As public awareness of climate change and the changing environment grows, it’s likely you’ve heard recently in the media or from a co-worker or family member that you should be taking steps to reduce your personal carbon footprint, but it’s not easy for everybody. This year, Delaware was ranked the fifteenth most energy efficient state in the country, according to personal finance social network WalletHub--however, when it comes to home-related energy efficiency, the state ranks much lower, at 31. One organization, called Delaware Interfaith Power and Light, is taking a different approach to make the state more energy efficient -- by communicating environmental values through Delaware’s faith communities. Delaware Public Media science reporter Eli Chen hit the road to observe how Delaware Interfaith Power and Light and its partner organizations are making connections in local congregations.
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/GreenFaith_FULLVERSION.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media's science reporter Eli Chen checks in with Delaware Interfaith Power and Light.]
It’s a cold, rainy morning in early December and I’ve stepped into a trailer home in the town of Felton where Letitia Allen lives. I’m joined by four others, two from the state department of health and social services and two from a grassroots organization called First State Community Action. They’re here to provide Letitia with an eco-kit, to help her save up on home energy costs.
“So first, this is a nightlight. It doesn’t have a switch so you leave that plugged in,” Guadalupe Murphy tells Allen. Murphy represents the low income home energy assistance program, LIHEAP for short, from the state department of health. She’s taking Letitia through the contents of the eco-kit, which contains a number of items -- including aerators for the faucets, a blue plastic bag called a toilet tank, and a whole bunch of compact fluorescent lightbulbs.
“We have our lightbulbs! There’s the 13-watt, which is equivalent to a 60 incandescent lightbulb. Do you know anything about these lightbulbs?” asks Murphy.
“I purchased some earlier but I don’t know what that means or what that does,” Allen responds.
Murphy explains how they use are more energy efficient and will use less power, then moves on to habits. For example, she asks Letitia whether or not she leaves the DVD player or the microwave plugged in. And she also offers a slightly unusual tip to reduce the refrigerator’s energy intake.
“If you don't have a lot to fill in there, going out in the winter time, grabbing a big bag of snow and putting it in there will actually help your freezer work less," says Murphy. "I did it. My husband thought I was crazy, but [it helped]"
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While Murphy talks to Allen, Donyell Maull, a young man from First State Community Action named starts screwing in the CFLs. He changes the shower head to a more energy efficient shower head, and switches out the aerators in the faucets to reduce the flow of water.
“Hear the difference between the two?” asks Maull.
Allen needs the help. She's a single mother raising an 11 year old son on her own. Half of her budget goes towards utility bills. She’s not alone. The average American household spends more than $2,200 a year on energy bills, and energy star says half of these spendings go towards heating and cooling.
"My heater is constantly running because I don’t have all of my vents working," says Allen.
And you can hear the furnace going constantly as we’re having this conversation in her home. While Allen’s tried to make the adjustments she can, there are also repairs needed that are well beyond her expertise. She took me to the bathroom next to her son's bedroom, where over time, a leaky toilet had eroded much of the floor.
"The ring around the toilet, it started leaking into the floor and went into my son’s room," Allen explains.
Fixing issues in that bathroom will require more comprehensive work than what First State and LIHEAP can provide, but the eco-kit is a start. According to a cost-benefit analysis conducted by First State, one household using the eco-kit can expect to reduce their annual energy use by 845 kilowatt-hours and water use by 5,050 gallons, resulting in a projected annual cost savings of $267.
First State and LIHEAP have been working on these weatherization projects for low income families for some time. But lately, they've been partnering with a group called Delaware Interfaith Power and Light. This Delaware chapter of the much larger Interfaith Power and Light organization is focused on promoting environmental initiatives through faith communities. Interfaith Power and Light is able to provide organizations like First State and LIHEAP more reach into these communities by connecting them to houses of worship. Letitia Allen attends the John Wesley African Methodist Episcopal Church in Dover.
“With the churches and First State, the clients will be more receptive to listening what they will say as opposed to some outsider coming in, telling them what to do," Murphy says. "They trust their houses of worship.”
Delaware Interfaith Power and Light was founded three and a half years ago by John Sykes. To him, it made sense to appeal to people’s moral values in order to inspire them to care for the environment.
“It seemed to me that the IPL folks had it right, that this is a really moral issue and that if we in fact have responsibilities toward creation, it oughta be done through the congregations,” says Sykes.
Since the organization started, they’ve steadily gained a number of partners, not just with churches and environmental organizations, but also energy companies, like Delmarva Power, and political leaders in the state and in the city of Wilmington.
As of the beginning of November, 22 congregations had joined Delaware Interfaith, including various christian organizations and the Muslim Center of Wilmington. The group aims to partner with 30 by the end of the year. One of their most involved congregations is Temple United in Wilmington, run by Pastor John Graham.
“Well, I’m always believing in two things: Jesus saves us, so do I," says Graham. "As a result, anything that had to do with savings, I want to be a part of, knowing that with Delmarva, bills were going to get higher, especially in the wintertime.”
Delaware Interfaith has helped Graham and Temple United start up a few environmental programs. Over the summer, one of Temple United’s members, Evan Yett, walked door to door in Wilmington’s West End, distributing eco-kits.
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“They were a nice color, they were pink, so everyone’s asking about, ‘what’s in the bag?’ I was sharing with them from Temple United that I have some items in the kit that could possibly save money on their energy bill,”says Yett.
The church, by this spring, will be building a community garden, on a small plot of land at the back of the building. Earlier this year, they cleaned up the plot, which was formerly filled with garbage. Right now, it looks like a square patch of grass, but Temple United’s Ellen Chase has some big plans.
“We’re going to put a fence up here and then we’re going to have the beds, the flower beds,” says Chase. “[We'll have] a little bit of everything. Vegetables mostly, cabbage, collard greens, string beans.”
Temple United is based in a 100 year-old former synagogue. In the past several months, the aged building has gone through a number of improvements to become more energy efficient -- after a year, they will analyze the results based on the cost savings and use them as a model for other congregations.
One of the biggest changes to the church can be seen from above.
“See that? We painted [the roofs] all white,” says Graham.
It’s not just Temple United’s roofs that were painted white. The neighboring buildings did the same, after the church spoke to the landlords. Wilmington City Councilman Nnamdi Chukwuocha says this communication with landlords and property owners is important because of the large rental community in the West Side.
“We have a high rental population, close to 80 to 85 percent are rental, we have individuals who don’t necessarily control the environment in which they live. We have partnerships with landlords and property owners, to bring them on board to help them change that,” Chukwuocha says.
Chukwuocha has been acquiring funds for Delaware Interfaith and its congregations to carry out these environmental initiatives - one being a $650,000 Wells Fargo grant. He also coordinates the Young Ambassadors, a program that enlists young men from the neighborhood to help out the community. For example, they cleaned up the garden plot at Temple United and this spring, they’ll help Ellen Chase turn it into a community garden.
Chukwuocha says that if you want to bring about positive change in the West Side’s African American communities, you have to work through the churches.
“The backbone of African American communities have always been the church," says Chukwuocha. "So any change we want is going to have to be led through faith based efforts, so we’re glad to have DEIPL and Temple United as partners.”
Other Wilmington officials have also become deeply invested in these programs. Tunde Durosomo, senior economic adviser to Mayor Dennis Williams, has been working with Delaware Interfaith since spring 2013 to connect the organization to resources to promote their initiatives. He’s eager to expand the efforts they’re making in the West Center City’s religious communities.
“This is a pilot program for us," says Durosomo. "We know it will be successful because it has been well received so we want to expand the program to other parts of the city.”
Delaware Interfaith also partnered with Imani Energy, a solar energy company that started in Los Angeles and provided low-income minorities with green job training. Now, Imani Energy is attempting to establish itself in Delaware and is currently determining what solar energy projects the company wants to take on for churches and other institutions in the state.
Jeffrey Richardson, the CEO of Imani Energy, says that solar energy represents a great opportunity to empower deprived communities.
“There is a focus commitment to working with communities that are typically not involved in the solar industry, high tech industry, etc. Communities that are marginalized, that’s our biggest concern at Imani Energy as a company," says Richardson. "We think it’s important that the industry has opened up and people have opportunities to participate.“
The greatest challenge is educating these communities on how to practice environmental stewardship, says Lisa Locke, executive director of Delaware Interfaith. So, with some folks, she says, inspiration through faith is necessary.
“I think every religion can relate to this idea of creation care, that we have this beautiful earth that everyone should to take care of," says Locke. "When it comes down to putting it to practice, that’s where the challenge lies. There’s this natural benefit we have in the spirituality of nature, that’s pretty universal. And it’s not only adding in how they’re inspired, their sense of caring for it how the health of the environment impacts their brothers and sisters.“
Ultimately, people are more likely to listen to the people they trust. And if the people they trust have the tools to help, then real impacts can be made. So far Donyell Maull, the eco-kit installer from First State, has helped make 500 homes more energy efficient. For him, the motivation is personal.
“I like giving back and helping, these communities, same place where I grew up. I’ve seen a lot worse, and things could be a lot better," says Maull. "There’s a lot of resources there people don’t know about, like the eco-kit, it takes someone to tell you about it to know about it.“
State officials recently recommended that Delaware cut its greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2030--an ambitious goal. To echo Maull, there is still a lot of work that has to be done. But Delaware Interfaith’s efforts rely on numerous collaborators -- residents, property owners, congregations, energy companies and politicians -- who together, might actually help the state accomplish its goal. As they say, many hands make light work.
