Environmental health and protection is “personal passion” for Dan Weber, who is a toxicologist and part of the academic staff at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, as well as member of Anshe Sfard Kehillat Torah synagogue in Glendale.
Therefore, it was no surprise when he suggested ASKT become the first and only Jewish congregation to participate in the Interfaith Energy Stewardship Collaborative, a program that aims to work with Wisconsin congregations of various faiths to improve energy efficiency, reduce expenses and help reduce global warming.
ASKT “unanimously decided” to join the collaborative, said Weber. “There were a lot of energy usage issues we were facing” and a lot of space for improving energy efficiency.
The collaborative is a program of the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate & Energy Campaign, an organization that Weber describes as an “interfaith effort to look at effects of global climate change.”
He said he became involved “a number of years ago as a Jewish representative.”
Representing ASKT with Weber are congregants David Hallerman, Steve Cohen and Allen Davidson.
The nine-month collaborative consists of a series of three workshops, the first which was held in Madison on Jan. 16. The others are slated for April and September.
The process began with each congregation conducting a “pre-audit,” where each building’s energy usage and architecture is taken into consideration.
Weber said the ASKT group prepared for the first workshop session by counting windows, looking at building blueprints to locate insulation and noting the types of light bulbs that are used in their facility.
For the remainder of the program, participants will work with consultants through conference calls and the last two workshop sessions to determine what they can do to help limit energy use.
Davidson said that the ASKT group has already identified areas in which changes could be made, concerning synagogue lighting and their three separate furnace systems in the chapel, main office and social hall.
By participating in the collaborative, Weber said ASKT will “achieve a 10 percent energy savings in the first year alone.”
According to Rev. Dr. Dave Steffenson, education coordinator and former director of WICEC, the purpose of the collaborative “is to help local congregations to reduce their ecological footprint with a focus on reducing their energy use through taking steps to make their facility and equipment more efficient.
“The emphasis is on picking the easiest fruits first,” he added, meaning that the congregations first focus on the easiest and least expensive steps.
The collaborative program also works with participants to set up town meetings with five or six families within the congregation to learn about ways to change their energy usage patterns within their own homes.
“Each congregation has varying success,” Steffenson said, but “coaching and encouragement are part of the process.”
Steffenson, who has a doctorate in ecological social ethics, retired from his position as a United Methodist minister to form WICEC, one of the 21 state campaigns of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, in 2000.
Aside from improving energy efficiency, there are other benefits to the collaborative.
“What’s so interesting is the diversity. Catholics, Protestants, Unitarian Universalists, Jews and Muslims are all involved with this group and I think that’s a real benefit above all of the others,” Steffenson said.
“As an interfaith environmental organization, we are interested in promoting interrelations as a positive thing,” he added.
“It was obvious as these groups got to know each other that they became aware how similar their interests and concerns were.”
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