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Ethics & Energy - In English

Background

Etik & Energi (Ethics & Energy) is a Swedish interfaith non profit association working with congregations, church organizations, and people of faith in the local community. The organization was founded in 2004 and inspired by the American "The Regeneration Project" (Interfaith, Power & Light). The goal of Ethics & Energy is to help congregations conserve energy and become more energy efficient. In this way, a sustainable lifestyle will be attained, as well a sustainable management of church property. Ethics & Energy creates a national network of religious entities in response to global warming with education and promotion of alternatives such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy conservation. With energy prices steadily increasing, these alternatives provide an opportunity for reducing energy costs. This money could then be used for charity and activities, rather than wasting energy. Ethics & Energy gives people of faith a chance to put their faith into action and reduce the devastating effects of global warming.

The Lutheran Church of Sweden alone owns nearly twenty thousand buildings in the country, the majority of them (80%) being heated with oil or electricity. This is both expensive and detrimental for the environment. In addition, many of the churches in Sweden are cultural treasures with ancient history, and improper heating systems can damage or even destroy antiquities and lead to expensive restoration costs. Therefore, good heating practice is beneficial to the parish in many different ways.

Ethics & Energy collaborates with some of the nation's best consultants who possess a variety of expertise such as energy conservation, preservation and heating of historic buildings, bioenergy, solar energy, wind power, local district heating, environmental issues, pedagogies, theology and more.

As people of faith, it is important that we are good stewards of God's creation and do not contribute to climate change. Climate change is, in addition to its environmental implications, a matter of social injustice. Global warming is one of the biggest threats facing humanity today. The very existence of life - life that religious people are called to protect - is endangered by our continued dependency on fossil fuels for energy. As temperatures rise and the supply of fossil fuels are depleted, the scarcity and burden of climate change will primarily impact the poor, and eventually come home to us all. However, the poor countries will suffer the most from these consequences, even if they are the ones least responsible for the problem (e.g. emissions of greenhouse gases).

Ethics & Energy's mission is to help people of faith understand that issues of climate change are at the forefront of social justice. The association focuses on tangible results by educating congregations and assistance in purchasing energy efficient supplies, providing energy audits, implementing recommendations, and supporting renewable energy by working on large scale installation projects.

We cannot claim to love our brothers and sisters around the world if we are destroying their countries through melting ice and rising oceans. If we love others we will do everything in our power to substitute clean and renewable power sources for the ones we use now. If we are good stewards of God's Creation we will act in a way that preserves it for generations to come. These are serious matters of faith.

Faith in place

Today, the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness - both individual and collective - are contrary to the order of creation, an order which is characterized by mutual interdependence.

Pope John Paul II, "On the Ecological Crisis"

An awareness of the relationship between God and humankind brings a fuller sense of the importance of the relationship between human beings and the natural environment, which is God's creation and which God entrusted to us to guard with wisdom and love.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope John Paul II

It is what God made and beheld as good that is under assault. The future of this gift so freely given is in our hands, and we must maintain it as we have received it. This is an inescapably religious challenge. We feel a profound and urgent call to respond with all we have, all we are, and all we believe.

National Religious Partnership for the Environment

Membership

Parishes are able to join the ethics & energy association by paying a membership fee. This variable fee is based on the number of buildings the parish owns. Once a member of Ethics & Energy, the parish works accordingly to a specialized three year program, and in addition they receive a monthly newsletter, support when needed, information about governmental subsidies, discounted courses/conferences and much more. Today about 50 parishes and five dioceses are members of ethics & energy. In the future, personal memberships will also be available.

The Ethics & Energy program

Ethics & Energy has developed a unique, designed pedagogic program for congregations who want to work with energy issues. The main components of the three year program are.

Energy auditing: The parish, along with support and material from ethics & energy, will fill out energy auditing forms for each building. In doing this themselves, it becomes less expensive, and an important learning experience for the parish faculty. The caretaker, for instance, attains increased knowledge about the energy systems and the energy consumption of the buildings. Therefore, this is an important part of the pedagogic program.

Recommendations: On the basis of the completed energy audit, one of Ethics & Energy's energy conservation experts will perform an analysis and provide the parish with recommendations for improvement. The document will consist of practical suggestions for appropriate energy efficiency and conservation measures to be taken in each building. The suggestions may include anything from installing an entirely new heating system to something as simple as replacing incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents.

Feedback: No one knows the buildings better than the people working in them. Therefore, the employees and volunteers are asked to review and discuss the analysis and recommendations. Their suggestions and new ideas are then added to the document.

Education: All employees and volunteers within the congregation will receive a full day of education to learn more about energy issues. The day involves discussions and learning about faith, stewardship for creation, sustainable development, and responsibility for the local and global environment in the scheme of climate change. The day also provides an opportunity to learn more about how to conserve energy, save money and care for the environment both at work and at home.

Action plans: Based on the components above, the parish faculty then creates a plan of action for the coming year. The parish will decide which investments are to be implemented the coming year, and the employees set up personal goals for how they can conserve energy.

Revision: Every year the action plans are revised and new goals are set for the next year. This way the program becomes an efficient energy management system.