CAMPAIGN 01 - Building Congregational Climate Engagement and Solarization
CONGREGATIONAL CLIMATE ENGAGEMENT
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The bread and butter of our work is building congregation-based climate engagement. Our regional coordinator, Allen Drew, is partnering with the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) and the Bywood Community Association (BCA) to build an annual cycle of climate engagement for churches in the greater Philadelphia area. The cycle goes as follows:
Fall: We run a two day climate leadership training designed to equip participants to build climate engagement, education, and action in their own communities. Participants are then invited to join our monthly meeting.
Year Round: Our monthly meeting is called the Philadelphia Christian Climate Fellowship (PCCF). In this meeting, we work with local leaders to build relationships with one another, share resources, and support each other as we seek to build climate initiatives in each of our own faith communities.
Spring: We host a spring conference that can vary a great deal from year to year. We have had catered events with high level speakers and tabling opportunities for guest organizations. We have also hosted a community garden work day complete with presentations on the science and spirituality of regenerative agriculture.
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​If you are interested in becoming connected with a growing Christian climate advocacy community in Philadelphia, please contact Allen.
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Allen can also offer any of the following for your church community:
1) One-Time Presentations - He can come to a gathering or event and teach the community about the climate crisis and how to become engaged from a faith perspective. A teaching series he did in January 2022 can be found at bit.ly/biblicalclimateaction
2) Carbon Footprint Reduction Campaigns - He can lead a congregation through a campaign to reduce household emissions and increase interest in lower-carbon living.
3) Build a Climate Action Team - He can work with your congregation to develop its own climate leadership team and connect it with regional climate resources, events, and actions through the PCCF.
4) Church solarization through Solar Faithful - He can connect your church with an amazing non-profit that is focused on getting rooftop solar on houses of worship and other faith-based non-profits. They have an excellent model that uses impact investor capital and local installers to provide $0 cost solarization, a PPA with guaranteed monthly savings and all repairs and maintenance , and an early buy out option.
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CONGREGATIONAL SOLARIZATION
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Allen is also working with Michigan-based non-profit Solar Faithful to spread solarization among houses of worship and other faith-based non-profits (of any faith) in the greater Philadelphia area. Solar Faithful serves as a start to finish project manager, providing free design proposals, connecting clients with capital, utilizing high quality local installers, and offering long term free repair and maintenance coverage for all entities that want it.
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Solar Faithful can help churches purchase their panels up front through a number of different options. Owning your own panels is always the best investment over time. Many congregations, however, cannot find the up front capital, or do not want to take on long term financing loans. And so Solar Faithful has developed a $0 cost solar leasing model that makes solarization easy and free upfront, guarantees modest savings for the church for the duration of a 25 year agreement, transfers ownership of the panels at the end of the arrangement, and at the same time leaves the door open for the church to buy out of the arrangement and own their panels at any point.
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Allen Drew is on the board of Solar Faithful and highly recommends this organization and their model. He is also working to build an arrangement with local installers that will guarantee work experience for HPCSI solar installer class graduates on all Solar Faithful project installations. If your congregation or other faith-based non-profit are interested in learning more, please go to www.solarfaithful.org and click the "start your solar journey" tab to fill out a free inquiry form. That will start the process of you getting a free design proposal, which will allow you to start thinking in terms of concrete numbers and options.
