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TI's Saving the Planet ... Plus $17,000 a Year.........posted Nov 14, 2007

The prospect of cost savings definitely served as a catalyst for the year-round conservation efforts of the synagogue's environmental committee. This year's synagogue expenses on utilities are likely to be lowered by almost $17,000 through a series of environmental-friendly - and simple - measures initiated by the committee.

The synagogue's board of directors had budgeted $67,000 in projected utility costs for the current fiscal year - paying for expected energy consumption that's the equivalent of 36 homes, roughly 10 percent of the synagogue's member households.

Under the leadership of Rabbi Howard Gorin, the environmental committee, which started in September 2006, set out to reduce energy consumption in the building and to address other aspects of the synagogue's carbon dioxide footprint.

"The first step was just to look around and see if anything was being used wastefully," says Art Fabel, a committee member who has adopted environmentalism and political involvement as an avocation since retiring from the U.S. Navy's engineering department. "Why is it necessary to keep a building comfortable at night when there are no people present and why are classrooms heated or cooled before or after classes?"

A walkthrough conducted by Fabel with synagogue staff determined the exact hours when each room was in actual use. The building was found to have a hodgepodge of 14 separate heating and cooling units that served anywhere from one to six rooms. The committee determined that 10 of the zones could be controlled by programmable thermostats with different temperature profiles for each day of the week that accounted for scheduled use. Fortunately, Fabel says, these thermostats cost just $40 each at Home Depot and could be installed at no cost by a synagogue member.

Because the heating season had already started at the time, the committee bypassed the board of directors' normal budgeting procedures by convincing Rabbi Gorin to fund the new thermostats from the Rabbi's Fund, a discretionary charity.

After several days of coming into the synagogue at 4 a.m. to tweak the thermostat settings, committee members discovered the classrooms used by the early childhood center could be lowered to 55 degrees at night but still could register a comfortable 72 degrees when the children and staff arrived at 7 a.m.

What really sold everyone on the energy conservation efforts was a comparison of the synagogue's utility bills. In November 2005, the natural gas bill was $4,201 compared to the November 2006 bill of $2,485, a savings of $1,716 or roughly four times what the programmable thermostats cost.

Fabel says this one change is expected to save 10 percent in electricity use or $4,000 a year and 15 percent in natural gas use or $3,800 a year for a total utility cost savings of $7,800. The carbon dioxide reduction will be 43 tons per year or the equivalent to planting 11.6 acres of new forests or taking seven cars off the local roads, he says.

Another discovery made by TI's environmental committee is leading to better financial management of energy usage. This came about when the synagogue was approached by an alternate electricity supplier with an offer of supplying electricity at a fixed rate of 10.6 cents per kilowatt hour for five years. This was a sharp drop from the rates charges by Pepco, the traditional supplier who was charging 11.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

After considerable shopping, the synagogue found a supplier who would supply electricity for 9.36 cent per kilowatt hour -- a projected savings of $7,600 a year on electricity. Similar shopping for natural gas alternatives resulted in a savings of $3,300 a year. So comparison shopping for energy is saving the congregation about $11,900 a year.

Because the committee's primary mandate is to address environmental needs, the synagogue board approved the purchase of $1,800 a year in renewable energy certificates, also known as carbon offsets. This will make TI carbon neutral for its electricity use.

On another front, the committee sold 102 compact fluorescent lights bulbs to congregants -- for a total cost of $481.24. Over the lifetime of these new bulbs, they will save 38 tons of CO2, 55,026 kilowatts of electricity and $5,503. These changes would be the equivalent to planting 10 acres of new forests or taking six cars permanently off the roadways.

Another task involved installing 10 Light Emitting Diode exit signs. On average, LED exit signs save 502 pounds of CO2 and $24 per year over conventional incandescent exit signs.

Fabel says congregants are demonstrating an increased awareness of environmental concerns through a well-attended showing of the film "An Inconvenient Truth," by holding conversations on the synagogue's electronic discussion list, sermons and by being willing to enter areas of the building bearing 50-degree temperatures during the winter.

"The janitor shivered and said it reminded him of where he grew up in Siberia," Fabel says. "But there were no complaints from the books and the chairs in the unoccupied rooms."

Topics covered on the discussion forum are leading to increased participation among congregants in home conservation, recycling, use of community-supported agriculture and donating of surplus belongings.

The committee also hosted a program in early November, with a speaker from the Al Gore Institute, Lise Van Susteren. She gave a slide presentation on the individual's role in curbing global warming.

Replacing grass in front of the synagogue with trees, bushes and groundcover is intended to reduce gasoline usage during lawn mowing. Synagogue staff members are investigating the possible use of environmentally friendly cleaning products.

The committee has been well supported by the congregation. Members are Lara Ballard, Warren Berger, Dan Black, Joel Bressler, Michele Eisenberg, Art Fabel, Larry Gorban, Sharon Beth Kristal, Debbie Levine and Richard Stoll.

When Fabel was asked what inspired him to work hard to "green up" Tikvat Israel and spread the message to its members, he pointed to a web page exercise that calculated how much land was required to produce everything he used - his food, shelter, clothing, entertainment and transportation. When all of this was added up, the result was that he required 29 acres of land to support himself.

"This didn't sound like much," Fabel said. "But if everyone on earth lived my lifestyle, we would need 6.6 earths to survive. The only answer is for the United States to set an example and work for worldwide co-operation."