A 600 member order of nuns based in Michigan has just completed a major renovation of its “motherhouse.” The top to bottom environmentally-friendly renovation includes the largest privately funded geothermal field in the country. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:
Transcript
A 600 member order of nuns based in Michigan has just completed a major renovation of its
“motherhouse.” The top to bottom environmentally friendly renovation includes the largest
privately funded geothermal field in the country. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy
Samilton reports:
The motherhouse is home to the order’s headquarters and retirement
facilities for the nuns. During the renovation, everything that could be
recycled or reused was. The primary source of heating and cooling is a
270 acre geothermal field of water pipes which uses the earth to cool or
heat water depending on the season. Sister Janet Ryan says the nuns had
to finance the 55-million dollar renovation mainly with loans. But they
felt it was worth it, to serve the order’s mission of helping the poor,
the abandoned and the forgotten.
“The Earth is one of the most forgotten, and really we’ve
lost touch with the fact that Earth is the Mother of all life.”
Ryan says nuns typically don’t make a lot of money – so the order hopes to
generate new sources of revenue to help pay back the loans. That could
include tours, retreats and even allowing people from outside the order to become residents of a
sustainable community.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tracy Samilton.