Kansas Interfaith Power & Light

Kansas Interfaith Power & Light is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $65,000 grant to perform energy-efficiency upgrades in 15 houses of worship in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The program, called “Energy Stewardship for Houses of Worship,” will be administered between March and November, 2012.

The grant, from the Mid-America Regional Council under its EnergyWorks KC program, is for “programs that exhibit innovative approaches leading to energy upgrades of existing buildings.” The funding is provided by the Federal government under the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“ARRA”).

Houses of worship can be some of the most energy-inefficient buildings in our stock, which can present a significant burden to the congregations or denominations that maintain them. Many houses of worship operate on a shoestring budget, and every extra dollar they spend on energy or electricity is a dollar they cannot spend on worship, faith education, care for the poor or any of the other areas of activity that are more central to their mission.

Kansas IPL has found through years of working on this issue that paying attention to these energy efficiency items will have significant benefits for the community’s bottom line – as well as for the environment. Churches can save anywhere from 15% to over 40% of their annual lighting and energy costs by instituting these changes (the return depends on the size of the building and the extent of the improvements).

Under the terms of the Energy Stewardship project, churches and other houses of worship will receive an energy audit to determine their energy usage and areas where improvements will be most effective. They will then receive a matching grant of $3,000 to: a) replace 50 fixtures of outdated fluorescent lighting with more-efficient T-8 lighting; b) install timed thermostats, allowing for significant temperature setbacks when the building is not in use; and c) perform other energy-efficiency improvements as determined by the audit. The goal is to save the community a minimum of 15% of its annual energy usage, and this will be monitored using a program developed by the federal EnergyStar program.

Houses of worship in the Kansas counties of Johnson, Wyandotte, Leavenworth and Miami are eligible to apply, with work on the first churches scheduled to begin in March. Outreach will be through direct contact, the media, and denominational structures.