Zero Emission Faith Groups adopted Fillable Document to solve their data collection and coordination challenges. The results were immediate and impactful.

Key Benefits:

✅ User-Friendly Forms: Volunteers entered data through simplified forms instead of spreadsheets.
✅ Data Validation & Requirements: Ensured essential fields (e.g., contact info) weren’t skipped.
✅ Automatic PDF Receipts: Every data provider received a copy of their submission.
✅ Real-Time Notifications: Coordinators received emails for specific entries.
✅ Editable Links for Corrections: Volunteer's could update their own data if needed.
✅ Multilingual Capability: Forms could be cloned and translated while feeding into the same sheet.
✅ Security with Backups: Daily local backups helped protect data integrity.

"Zero Emission Faith Groups is a totally volunteer project being run on a shoestring to help religious groups in Canada and the USA to change the heating and cooling of their buildings to be electric and therefore, lower-emission or even zero-emission in greenhouse gases (GHGs). As soon as the electrical grid is zero emission, which is due by 2035 in Canada, those buildings will all be zero emitters.

To do this work, our network of volunteer regional coordinators needs to collect, share and analyze information on the heating systems of the buildings within their “region” (sometimes called a diocese, a synod or an association). In an ideal world, we would use a web-based relational database to gather information and produce simple reports. The cost of doing that is between $15-50k CAD, far outside of our means.

With Fillable Documents, we are able to provide a consistent front-end for our three main tables: Key Data (Name, Address, Furnace Type, Fuel Type, Certificates Issued), Energy Data (Units and Cost of Fuel), and Building Assessment (a detailed inventory of building issues related to energy efficiency, such as lighting, window and door quality, insulation, etc).

Fillable Documents provides basic data validation and the ability to require certain data (such as a contact person) before a record can be saved. Our tables run on Google Sheets, which is available free for our not-for-profit operation. Fillable documents has a low monthly fee, and allows identified collaborators to enter data up to a reasonable threshold. 

This approach has allowed us to quickly develop proofs of concept that are simple and workable, and allow our coordinators to work with form data rather than intimidating spreadsheets. Meanwhile, our designers can use the power of Google Sheets to create reports that show changes in costs and GHG emissions, and, for each region, the number of Energy and Building Reports produced, the current heating and cooling systems being used, and the oldest systems (which are most likely to need to be changed next).

When we needed to provide questionnaires in a second language, it was relatively easy to duplicate the forms and translate them, with the data going into the same database.

Data providers receive a PDF of their submission when they finish data entry, so they have a record of the information they provided. 

Regional coordinators receive an email when certain new data is entered. They then review the data, and can send a link back to the data provider to allow them to make changes if an error or an omission is noted. 

Our data is not highly sensitive, but still we feel secure that only users who have the proper credentials can gain access to it. We create daily local backups in case one of our regional coordinators removes or over-writes important data.

These tools have helped us to build awareness in 10 different religious regions in Canada (and one in the USA), to provide GHG reports to some 75-100 building owners, and to guide 10-15 congregations as they made changes, and another 15 as they considered changes in the future. Some 20-30 building managers have worked through our assessment tool, and we have just started issuing certificates to buildings (religious buildings and personal residences) which operate with Zero Emissions at a Gold, Silver or Bronze level."

~ Mark Gibson, Zero Emission Faith Groups