Leslie Lyons Watkins is on the “green team” at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.
To Watkins, making the church more eco-friendly and energy efficient is as much about being a good steward of God’s creation as it is about saving money.
“As God’s children we are all called to care for the Earth,” said Watkins, director of the single adult and Creation Care ministries at the Buckhead area church formed in 1925. “It starts with Genesis and goes all the way through Scripture.”
The team, which includes an environmental lawyer and energy consultant, was formed in 2009 to help Peachtree Road UMC become more energy efficient and environmentally responsible.
Gone are the foam cups. Church bulletins and other office materials are printed on recycled paper. The church started a comprehensive recycling program and organic garden whose vegetables are donated to a local nonprofit. Meetings are coordinated to minimize heating and air conditioning and light use.
Such efforts have not gone unnoticed or unrewarded. Watkins said the church, which has 7,200 adult members, saved $40,000 on its energy bill last year.
And Peachtree Road was recently among several churches and faith-based-groups recognized by Georgia Interfaith Power & Light. Each year the nonprofit honors congregations that show improvements in caring for the environment and becoming more energy efficient.
“Congregations and faith communities are incredibly inefficient,” said Alexis Chase, executive director of GIPL. “We’re going to help them spend a lot less money on their energy bills and more on their mission and ministry and taking care of the people in the community.”
Help starts with an audit of 12 months of energy data to get a baseline of how much gas and electricity is being used. So far, the nonprofit has conducted 46 energy audits in its Power Wise program, at a cost of $100 to $300 each, depending on the size of the congregation.
Many of the recommendations in the energy audit reports cost little or nothing to implement, and matching grants are available to help fund more costly upgrades.
“We feel we’re called to love God and love our neighbor and the way to do that is to love what God created,” Chase said.
She said there are many ways churches can reduce their carbon footprint, including replacing aging HVAC systems and appliances and looking at the building’s insulation.
Jonathan Merritt, author of “Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet” and a Buford resident, said environmental issues are so politicized that churches and pastors are “skittish” when it comes to addressing them.
“Pastors note that their congregants, particularly in evangelical congregations, are statistically more identified with the Republican Party and environmental issues are largely associated with the Democratic Party and liberal politicians,” he said. But he said that may be slowly changing because of a new generation of Christians who are more politically diverse.
Others are moving ahead.
The Archdiocese of Atlanta, for example, is renovating a building for its Chancery in Smyrna and has made substantial changes in the HVAC, lighting and super insulation in the roof to conserve energy. A high-efficiency state-of-the-art HVAC system replaced an old system. A wall-mounted occupancy sensor was installed to extinguish lights in unoccupied offices.
Young and old have embraced the idea at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Dunwoody, which removed several old refrigeration units and replaced them with more energy-efficient ones, said Bill Rankin, the church’s “Creation Keeper.”
Like Peachtree Road UMC, the church switched to paper cups or washable dishes. Light bulbs were replaced and its fleet of 17 old air conditioning units, which he called “energy hogs,” were upgraded and consolidated. He said the church has an annual energy budget of about $40,000, which he expects to shave by 20 percent.
An added benefit was to increase awareness among worshippers.
“All on board for the green wagon,” he said jokingly. “No one can disagree with saving our planet.”
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