Thursday, October 8, 2009

How can we be more Green?

We are interested in capturing as many ideas as possible. We will evaluate them later. Remember "The only way to get GREAT ideas is to get LOTS of ideas!.

Here are a few suggesitions we may be able to do:

Plan room usage to minimize energy consumption
Turn off lights
Use Lo-flow toilets and urinals
Walk to church
Bike to church
Pick up trash
Have recycling containers in each room
Construct the recycling containers for cans as "targets"
Post signs: such as "Turn off lights", etc.
Post sign: "Reduce/Reuse/Recycle"
Stop using plastic and styrofoam
Reduce heat and A/C use
Encourage walking and biking to church
Carpool
Pick up friends enroute to church functions
Promote a manual wheelchair instead of electric
Build a compost pile
Don't use lawn fertilizers
Unplug electronics when not in use
Install electric hand dryers in washrooms
Encourage hand pumping of air mattresses on youth outings (vs electric pumps)
Use candles
Hold daytime meetings to avoid lighting expense
Use rain barrels
Build a "community" garden
Use rechargeable batteries in the church
What if everyone brought their own energy source to church on Sunday?
What if everyone pedalled a bike during church to generate enough power to run the church?
Turn off lights when not needed
Don't automatically turn on lights if they are not really required
Do not flip multiple switches to light an area if only one circuit is needed
Have a VBS program with an environmental awareness theme.
Provide more heat-repelling window treatment for the church(awnings, films, blinds, etc).
Encourage the use of reuseable water bottles vs single-use cups.
Install solar panels on the room of the "new wing" and the "old wing".
PUt a big real-time energy meter in a prominent place in the church.
Publish the amount and cost of the church energy consumption in the Grapevine.