Faith groups who take steps to green their buildings can be an example for their communities to make changes to help save our planet, the executive director of Greening Sacred Spaces said in Peterborough on Sunday.

“We can tell stories about the transformation in each of these faith communities as they’ve taken the journey along the greening path and how that’s enlivened their faith communities and created a deeper consciousness about it,” said Rev. Ted Reeve, who is from Toronto.

“I think the invitation to us now is to experiment in our own lives and take very practical, step by step kind of ways to be together in communities like this ... encouraging to think differently.”

In the hierarchy of priorities, spending on the environment and the arts appears to be at the lowest rung of the ladder in the 2010 federal budget.

While climate change was mentioned as a high priority in Wednesday’s throne speech, there are few budget measures directly related to reducing Canada’s or the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The Next Generation Renewable Power Initiative will set aside $100 million over four years for clean-energy projects in the forestry sector. There is also a tax break for equipment that generates or conserves energy by using green technologies.