Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center currently sponsors or hosts almost six thousand people each year for retreats, art programs, and environmental education activities. The Center has been in operation for twenty-four years. It is located fourteen miles west of Owensboro, Kentucky. When the Center attempted to get information about energy efficient building, recycling, and solar energy, we found very little is available in Western Kentucky. To remedy this, the Center is planning a program that will educate the people of Western Kentucky about care of Earth, the need to conserve energy, eco-justice, and eco-ethics. A major part of this process is building a near zero energy demonstration model for environmental living. A demonstration model is needed in Western Kentucky to show people that living sustainably is possible.

Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This is very much like the seventh generation philosophy of the Native American Iroquois Confederacy. Chiefs were charged with bearing in mind the effects of their actions on their descendants for seven generations.

The overall program is called GREENing Western Kentucky. GREENing stands for “Getting Renewable Energy Education Now”. It will consist of three phases. The major part of the program will include the building of Casa del Sole (House of the Sun) Environmental Education Center, a near zero energy demonstration building. The building will include solar technology, wind technology, if possible, and the latest examples of products that are renewable, recycled or reused. The building will be used for environmental education workshops, meeting spaces, demonstrations, classes, and living spaces.

The second part of the program will involve workshops for contractors, architects, plumbers, electricians, and others who want to build green energy efficient buildings but do not have the training. Programs and workshops will be conducted at the Center in close cooperation with Kentucky Solar Partnerships, local and state universities, technical schools in the region, and businesses. Workshops will be held during the building of the home for these people. Other programs will center on sustainability, eco-justice, eco-ethics. Taking care of Earth is a moral issue as well as an economic issue. The need to give serious thought to global warming and peak oil scarcity is essential. Through education we will work to create a more sustainable Western Kentucky. National speakers will be brought in for three workshops on energy efficient building. An architect knowledgeable in the area of passive solar, active solar, and energy efficiency will plan and design the near zero energy building using the latest examples of environmental living. Professionals will be contacted to give two workshops on eco-justice and eco-ethics. The building will be used for many years to come as an environmental education center.

The third part will be a GREENing Western Kentucky Expo. This will bring exhibitors from different regions of the state to display energy efficient products and materials. Workshops will be offered during the day to gain knowledge about Climate Change and our responsibility to do our part to save Earth. An energy-centered expo has not been held in this part of the Commonwealth.

The project will take place over an eighteen-month period. The total budget for the building phase is $280,000. A grant of $15,000 has been promised toward the solar panels. So far, in-kind donations of materials and labor total approximately $60,000. The workshop phase will cost approximately $15,000. The Expo phase will not be supported by the grant. It will be self-supporting. Information about the expo was included to show the entire picture of our project.