Environmental Sustainability

St. Paul’s has been making a significant effort to embrace environmentally sustainable best practices wherever it can, with regard to facilities operations and construction projects. Much progress has been made, through decisions made by the Vestry, and the Building and Property Committees, with input from the parish and from the Environmental Sustainability Committee. These efforts are guided by the need for St. Paul’s to reduce its carbon footprint and its overall use of the Earth’s resources, in our collective stewardship of God’s creation.

The Environmental Sustainability Committee would like to share the following list of those initiatives with the parish. These are action items that have been accomplished as of December 1, 2009.

  • NSTAR energy audit of old and new rectory and of church buildings, resulting in replacement of incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs (some replaced by parishioners during parish forum), insulation of the attic floor, and study undertaken to improve sanctuary lighting in the most environmentally conscious way possible;
  • Heating energy consumption reduced through replacement of old single pane basement windows with thermal double pane windows and through replacement of old thermostats with new programmable ones;
  • Reduction in paper use from mailing the paper church newsletter on a quarterly instead of monthly basis, implementation of weekly email updates, and purchase of new supplemental hymnals to eliminate photocopied hymns in leaflets;
  • Paper recycling in the offices, paper/cardboard recycling in the kitchen, and commingled container recycling in the kitchen, and recycling of weekly church leaflets;
  • Removal of parking lot trash dumpster and reduction of garbage generated by HESSCO, through implementation of effective recycling of commingled containers in the rectory kitchen;
  • Non-VOC (volatile organic compound) rugs installed in the renovated classrooms and choir room;
  • Non-VOC paints utilized in painting projects;
  • Replacement of disposable coffee cups with reusable ceramic mugs for Fellowship Hour;
  • Eco-palms used on Palm Sunday;
  • Formation of Environmental Sustainability Committee in early spring, 2009;
  • Paving of driveway for winter safety purposes eliminates need for ongoing gravel replacement;
  • Removal of old oil tank;
  • Parish forum presentation in spring, 2009, about the Massachusetts Climate Action Network’s Low Carbon Diet to reduced individual and household carbon dioxide emissions;
  • Parish forum presentation in fall, 2009, about the October 24 International Climate Action Day and 350.org, signing of petition by some parishioners to the UN leaders for 12/2009 UN Copenhagen conference, and St Paul’s joined the worldwide effort to rung church bells for 10 minutes at 3:50 pm on 10/24 in conjunction with other Dedham churches.