Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Nearly ten years ago, St. George’s Church in Valley Lee, Maryland undertook a comprehensive, detailed energy audit. This was built on top of the previous years in which their buildings and grounds leadership had begun to focus on building use and internal re-designs and renovations for great efficiency of spaces and needs.

It wasn’t the simple energy audit that utility companies readily provide. The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) offers three levels of energy audits. Level 1 is what the utility companies offer, and they’re generally provided at no cost. From Better Buildings: a “Level 1 audit is a simple audit that involves a basic walk-through assessment, review of utility bills and other applicable operating data, and interviews with operations staff.” Level 2 audits “build on the level 1 analysis with more detailed energy calculations and added financial analysis of proposed energy measures. This level of audit uses utility data over a longer period of time so that the auditor can better understand the building’s energy use. The financial analysis at this level of audit is used to build the business case for implementing energy measures.” St. George’s invested in a Level 2 audit.

That audit helped St. George’s identify which areas needed focus, and they spent the better part of the next two years fundraising, grant-writing and investing capital in installing new, more efficient HVAC systems, insulation, and LED lights throughout all three buildings on their campus. Utility bills came down to the point at which energy costs were the third highest budget line-item, behind staff salaries (which was, and remains for most congregations, the single largest budget expenditure) and giving to the diocese (which previously was in third place).

At the same time, St. George’s was entering into a ministry-sharing relationship with Church of the Ascension in nearby Lexington Park, Maryland. A few years after that ‘yoking’ began, both churches discerned a call to deepen their relationship. They merged to become one, united parish, with one set of financial books and one means of parish administration. Economies of scale and missional opportunities in each church’s neighborhood became much more evident, and parish leadership could make even more thoughtful and strategic decisions about clearer paths forward.

Ascension owned a house next door to the church. They used it for affordable housing in their working-class neighborhood, but decades of deferred maintenance in an otherwise sub-standard house built quickly in the 1940s was starting to wear on the house and neighborhood and church budget. Parish leadership decided to liquidate the property in the hopes that it could be better used by someone who would work with them to be an even greater asset and blessing with their neighbors and neighborhood. But before they did so they invested significant resources in upgrading the entire house’s electrical, HVAC and structural issues, including a very serious (and expensive) project to dig down to the base of the foundation and install direct water drainage away from the property. Following that, the house was listed for sale. New owners emerged who wished to use it for affordable housing. They also wished to work with the church and transfer a portion of the church / house property line, which because it was in the church’s name, was zoned as a commercial property, not residential. With that agreement and transfer, the new owners opened an affordable, accessible farmer’s market – working with the church and the church’s additional mission partners in downtown Lexington Park.

With the proceeds from the sale of the house, the parish leadership looked at renewable energy savings from the lens of creation care. Solar, that is, the outright purchasing of solar panels came to the top of the list. Bids from solar companies were solicited for both St. George’s and Ascension. But installing solar at Ascension, which had not received that decade-long attention to HVAC systems and insulation and internal efficiencies and upgrades, would be more expensive and offer a much longer return on investment than installing solar at St. George’s. The system proposed at St. George’s by the leading solar company in St. Mary’s County, Maryland was less expensive and would generate more than 100% of power used at St. George’s, and for less total cost. That, plus the rebates offered through the federal Inflation Reduction Act, led the parish to install a solar field in Valley Lee, at St. George’s. Now, St. George’s pays roughly $30 / month for the three buildings on its campus ($10 for each meter each month), and most often sees money coming back via the renewable energy it creates.

And with the additional funds leftover from the sale of the property, the parish has started to invest in those same Level 2 energy audit steps at Church of the Ascension: removing gas-guzzling HVAC systems and replacing them with more efficient systems, mostly electric heat-pumps with gas backup; LED lights; and increased insulation.

Because St. George’s Church in Valley Lee is part of the same parish as Church of the Ascension in Lexington Park, the cost savings to one is a total savings to both. Just as the environmental impact to creation is a net benefit to caring for the earth, “our island home,” as we pray.

All of which is to say that our call to care for God’s creation, as the church, also involves caring for our buildings, many of which were not built with a mind to energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. And this is a point at which financial efficiency and stewardship of creation meet hand-in-hand. Granted, the entire process is long, at points very long, as I’ve shared in this one story from one corner of The Episcopal Church.

There are several highly significant steps along the way, and it’s worthwhile to start slowly and work methodically. Start by getting a Level 2 or, even, Level 3 ASHRAE-approved energy audit. They will cost a few thousand dollars, but the opportunities will open yet more doors to greater efficiency and cost savings. There is a return on investment in the long run, which of course is two-fold: a very real financial cost savings as well as positioning your local church to be a better steward of creation.