Project last updated December 8, 2009

Churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship serve as anchors for their congregations and communities. But rising energy costs and expensive building maintenance are a burden greater than many can bear. Their aging buildings waste costly amounts of heating fuel because of inefficient design, poor insulation, and deferred maintenance.

The Pratt Center is collaborating with religious institutions to help them reduce their buildings’ energy consumption, set maintenance priorities, develop space utilization strategies and in the process turn them into centers of education and advocacy for sustainability in their communities. The Religious Institution Sustainability Project is currently focusing on Bedford-Stuyvesant, home to more than 100 houses of worship as well as the Retrofit Bedford Stuyvesant collaboration targeting two blocks of Herkimer Street for home weatherization.

Project last updated April 16, 2009

A Model Block for Energy Efficiency

Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, America's first community development corporation, and the Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford Stuyvesant are working with the Pratt Center to make the neighborhood a model for improving energy efficiency in low-income urban neighborhoods. By focusing our efforts in a defined geographic neighborhood, we will take advantage of urban proximity, common and attached building types, social networking and word-of-mouth marketing to dramatically reduce energy use, thereby reducing homeowner and tenant costs and improving indoor and outdoor air quality. Our ten-year goal is to retrofit over 5,000 homes and serve as a model for urban neighborhoods throughout the United States.