“10% Less Energy” Campaign by Churches Produces Positive Results
2013-12-16 18:00
One Sunday in August 2011 when the days were particularly hot, Gurodong Church (Rev. Jeong Jin-hwoe) in Garibong-dong, Seoul, held a candlelight vigil without any previous plan. The church was having a power outage due to overuse of electricity in the main building and the education hall. From that day, throughout the entire summer, the church members had to worry constantly about another such happening.
This experience was the main motive for the church to join the “village power station movement” last April. Through this movement, done in cooperation with the local government, the congregation aimed to use 10% less energy in all church buildings including the church-run kindergarten, and in the households of participating church members. The church held an education program for church members explaining how they could practice energy saving in their daily lives: turn off the TV and set top box altogether when not in use, set and maintain the air conditioner at an appropriate temperature (26℃), turn on the water purifier and computers only when in use, etc.
As a result of their practice, Gurodong Church, including the kindergarten, used 16% (5,894kwH) less energy from June to September than it had the previous year. In August alone, the hottest month of the year, the church saved 24.5% in comparison with the amount used in 2012. 117 households participated in the movement and saved 5.8% on average compared to the previous year.
Sanjeonghyun Church (Rev. Kim Gwan-sun) is conducting “Green & Clean,” an energy-saving campaign, in the church and in church members’ households since last January. According to the evaluation of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, they saved 7% on average compared to the same period last year. Rev. Kang Cheol-hyeong, in charge of this campaign at Sangjeonghyun Church, said, “It’s not enough simply to suggest alternative energy as a church concern. It is important that church communities lead the campaign by actually saving energy.”
These two case studies were shared during the 2013 Symposium on the Church’s Social Responsibility, held at the Korean Christian Ecumenical Building in Yeonjidong by the Christian Ethics Movement of Korea (CEMK). In the event called “Church Considers Alternatives Beyond Nuclear Energy,” it was recognized that churches can carry out campaigns such as “10% Less Energy” and actually achieve their goal, particularly since power outages have become a visible reality.
In fact, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Center for Climate and Environmental Campaigns, four churches in Seoul (two in the northern part and two in southern Seoul) reduced their power usage by 4-15% during the city’s model campaign in December last year. Choi Young-su, head of the center’s energy policy team, encouraged more churches and their members to participate, saying, “The model churches did especially well in their practice of easy methods such as preserving energy by not using the ‘wait’ mode of office electronic equipment and installing sun covers on the outside units of air conditioners.”
Reporter Jaechan Park (jeep@kmib.co.kr), Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Click here for the original article in Korean
