Excerpted from Eco-Parish Guide, Bringing Laudato Si’ to Life
Parishes have an important role in promoting sustainable practices. The parish is directly responsible for emissions from its energy use in its buildings and vehicles. The parish can also influence the energy and emissions outside the parish through its operations and purchasing decisions: food, supplies, and goods purchased by the parish; waste reduction, recycling, and composting; and sustainable gardening and grounds maintenance.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation
Our parish was recently named a Certified Cool Congregation by Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) based on the reduction in our building’s energy consumption and carbon emissions. The effort was spearheaded by Mark Gosselin, our Facilities Manager, and fully support by Fr. Tom Murphy. Several energy-saving measures have been implemented in the past few years, resulting in a 28% reduction in electricity usage. We emitted 29% less greenhouse gas emissions, and our annual fuel bill was reduced about $15,000! We hope this certification will inspire parishioners to reduce our energy consumption as a visible sign of caring for creation, in accordance with the stewardship messages of Laudato Si’ and Catholic social teaching. You may notice the plaque on the "Wall-of-Fame" in the Brown-McCarthy Auditorium. For more info, please see the write-ups on the Catholic Herald and Cool Congregations web sites.
Reducing Waste at Parish Events
CCH has been involved in several efforts to reduce the amount of paper and plastic waste at parish functions. The three R's - reduce, reuse and recycle - all help to cut down on the amount of waste we throw away. The three R’s conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy. We have facilitated the use of the parish's plates/glasses/cutlery at the following events:
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Sustainable Grounds Maintenance and Sacred Spaces
Sustainable Grounds Maintenance and Sacred Spaces
Work is underway to develop prayer gardens and landscapes on parish grounds to connect to nature and add beauty to parish life. The first step in this process was to have a site survey conducted by a certified Virginia Master Naturalist from the Audubon-at-Home program. click here for a copy of her preliminary assessment. The 2nd step was to work with a young Eagle Scout who assembled a team to build a pollinator garden on the east end of the SJN campus. CCH members have been maintaining this garden since it was developed in 2017.
Compostable Waste Collection Contract
SJN now has a contract in place with Veterans' Compost to pick up compostable materials at SJN every Friday morning. Anyone using the SJN kitchen is encouraged to deposit compostable materials in the marked container. This includes green garbage (raw/uncooked fruits and vegetables peelings), egg shells and coffee grounds. No meats, cooked food, pits or citrus please. Returning nutrients to the soil and reducing the volume of waste going to the landfill is one way to "Care for our Common Home." Also, if you are interested in composting but don't have enough room where you live, you can now give it a try by depositing composting material in the marked container at the Farmer's Market every Wednesday in the St. John Neumann church parking lot
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Quarterly Adopt-a-Highway Cleanup on Lawyers Road