Conservation & Sustainability Interfaith Partnership (CSIP) is a Chicago-based conservation team that helps congregations find and execute energy efficiency measures. CSIP works with energy, water and other partners, leveraging the strength of the large faith community to reduce energy and water costs and to improve the health of worship facilities and their surrounding neighborhoods. CSIP’s services are available at no cost to houses of worship.
Save * Conserve * Preserve
• NTP Partners & Utilities (track) energy and water use for further conservation benefits
Click here to see free or low cost efficiency measures you can take with utilities & our NFP Partners
• save por Trade Allies
• Funding Click here to see efficiency funding options & fundraising opportunities
Strategy
CSIP was founded in 2014 as a mechanism to bring religious organizations together in Chicago to benefit from the water fee exemption available to religious not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) and to participate in energy and water efficiency. We began by forming a working group made up of representatives from the utility companies and not-for-profit organizations such as the US EPA, US Green Building Council, Faith in Place and Elevate Energy. The working group identified efficiency programs that were available to NFPs and hosted workshops for congregations which led to the formation of CSIP.
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CSIP Funding
In an effort to keep CSIP a free service for congregations, we employ two funding streams:
1. Trade ally annual membership fee of $500, and
2. A percentage of project cost negotiated with church (recommended 3%).
The CSIP fee will be added to the total cost of the project and included in the funding mechanism put in place, for example CSIP’s fee is listed as a line item on [trade ally]’s retro-commissioning pilot project in the [member diocese] and it is covered by the retro-commissioning incentives received from the local electric utility, ComEd.
Keys to Success
1
Quantifying worship facilities’ participation in and benefits from conservation and efficiency programs.
3
Saving congregations money by lowering bills which enables them to fund further improvements
2
Being recognized as a trusted resource in the faith community by being accessible and engaging with the community
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