Religious Institution Sustainability Project

Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, in Bedford Stuyvesant, is getting an energy audit and recommendations for improvements.

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.

In the project’s initial phase, sponsored by State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, three churches are receiving energy and space utilization audits to identify needed interventions and opportunities. The Pratt Center then recommends modifications to the buildings and helps the churches identify resources they’ll need to get the work done, including financing and job training programs.

High energy costs aren’t the only threat congregations face. Many are shrinking, as their members age and gentrification brings new neighbors who have no relationship to the institution. The Religious Institution Sustainability Project will help build bridges between congregations and the larger neighborhood, as resource centers for creating a sustainable community and as sites for public events. These connections generate essential capital for the congregations, in the form of rental income and community support, and for the neighborhood, which gains hubs for promoting a culture of environmental sustainability.