Pilot Project at Augustana

The Metro Chicago Synod has been helping its member congregations achieve greater lighting energy efficiency since 1992, when its Environmental Concerns Working Group worked with Augustana Lutheran Church in a pilot project to install energy-efficient lighting at a cost to the congregation of approximately $3,000. Comparisons of electricity bills for a year prior to the implementation of the project in the fall of 1992, and a year after, showed an average decrease in monthly costs of $100, from $300 to $200, accompanied by a 40 percent decline in kilowatt hours consumed. Moreover, by reducing resulting power plant outputs of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, by 19,000 pounds, Augustana had achieved the air quality equivalent of taking ten cars off the road, as well as reducing outputs of such typical power plant pollutants as sulfur dioxide.

How did this happen? An energy audit performed for Augustana showed numerous opportunities, and the church's property committee chose to target both the most economically fruitful and the most visibly educational possibilities. The former category consisted of replacing a variety of 75-watt incandescent bulbs in hallway and exit sign locations, many of which are used 24 hours a day in order to comply with fire code requirements. In most cases, more efficient 5 to 9-watt compact fluorescents were able to do the job, and by generating less heat because of their lower energy demands, the new bulbs reduced burnout of ballasts and fixtures and lowered maintenance costs. In the courtyard, a floodlight was replaced with a 36-watt compact fluorescent bulb, which was itself tied to a photoelectric sensor instead of the electric timer formerly used. This meant that the light would go on only when it was dark outside. Finally, forty-five 75-watt incandescent bulbs in the sanctuary were replaced with 13-watt compact fluorescents that provided better lighting.

Financing Congregational Energy Projects

Dr. Job Ebenezer, at that time the Director of Environmental Stewardship for the ELCA, was sufficiently impressed with the Augustana project that he provided a $5,000 seed grant to the synod to launch a revolving loan fund to finance more such projects. The fund came into existence near the end of 1993. Within two years, the modest fund had been lent out to two more congregations, Ashburn Lutheran Church in southwestern Chicago, and Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Wheaton, each of which borrowed $2,500 to implement their own lighting efficiency projects.

The fund, managed by the Environmental Concerns Working Group (ECWG), a synodical committee, has a unique set of operational principles. From the outset, it was decided that money would be lent to congregations at zero interest. However, an audit would be required for any loan, and the cost of the audit would be rolled into the loan. Monthly repayments would be based on the projected energy savings determined by the audit. In other words, a congregation, during the repayment period of the loan, would be neither worse nor better off financially than prior to implementing the project because the money it saved would repay the loan. At the end of the loan repayment, however, the congregation would obviously have new savings to invest in other, more meaningful programs. For example, a church that borrowed $3,000 and saved $100 per month as a result of its project would repay $100 monthly back into the fund until the $3,000 was repaid. From that point forward, it would be saving $100 per month compared to its previous energy bills. This quite typical 2 ½ year payback period would represent a 40 percent return on capital, one hard to match in any other use of the church's funds. Ignoring such opportunities reminds one of Jesus's parable of the talents. Which path will your congregation choose?

Growth of the Mustard Seed

In time, the synod faced a problem. The loan fund was too small. Over time, it had grown, from the original $5,000 to about $8,000, because of money provided through AAL grants, one pastor's donation of half of the special collection at his installation, and other contributions. The ECWG asks congregations to take up a special collection or make a special donation after their repayment is over, in order to grow the fund for the future use of others.

Still, eventually it was not enough. In the fall of 1999, the ECWG lent $4,000 to Resurrection Lutheran Church, in Franklin Park, Illinois, to assist the congregation with a $10,400 project outlined by Energy Masters International, an energy services firm that had audited the church in collaboration with the synod. The congregation raised the rest of the money, receiving $2,000 in a special ELCA grant to help it achieve its goal. But the fund simply did not have enough money to finance the whole project.

In the summer of 2000, four congregations approached the ECWG with projects whose total price tag amounted to $75,000. Clearly, the synod was overtaxed in trying to meet such demands for assistance. The ECWG did manage to meet with and map out a plan to assist Zion Lutheran Church, in Elgin, Illinois, with $4,500, against a proposed $11,000 project. The congregation creatively employed its own talents to lower the cost with sweat equity and secured a $1,400 grant from Aid Association for Lutherans, a fraternal insurance company that recently merged with Lutheran Brotherhood. It later also acquired $1,400 in energy conservation rebates through a special, temporary program operated by Commonwealth Edison Co. In short, in both the Resurrection and Zion cases, the ECWG was learning to challenge applicant congregations to engage in creative fund-raising to assist in reaching their own energy efficiency goals.

But new revenue was needed. In August 2000, the synod council voted to approve a resolution directing monthly rebates from its bulk gas purchasing agreement with Enron Corp. into the loan fund. This rebate resulted from an agreement that supplied natural gas to a number of participating congregations. Obviously, with the demise of Enron as a viable enterprise, this agreement no longer is capable of funding the synod's loan program, but while it lasted, it added approximately $3,500 to the revolving loan fund.

Expanding the Fund

Because of this track record of creativity and success, the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF), in its first round of grant making in the fall of 2001, chose to bestow a $65,000 grant on the Metro Chicago Synod to enhance the operations of the loan fund. Of that total, $45,000 would actually be added directly to the loan fund to be lent to congregations for their projects. The other $20,000 would be divided over two years to finance an outreach program that is just beginning in February 2002. For this outreach program, the synod has contracted with independent energy consultant Michael Stanch, who will be visiting conference meetings, individual congregations, and synod assemblies to get the message out and raise the level of education and awareness of synod congregations concerning their potential for practicing environmental stewardship through wise energy usage. It will also be the goal of the ECWG to put all $45,000 provided by the foundation to work over the next two years in financing new projects among the synod's 230 member congregations.

So far, existing projects have only scratched the surface! There is a whole world of monetary savings and pollution reductions to be achieved. The charts, numbers, and stories on the other pages of the Metro Chicago Synod on this website provide the specifics of each success story to date. The ICECF grant has opened a whole new range of opportunities for service and savings in metropolitan Chicago Lutheran churches. We hope to build a model for other synods and other denominations to follow in establishing the practice of meaningful earthkeeping.

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