Worship facilities across the US are signing up for Green Faith's certification program that designates churches, synagogues and mosque as being eco-friendly facilities. While the two-year intensive program might seem difficult for most, Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring obtained an eco friendly facility in a more organic sense. Rev. Andrew Walter shared in the recent Washington Post Article, Greening the Faith in the Washington Area, "Here at our own congregation, it's sort of a no-brainer — people just immediately understand that the Earth comes from God, and we need to care for it."
Visit Green Faith to see their requirements for certification
Greening the Faith in the Washington Area
By Caitlin Gibson for The Washington Post
It started a little more than a year ago, with an innocuous question during coffee hour after a Sunday service at Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring. The Rev. Andrew Walter remembers someone asking why the congregants were using paper plates and cups at their weekly gathering. Wasn’t there a greener alternative?
The small matter was resolved quickly, Walter said, “and then people kept asking, ‘What else can we do?’"
During the next 15 months — as the church installed LED lights in the fellowship hall, low-flow toilets in the restrooms and a new energy-and-money-saving HVAC system — Grace Episcopal Church joined the faith communities across the Washington region and the nation that are increasingly embracing environmental activism.
