Conservation: Good for the earth, good for the Church

By Priscilla A. Greear - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | For church building professionals, building up God’s kingdom literally means building churches on earth. As for shining Christ’s light more brightly: It also means using energy efficiently.

Both those topics were discussed at the annual meeting of the national Conference for Catholic Facility Management, which drew 178 professionals from California to Alaska to the Hyatt Regency Miami April 24-26 at. Participants ranged from engineers and contractors to landscape architects and building and construction managers representing 75 dioceses and 31 religious orders, including one from Canada.

The conference opened with a keynote address by the president of Ave Maria University, H. James Towey, who previously served as attorney to St. Teresa of Calcutta and director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

The next day, Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrated Mass at downtown Miami’s historic Gesu Church, where he reminded listeners that the highest function of church architecture is to point the soul heavenward.

For education, conference participants attended workshops on several topics including energy efficiency, real estate and canon law, and disaster readiness. They also gained practical information for facing common challenges such as aging buildings, decreasing congregation sizes and financial support, and declining numbers of Religious. They mingled by day with vendors selling everything from church bells to liturgical art and savored the twilight skyline during a yacht tour along Biscayne Bay.

David Prada, senior director of Building and Properties for the archdiocese, said he was honored to host the conference here. He added that he gained spiritual insight for his work overseeing some 2,000 archdiocesan buildings.

“One of the things the archbishop said was that much like the human body has a spirit inside of it, the spirit of the Church lives within the physical body of the architecture and the construction,” reflected Prada. “It’s very important for members of CCFM to always remember that’s what we’re busy building, the body that houses the spirit of God.”  

 

Green buildings

Prada and architect Jose Murguido highlighted the archdiocese’s efforts in energy conservation, in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical, during a tour of two of the archdiocese’s greenest buildings: Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Doral and St. Brendan High School’s Innovation Center in Miami. Both feature LED lighting, energy-efficient roofing and AC, and pews and building materials high in recycled content.

“The archdiocese is very committed to sustainable strategies in our buildings. We are always looking for opportunities in our projects where we can implement green initiatives,” Prada said. “All those strategies were implemented and both buildings employ very beautiful designs.”

He discussed the symbolism of the church, which incorporates codices from the original Our Lady of Guadalupe image that inspired the conversion of Mexican Indians.

“In addition to being very green and sustainable, the building design, much like the image of Guadalupe, was to inspire people to deepen their faith and their understanding of the Catholic faith,” Prada said. 

 

EPA partnership

Guadalupe, St. Brendan and St. Mary Cathedral are also the first archdiocesan buildings to participate in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, whose Portfolio Manager will track costs over time.

Jerry Lawson, Energy Star national manager for congregations, said the Miami Archdiocese is one of five partner dioceses nationwide. He stressed the connection between environmental stewardship and reduction of greenhouse gases with climate change and human life. 

“Archbishop Wenski has been the spokesman for the (U.S. bishops) on climate. You’re probably well aware of what happens in Miami with flooding as oceans are rising. Our coastal cities are all experiencing some of the climate change issues. It all comes together with Laudato Si’, where the pope talks about not wasting,” Lawson said. “Globally we’re contributing to fires, famines, drought and flooding when we mess with the weather. This comes back to human life.”

Jennifer Shankie moderated the conference’s energy conservation workshop, where Lawson provided resources and participants considered how they can help ensure the future of the earth as well as the financial stability of their churches.

Business manager Gene Murphy of Sacred Heart Church in Prescott, Ariz., described his parish’s action plan starting in 2012 with installation of low- and no-flow toilets, tank-free water heaters, an irrigation monitoring system and new thermal pane windows. Next they installed 622 solar panels and LED lighting. Annual utility costs have fallen from $94,500 to $29,500.

Shankie established the CCFM energy and environmental committee five years ago to galvanize dioceses, given the tens of thousands of ecclesial buildings punctuating the American landscape.

 

Lower bills

“I just think the opportunity is phenomenal and it will help keep houses of worship open to be the cornerstone of the community. It will reduce the bills, lower the costs and put more money back into the core mission,” said Shankie, who created the Conservation & Sustainability Interfaith Partnership.

She recommends that Catholic organizations get an energy assessment, often free through a local utility. “If that’s not available just benchmark your facility through (Energy Star) Portfolio Manager and it will give you a place to start,” she said.

The CCFM’s outgoing executive director, Thomas Richter, praised Shankie’s environmental leadership.

“Many of us are engineers working on things like making sure the roof doesn’t leak and making sure the parking lot doesn’t have potholes and the AC works. She really took that environmental responsibility on and started us thinking about our responsibilities as Catholics to the environment and what we can do,” Richter said. “What Laudato Si’ has hammered home to us is that responsibility we as Catholics have to do it not just because there’s a good rate of return but because it’s the right thing to do.”

LEDs and ACs

Prada said that a simple first step is installation of LED lights and high efficiency air conditioners. His office guides parishes in the selection processes.

“One of the primary energy expenditures we have in the Southeast is AC costs. Those are the things we focus on, getting high efficiency AC systems with a good system of controls so you’re not running AC when you don’t need it,” he said. “And lighting controls, along with LEDs, those are practical things that can be implemented fairly easily and don’t have a huge capital outlay to start out with. It’s important to look for simple opportunities and to implement energy efficient strategies and little by little then start looking at bigger ones.”

CCFM’s incoming executive director is Louis Baird, who helped plan the group’s first conference back in 1996. He said he will work toward providing year-round resources for members — on energy efficiency and myriad other facility issues — by using tools such as webinars, Facebook and LinkedIn. He’ll also work to continue to grow the organization and expand into Canada.

“We’re in building, management, construction, real estate. We’ve got a lot of uniqueness about how we handle things, do things. So the opportunity to get everybody together and share experiences is important,” Baird said.

Prada looks forward to serving alongside Baird as the new board vice president.

“It really was a great conference and built up a lot of camaraderie. You come back to work renewed and full of energy to make a difference,” he said.