We are excited that we’re beginning work at Walter Scott on transitioning our facility from propane furnaces to geothermal (ground loop) heat pumps. In 2020, we were producing 50 tons of planet warming CO2 from heating our facility, heating our water, and cooking our food. Through management practices and easy efficiency improvements, we have already reduced that pollution by half and by 2030 aim to be producing zero onsite emissions in-line with our Strategic Plan. Our contractors have begun marking the sites for the ground loops we’ll be installing all at once, cutting access for them to come into the buildings, pulling permits, and getting our utilities mapped before they dig. Then, as our furnaces age out over the next few years, we will replace them one-by-one with indoor geothermal units. While having a higher upfront cost, geothermal offers significant financial savings (in addition to climate benefits) by making use of the constant temperature of the earth less than a dozen feet below the ground. We are excited to embrace this decades old technology that helps us care for our common home and our neighbors near and far as Jesus taught us to do. At the same time, we are even more excited to help others learn how to do the same and advocate for ways to make such choices accessible to all people (ask Clayton about Thermal Energy Networks, he’s really excited about them for town/city applications).
