Success Story: St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Contribution by Alexis Chase - ED and proud member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta

I am a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Our most recent newsletter had the following article. Because I am so proud of St. Luke’s and all of the work they have done to embrace energy efficiency, I thought I would borrow this article for you to read:

Meeting the Challenge

Thanks to the vision and generosity of a parishioner, St Luke’s underwent an Energy Audit in 2006. Four years later, the parish has met – and exceeded – the Governor’s Energy Challenge by shrinking its carbon footprint by a third. That translates into a reduction in energy consumption of more than 18 percent. “We were seeking to be good stewards of God’s creation, so St. Luke’s got an early start on our sustainability initiative with an energy audit in 2006,” said longtime parishioner, Cotten Alston, who has led this effort. “In particular, our energy conservation projects include automatic HVAC controls, high-efficiency lighting, and occupancy sensor lighting controls.”

St. Luke’s received a generous Energy Improvement Matching Grant from Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL) in 2007 toward installation of the centralized energy HVAC management control system.

“These efforts, combined with conscientious management by church staff, are saving us more than $36,000 annually,” reports Cotten. “St. Luke’s is also working to meet the goals of Georgia’s Water Conservation Implementation Plan.” Thanks to GIPL’s new Power Wise program, churches and other faith organizations now have a more affordable path to Energy Audits. Through Power Wise, a church can hire GIPL’s professional energy auditors and pay just $300 for a professional Energy Audit!

See, if St. Luke’s can do it, so can you! What are you waiting for? Call us to sign up for Power Wise!