1. Montevallo Presbyterian Church
Our mission
Glorifying God
Growing as Disciples
Caring for People and Creation
Montevallo Presbyterian Church
P. O. Box 456
Montevallo, AL 35115
When our small church set out to reformulate its mission in 2003, we found three simple phrases that have guided our efforts ever since. We have also found that the first two parts of our mission guide us to the third—caring for people and creation– and in , as we were renovating the educational wing of our church, we turned to faith-based resources, first to Web of Creation founded by the Lutheran Church and later to our own denomination’s Earth Care Congregation program, for inspiration. But we were also fortunate to have in our midst a man named Bill Peters, who not only loved God and God’s world but also had a practical background in environmental management. So when we began the renovation program for the education building, Bill guided us to Energy Star best practices.

2. 2008 Church Renovation
Renovation of the almost 100-year-old educational building presented a challenge for a small church of about 50 members.
It also presented an opportunity to implement our commitments to earth care.
When you begin with a sanctuary built in 1902 and an adjoining educational building completed in 1930, there is plenty of low hanging fruit. Like many congregations with older buildings, MPC had struggled with cost of utilities, largely because our buildings had no insulation in the walls or ceilings. In renovating the fellowship area, Sunday school rooms, and kitchen adjacent to the sanctuary, we incorporated strategies from the EPA's ENERGY STAR program.  For example, we insulated the building to R-32, replaced all the old single-pane windows with energy-efficient ones, and installed ceiling fans to improve the comfort level in the building when these rooms are occupied. We also installed energy-efficient lighting, featuring T8 bulbs and electronic ballasts, and a new HVAC system with two energy-efficient heat pumps. To help control heat gain from the sun, we also installed blinds, a water heater timer and ENERGY STAR qualified appliances.
First church in Alabama to receive the Energy Star Award (2010)

3. Portfolio Manager: Our Energy Compass
2007
2013
Scorecards
May indicate progress or a need to reassess practices
Do not necessarily move steadily in one direction
Always keep us aware of where we stand.
Bill also guided us to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to benchmark our usage and to guide our energy decision-making. The EPA ENERGY STAR score is a assessment of a building’s energy efficiency as compared with similar buildings nationwide, adjusting for climate and business activity. These are our scores for the years from 2007 through I can only speculate as to why 2009 and are clearly lower than the previous two years. I suspect it at least partially reflected more building usage resulting from a more active church—such things as the addition of a weekly evening choir practice and of a fellowship hour before worship—but during the three years following, we have been moving again in the right direction. We’ve added motion senor lights in bathrooms and education rooms and sought to be more proactive in maintaining HVAC systems.

4. Disasters Happen
Portfolio Manager is not a way to put property management on cruise control, but it is a powerful tool for keeping tabs on energy usage and its environmental impact. We haven’t yet entered the utility data for the months when the raccoons were living in the attic of the educational building this winter, but when we do, I’m sure we’ll see their impact. As property managers know, they must be proactive, not reactive. Ideally we see best practices reflected in Portfolio numbers rather than Portfolio numbers that send us seeking for better practices. Our latest project (besides repair from the raccoons) is upgrading the lights in our sanctuary to LED bulbs.
Raccoons created an indoor wildlife habitat by shredding HVAC ducts in the attic this winter.

5. Energy Star
This is our 2013 letter from the President recognizing our Energy Star recertification and our 2014 recertification certificate.
Our pastor Rev. Leanne Pearce Reed is pictured with Jerry Lawson, national manager of the Energy Star Small Business and Congregations Network, at a White House event in September 2012 honoring the 28 churches who have Energy Star certifications.
Our congregation owns two buildings, only one of which (the sanctuary and educational building) is Energy Star certified, but we use Energy Star Portfolio to record energy usage for both buildings and to guide our decision making about the properties.