Energy Audits

[Download the full Power Lite Audit document here]

An energy audit is a wonderful way to help your congregation understand how you are using energy in congregational facilities and how you can improve your energy efficiency.  Energy audits can be carried out by professional engineers or you can do it yourself.  GIPL will help your congregation evaluate your needs and challenges and assess what type of energy audit will be most beneficial for your congregation.

The report that comes out of an energy audit will include suggestions and recommendations for changing behavior, fixtures, and systems in a way that can reduce your congregation’s use of energy, both electricity and natural gas.  Implementing these recommendations will not only lower your energy bills, allowing your congregation to invest more financial resources in mission, but will also increase the comfort of your facilities. 

After you have received your audit (or performed your own audit), GIPL will help you identify the “low-hanging fruit” – actions and recommendations that can be implemented quickly and easily and will make immediate improvements in your energy usage.  We can help you find the supplies and products you need for smaller do-it-yourself projects that can save you lots of energy.  We will also help you evaluate and prioritize larger-scale improvements and can even help you find contractors to carry out the work. 

Six churches (Hopewell Missionary Baptist in Norcross, St. Bartholomew's Episcopal in Atlanta, St. John's Episcopal in College Park, North Avenue Presbyterian in Atlanta, Druid Hills United Methodist in Atlanta, and Kennesaw United Methodist in Kennesaw) took part in GIPL's energy audit pilot program and have begun work on implementing the auditors recommendations. Several other churches have also had audits performed. We are now working on ways to expand this program so that we can help other churches identify what type of audit they might need, how to understand the results of the audit, and how to prioritize and implement the suggestions that come from the audit report.

If your church would be interested in an energy audit, please contact us. As we develop our audit program further, we will keep in touch with you about opportunities. In the meantime, you can download and use the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star Guide for Congregations to start looking for ways to save energy in your own facilities. Many of the suggestions in the guide can be done yourself.