St. Jude’s Parish Energy Audit

One of our main concerns in the Greening Committee is to conduct an energy audit for our parish building and property: for the church building itself and the gardens around the church. We do this audit under the guidelines of the Diocese of Niagara, and with the more than twenty other churches in the diocese doing similar audits. Sue Carson, from the diocesan Greening Committee has been an invaluable guide in our work and has spoken at St. Jude’s about the overall purpose of the energy audit.

The aim of this audit is to monitor the efficiency of St. Jude’s use of gas, electricity, water, paper and other resources, and to encourage everyone using parish facilities to be as responsible and efficient as possible. Work on the audit continues year after year. Conducting this audit, the Greening committee works with other committees and projects in the parish to try to keep all energy and resource use as conservative and sustainable as possible. We are concerned, for example, that all parish activities avoid single-use plastic, such as plastic straws and cups. There are several aspects to the audit, but one obvious, simple and practical one has been to examine every door and window in the buildings, to ensure they are in good repair and well-sealed. A reminder in all this, to everyone, is simply to be sure always to turn off all lights after a room has been used, and not to leave taps dripping!

Results at St. Jude’s are generally encouraging, despite the complications of year-long projects for the installation of a new kitchen and a new roof. One significant piece of information about costs from the audit is this:

Jan.-June /23 gas incl. taxes $13,961.88
Jan.-June /24 gas incl. taxes $9,975.87

Jan.-June /23 electricity incl. taxes $7,441.47
Jan.-June /24 electricity incl. taxes $8,554.03

With careful usage, and monitoring, costs will decline. Some figures indicate need for further study. Energy costs in running such a large, busy parish building as St. Jude’s are high, but the responsible, careful use of such things as lights, kitchen facilities and heating can result in considerable savings.

Hamish Guthrie
Chairperson
For the Greening Committee