Blog

Ellen is Executive Director of Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C.

Our congregation, situated on a hilly, wooded site in Northwest D.C., has been on Military Road for more than 50 years. Today, we have more than 1,100 member families engaged in our vibrant community.

We banded together with other institutions and nonprofits through the Community Power Project because it fits perfectly with our deeply held values and priorities. Temple Sinai offers lifespan education from nursery school through adult and everything in between. Our building is designed to bring nature inside.

Floor to ceiling glass walls let us relate to nature as we worship. The sanctuary, with glass sides and a roofline crafted to resemble an open tent, is spectacular.  

Our long-standing history of social action - spanning education, hunger, jobs and housing, to name a few - is reflected in our Sinai House. We help families who are homeless get back on their feet. 

We're also a nonprofit. Our income largely comes from memership dues and voluntary contributions.

It's important that we're as smart as we can be about using our resources. Utilities are about 4.5 percent of our operating budget. Through the Community Power Project, we switched to 100 percent wind power and helped other organizations with less purchasing power save money and purchase cleaner energy too. 

We're a relatively large temple community. We had been negotiating good electricity rates on our own for a few years, but joined this group to do good for the D.C. community and the world. 

Temple Sinai embraces the Hebrew phrase Tikkun Olam, which means "repair the world." We're grateful for the chance to have a bigger impact than we could as just one congregation on our own.

Please share this story about our community-led initiative with your friends and family.

Ask them to sign up to learn more about how Groundswell partners with institutions like Temple Sinai and other organizations to increase community investment in clean energy and to create local economic opportunity. 

Reposted from MyGreenMontgomery.org.

There are a lot of incentives available for residents to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes. The utility companies offer rebates on appliances, HVAC systems, insulation jobs; the County has a property tax credit depending on funding, the State or the County may be offering a short-run rebate program. Everyone likes a deal, but sometimes getting started with an energy efficiency project seems too challenging, or there just isn’t even time to wade through all of the information to take advantage of the opportunities.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone to guide you through the process, explain energy efficiency improvements to you in English (not jargon), and also help to build a stronger community?

Enter Groundswell.

A Groundswell contractor at work (photo: Groundswell)

Groundswell is a nonprofit organization that works with community networks to inspire residents to follow through with improvements that strengthen homes, build community and support the local economy. Through its community purchasing approach, Groundswell’s Strong Homes Program coordinates neighbors interested in making energy improvements. Then local, certified and vetted contractors provide proposals to complete the work. In the end participants have a more energy-efficient home, get a good deal on the work by leveraging group buying power, have a stronger tie to their community, and support the local clean energy economy.

Groundswell, formerly known as WeatherizeDC, has been working with communities in Maryland and DC for a few years and is now growing their presence in Maryland. In the fall of 2011 Groundswell guided a community in Silver Spring through the home weatherization process. Together, homeowners saved about 15 percent on the work and will save between 15 and 25 percent on future energy costs.

This is just one success story. Several other projects have taken off across the DC metro region.

As part of their work in Maryland, Groundswell is currently seeking out Bethesda homeowners interested in participating in the Strong Home Program. If you live in Bethesda and have been thinking about making weatherization improvements to your home, now is the time to act!

For more information and to get your community involved, contact Ayla Schlosser, Groundswell Field Program Manager at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or             202.630.9381      . Participation in this round must be solidified by April 20th. However, additional program interest can spur another group so contact Ayla for more information.

I serve as Lead Organizer for People Acting Together in Howard (PATH) - a multi-racial, multi-faith citizens' organization in Howard County, Maryland.

We're rooted in local congregations and associations in a county that's a mix of farmlands, historic cities and planned communities. PATH is an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the oldest and largest institution for community organizing in the country. For sixty years, IAF's mission has been to train people to take responsibility for solving problems in their own communities. 

After seeing Washington Interfaith Network and Groundswell successfully bring together community institutions to purchase energy, PATH worked with our sister organizations in Montgomery County and Baltimore, as well as Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light and other groups to partner with Groundswell.

We organized more than 100 faith institutions and nonprofits to purchase $4.5 million worth of electricity together. Nearly 90 percent of the investment is tied to clean electricity and individual members of the participating institutions can access lower rates, too. 

The energy purchase helped us address one of the top issues raised by members of our congregations when we held house meetings two and a half years ago in Howard County: rising energy prices. 

In these tough economic times, especially for seniors and families facing unemployment in our congregations, lower energy bills mean they have more money to spend on important things in their lives like their children's education. It helps our institutions use their budgets more for mission than operating costs. Our institutions value actions that preserve our environment, too.   

The Community Power Project made us think differently about the potential that we have economically. If we can purchase energy together, are there other things that we can work on collectively rather than as individuals in the market? 

We believe that public relationships are the glue of our society. To continue to grow our initiative, we need your help. Do you know of other organizations that may be interested in partnering with us? Please contact Groundswell Lead Organizer Sam Witherbee at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .