Wind Energizes Northtowns Church	by Peter Koch

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst has always preached ecological sensibility. Now it’s putting its money where its mouth is—literally—by purchasing wind energy to meet all of its electricity needs.

“This is based on a conversation we had among many of the parishioners that we have a strong commitment to trying not to have a negative impact on the environment,” says Brenda Young, chair of the church’s conservation committee and an associate professor of Biology at Daemen College.

The green energy costs an extra 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, which adds up to approximately $1,600 extra over the course of a year. All of that money, plus a little extra, was voluntarily donated by 25 parishioners for the project.

“I think we have a sense of commitment to ecology, which fits into our principle of the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part,” says Unitarian Universalist’s Reverend Timothy Ashton.

Using wind power doesn’t mean that the Unitarian church is mounting a huge windmill on its roof, though. Niagara Mohawk, the church’s energy provider, uses the extra money to buy some of its overall power supply from Community Energy, Inc., a wind energy company that owns nine wind farms, including the Wethersfield farm in Wyoming County and the Fenner farm in Madison County. “So while the wind that’s powering this church may actually be coming from a power plant on the Great Lakes, we are at least offsetting the damage by paying for a certain amount of wind-generated electricity that will replace the energy we’re using off the grid,” says Young.

As the result of an energy audit last year, the church is also searching for other ways to conserve energy, such as installing better insulation and compact flourescent light bulbs.

Congregation members hope that Unitarian Univesalist’s switch to green power will usher in the winds of change for other area churches, too. “We hope that our decision to buy wind energy will motivate other Western New York religious congregations and organizations to join us in the endeavor,” congregation chair Gemma Lanthier said in a press release. “We stand by ready to share our audit with other congregations and to assist in other ways.”

“We’re an Earth-based religion,” Ashton says, “and that calls us to things like this, stewardship of the Earth, our home.”