Renewing the Sacred Balance
Renewing the Sacred Balance in our Homes & Religious Buildings
To live out the Renewal the Sacred Balance means practising ecological values in our everyday lives. We can begin by changing the way we shop, reducing our energy use, eliminating toxic chemicals from our homes and gardens, and making conscious choices about the food we eat.
As well as the suggestions appearing on this page, we suggest that you refer to material and resources from our Greening Sacred Spaces initiative.
Buy Less, Buy more Carefully
Only buy what you really need. To avoid “impulse shopping”, make a shopping list before you leave home and stick to it.
Buy products with the minimum amount of packaging available. Bulk stores often allow you to buy food and cleaning supplies with little or no packaging.
Avoid buying disposable items – particularly those made of plastic, styrofoam, and other materials that are non-biodegradable or difficult to recycle. In your faith community, use real plates, cutlery, and cups, not disposable ones.
Use fabric shopping bags that can be reused rather than plastic or paper bags. If you do use a plastic bag, reuse it or return it where possible.
Do not buy or use toxic cleaners. Vinegar and baking soda are excellent cleaners that can be used widely. As well, ecologically friendly cleaners are available – often at bulk or natural product stores. Look for products with the EcoLogo that certifies them as being less ecologically harmful.
Reduce Energy Use
When building a new home or religious building, ensure that it meets the R-2000 standards. You might even want to consider an alternative building method like straw bale or compacted earth construction. See some case studies for more ideas.
When purchasing appliances, choose models that are Energy Star® approved.
Have your home and place of worship evaluated for energy use by doing an EnerGuide evaluation. Homes are eligible for a grant for reductions in energy use (and this programme or one similar to it may soon become available for religious buildings).
Use a programmable thermostat to reduce energy use for heating and cooling at times of minimal building use. Keep the thermostat at 20 C or less in the winter and at 24 C or above in the summer. Water heaters can also be put on a programmable thermostat.
Replace light bulbs with energy-efficient alternatives such as compact fluorescents. Turn out lights when not in use. In churches and religious buildings, motion-detector switches can be used to ensure that lights are turned off in empty rooms.
Improve your home or church/temple’s insulation, seal heat leaks with caulking, and install more energy-efficient windows.
Resource of Interest: The Energy Workbook for Religious Buildings was originally published by The Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility, this step-by-step workbook helps faith communities assess the energy use of their buildings and plan retrofits to reduce energy use. It is still available for $2.00 through United Church Resource Distribution (Product Number: 500000082). Call: (416) 253-5456 or 1-800-288-7365.
Ecologically Friendly Lawns and Gardens
Replace chemical pesticides on your lawn, garden, and houseplants with non-toxic alternatives.
Consider alternatives to traditional lawns such as gardens based on native plants or lawns with a high percentage of clover. Choose varieties of grass that use less water and do not cut lawns too short.
Collect rainwater from eaves troughs for use in the garden.
Compost food wastes and use them to enrich your garden's soil.
Plant trees: Trees help purify the air, attract wildlife, and can help reduce cooling costs in summer. Evergreens planted on the north side of buildings can also reduce heating costs in winter.
Communal Gardens: If your church or temple has a large area of land, use some of it for communal garden plots instead of a lawn.
Food
Organise a Farmer's Market: If your church or temple has a parking lot or community hall, consider organising a local farmers’ market on a regular basis.
Reduce the amount of meat you consume. Meat production consumes high amounts of water and grain and also creates significant quantities of waste.
Whenever possible, purchase food produced locally. Food is often transported over thousands of kilometres – wasting energy. As well, locally produced food often uses lower levels of pesticides. (Ask your local store to stock more items from sources close to home!)
Community-Supported Agriculture: As a faith community – perhaps in cooperation with others in your area – become involved in Community-Supported Agriculture (where a group of people commit to buy the produce of a local farmer and participate in the planning of the crops to be grown).
Buy organic food whenever possible. While more expensive to buy, organic farming methods are gentler on the Earth.
» Next: Renewing the Sacred Balance in our Local Communities & Transportation
The material on this page was adapted from an article by Mark Hathaway originally published in the April 2004 edition of Scarboro Missions magazine's special issue on "Renewing the Sacred Balance."