Haslett Community Church, UCC has an active Green Team!
Green Team generally meets monthly. Find out when using the News & Events Page!
God calls us to see the Earth as a precious gift, one that is meant to be cared for by loving and responsible stewards so that people and all living being now and in the future can best flourish in it as humble, grateful recipients of God’s abundant blessings.
Our mission as the Green Team of Haslett Community Church is to lead our church to faithfully respond to this call by offering reflections and actions that will help us:
1) conserve and renew the Earth’s resources for the long-term benefit of everyone, including those in generations to come, by developing basic habits and practices, both as individuals and as a congregation, that will support conservation and reduce our waste in general and cut back in particular on the carbon and other pollutants that we put into the Earth’s air, water and soil
2) reduce and heal the wounds that humanity has inflicted upon the earth
3) promote the basic human right of environmental justice for all people, who inherently deserve to be protected from environmental pollution and to life in and enjoy a clean, healthful environment.
Joyce Bartels Memorial Solar Project
Haslett Community Church is very proud to have solar panels installed on our roof! This initiative is one of the many ways HCC strives to be a good steward of the earth.
Over the past several years our church's Current Events group hosted a series of presentations on environmental concerns, especially regarding climate change, and on how, as Christians, we might best respond to them.
Convinced that one excellent way to do so is through the use of renewable energy, our team started reaching out to people who had come to those presentations to see if they might be interested in financially supporting a solar energy project for our church- support they could give without in any way diminishing the financial support they otherwise would give to our church's ministry.
That effort, which reached out to folks in and also beyond HCC, succeeded in gathering the $59,400 that was needed to put an array of solar panels on the south roof of our sanctuary. The array was designed to generate about two-thirds of the energy we use annually and will save us an estimated $3,000 a year in our energy costs. At its February 2017 meeting, our Church Council gave the final go-ahead to this project which we've called the Joyce Bartels Memorial Solar Project in honor of HCC's first and foremost environmental leader.
We happily held a Service of Blessing and Dedication of the project on Sunday April 23rd, 2017, the Second Sunday of Easter and the day after Earth Day. Almost exactly one month later on May 22nd the installation of our solar array was completed by our friends from Peninsula Solar. We eagerly awaited a final connection that needed to be made by our local power company, Consumers Energy. That was completed on June 15th so that we're now generating renewable energy from God's gift of the sun!
Our thanks again to all whose support brought this exciting project to final fruition.
SOLAR ENERGY LINKS
Links to the news coverage of our solar project:
http://wlns.com/2017/04/23/local-church-goes-green-in-honor-of-beloved-church-member/
http://www.wilx.com/content/news/Haslett-Community-church-goes-green-420186533.html
News coverage of our 9/24/17 Solar Open House and Forum:
http://wlns.com/2017/09/24/haslett-church-shines-light-on-going-green/
Technical information about modules:
The Joyce Bartels Memorial Solar Project involves an array of domestically-sourced monocrystalline Sunpower photovoltaic modules with maximal 20kW power rating, mounted in a southern exposure on the sanctuary roof. With expected annual production of 24,000 kWh of energy, the solar project is expected to cover two-thirds of the church’s annual electrical use, saving an estimated $3,000 in utility bills, and substantially cutting the church’s carbon footprint. The project was designed and built by Peninsula Solar of Marquette, MI.
http://www.homtv.net/index_homtv.asp?view=story&news_id=8946
http://www.peninsula-solar.com
Links to EPA information about climate change:
https://www.epa.gov/climatechange/climate-change-basic-information
https://www.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-midwest
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-mi.pdf
https://www.epa.gov/climate-change-science
Assisting this project:
Our church was aided by Michigan Interfaith Power and Light, a non-profit organization helping houses of worship in Michigan. “We offer practical ways to put faith into action by promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other sustainable practices that lead to a cleaner, healthier, and more just world.”
http://www.miipl.org/about/
We were also guided by the Meridian Energy Team, which supports energy conservation and promotes renewable energy in Meridian Township.
http://recycle.meridian.mi.us/energy/
We were aided and inspired by our fellow United Church of Christ friends at Edgewood United Church in East Lansing, who dedicated their own solar project in early 2017. Ours are the first solar-powered churches in mid-Michigan.
http://eastlansinginfo.org/content/edgewood-solar-celebration-set-march-19-2017