprises more than 140 faith communities.
Melrose United Church earns a Green Sacred Spaces Award of Excellence for their work in conducting an energy audit, retrofitting with energy efficient compact fluorescent lighting, upgrading weatherstripping, and initiating a rooftop solar panel project.
Congregants are encouraged to take environmental messages home through weekly e-bulletins and e-newsletters. Melrose United Church partners with various environmental organizations.
Grace Lutheran will be honoured with a Green Sacred Spaces Award of Excellence for their work hosting the Good Food Box program, growing a community garden, planting fruit trees, naturalization of the property and hosting a wonderful food fair featuring over 10 local food initiatives.
Grace Lutheran has completed an energy audit, basic retrofitting and upgrading of boiler and is exploring the possibility of going solar. Congregants are encouraged to take environmental messages home through weekly e-bulletins and e-newsletters. Grace Lutheran Church partners with various environmental organizations and the Victory Gardens Hamilton group.
About Greening Sacred Spaces
Greening Sacred Spaces assists more than 500 faith communities in Canada take action to create a more sustainable and energy-efficient place of worship.
Greening Sacred Spaces helps congregations form “green teams,” provides “how to” guides for improving the energy efficiency of religious buildings, offers downloadable greening resources and educational tools including case studies and funding information, and holds multi-faith community workshops across Canada on topics such
as renewable energy and energy conservation .
The Green Sacred Spaces Awards of Excellence recognize the contributions that faith communities have made toward making the environment more sustainable.
Recipients are selected based on three criteria:
1. Practical actions such as completing an energy-efficiency retrofit, microFIT renewable energy project or community garden
2. Engagement in numerous local sustainability and energy conservation educational events
3. Involvement in outreach programs in the community at large and with other faith communities to encourage energy conservation.
