Feature image: Pastor Curtis of Faith Baptist Church cutting the ribbon for the solar installation, along with RE-volve staff; Susan Stephenson, executive director of Interfaith Power & Light, Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll Sr., founder and CEO of Green the Church; and other Faith Baptist members and community members. Image credit: Faith Baptist Church.
Each year, the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo supports a Greenbuild Legacy Project, an effort to give back to the local community in gratitude for hosting some 10,000 attendees from across the country and around the world.
As we approach the 20th anniversary celebration of Greenbuild in San Francisco, California, the Greenbuild Host Committee proudly awards the 2022 Greenbuild Legacy Project to California Interfaith Power & Light (CIPL) for a neighborhood resilience hub project at Faith Baptist Church in the city of Oakland.
The award, which includes $7,500 in funding raised through Greenbuild registration, will make possible the purchase and installation of a battery to support the solar array at Faith Baptist Church. The Greenbuild Host Committee aims to raise and contribute another estimated $10,000 in donations to extend the impact of the Legacy Project, providing CIPL and Faith Baptist Church with additional resources and support for expansion of the community resilience hub.
Faith Baptist Church’s senior pastor, Curtis Robinson, is thrilled with the award, which he says will strengthen the community’s resilience. “Central East Oakland is a community that resides on the margins, and the development of a resilience hub at Faith Baptist Church, with independent battery storage for clean energy from the sun, will help diminish environmental segregation in the neighborhood,” says Robinson. “The funding that is needed to challenge climate justice is a very large and important task, and this award will help Faith Baptist Church raise consciousness for other local churches in the fight for educational, environmental and economic advocacy in communities that face these challenges.”
Faith Baptist Church’s focus on serving the community will particularly benefit vulnerable demographic segments, such as older citizens and children, who are more adversely affected by poor air quality and energy disruption events. Data from CalEnviroScreen, provided by IPL, shows that the Havenscourt/Millsmont community suffers disproportionately from air pollution from surrounding industry, freeways and airports. These public health concerns are further aggravated by wildfire events, making the facility even more important for the local, predominantly Black community.
“With worsening wildfire seasons and higher temperatures, people throughout California are increasingly exposed to dangerous, smoke-filled air and heat impacts,” Rebekah Kokalis explained in CIPL’s application. “In low-income communities already dealing with poor air quality, like East Oakland, these dangers are exacerbated by the fact that many are unable to sufficiently insulate their home or invest in high-quality air filters or air conditioning.”
CIPL’s project application stood out to the Greenbuild Host Committee–Legacy Project working group for its consistency in performance across all Legacy Project criteria, advancing all four of USGBC’s core pillars through resilience, equity, health and wellness, and sustainability. In addition to serving the needs of the 700-person congregation, Faith Baptist Church aims to extend its support to the broader community by serving as a state-recognized resilience hub in the event of natural disasters.
Solar installation on top of the roof of Faith Baptist Church. Image courtesy of Interfaith Power & Light.
The Greenbuild Legacy Project will add battery storage to support basic facility needs, using the existing solar array, resulting in a zero-energy, self-sustaining facility. The addition of the battery will ensure that even on overcast or smoky days, the building can adequately provide clean air to community members.
CIPL and the church aim to share lessons learned with other projects in the country, a goal that resonated with the Greenbuild Legacy Project working group. Faith Baptist Church and CIPL will host workshops discussing the impacts of climate change on their neighborhood and how to adapt to these changes. Another partner, Green the Church, will use this project as a model to create a guide for other congregations on how to become resilience hubs. The guide will then be distributed among all three organizations. The resilience hub will also become a source of education and awareness for environmental sustainability, carbon reduction and resilience for the community.
Susan Stephenson, executive director of Interfaith Power and Light, says the team is feeling exceptionally blessed and grateful for the support. “Our mission is to mobilize people of faith and conscience to take bold and just action on climate change, and it is a privilege to take action with Faith Baptist Church to advance climate justice. As a community that has been historically marginalized socially and economically, the creation of a local resiliency hub will greatly advance the community’s climate resiliency, support the community during wildfires and other disasters, and provide resources to safeguard the health and well-being of the most vulnerable within the community,” she says.
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