Thanks much to Joan Fergusun and Grace Lutheran Church (Palo Alto) for hosting this meeting and supplying tasty munchies in such an environmentally friendly way!
Rev. Margo Tenold set a beautiful, spiritual tone for the meeting with some prayers/poems and brief pairwise sharing on what we were each feeling thankful for on this morning.
Goals for this meeting:
- Introduce variety of methods to help congregations get started and make progress towards becoming “green.”
- Set up sub-groups, identify leader for each and then meet together in different corners of the room to set up off-line meetings to work concretely in a specific area.
Communications: We are setting up two Yahoo email groups:
1) One for focused emails about working group and action team business, meetings, notes, etc. This will be the primary communication channel for Working Group activities.
To subscribe to this:
send an email to mailto:CIPL_PenSBay-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
or click here: groups.yahoo.com/group/CIPL_PenSBay/join
2) The other for general sharing, congregation best practices, events around the area, news, etc. -- coming soon.
Presenters:
1. Jessica Brown – California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL) – Director, Northern and Southern CA outreach (jessica @ interfaithpower.org)
• CIPL is an interfaith ministry that works with every denomination in the state of CA to help houses of worship to become more conscious of climate change in their facilities and events etc. and to help congregants become aware and change behaviors at home
• CIPL provides resources and acts as a conduit in the process of becoming more energy efficient, implementing green practices, no matter where your congregation is in the process (advanced or beginning stages).
• There is a covenant that congregations are urged to sign on to. http://www.interfaithpower.org/covenant.htm NOTE: You do not have to agree to accomplish all of the goals in order to sign on to the Covenant.
2. Conduct an energy audit of our buildings to identify sources of energy waste and the potential financial savings of energy related improvements.
3. Make energy efficiency improvements to our congregation’s buildings.
4. Utilize renewable energy by purchasing green power, installing solar panels, or contributing to a wind turbine fund.
5. Analyze, reduce, and offset our greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of becoming a non-polluting congregation.
6. Support public policies that contribute to our goals.
2. Ben Hammett – His wife is an English teacher and the word awesome is in junior high school papers all the time – don’t overuse it!!! But when thinking about the environment and the interdependent web of life – it is an appropriate time to use the word awesome. We need to have respect for the web of life of which we are all a part.
Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth – affiliate of natl org. Green Sanctuary Project – congregations become actively involved in a program in which they can reach accreditation after doing an energy audit. Need to take certain actions to qualify for being an applicant. Link to site: http://uuministryforearth.org/grs_overview.htm
Start with energy audit and then create action plan:
a. worship and celebration with respect to environment (they do six times a year)
b. religious education with respect to environment
c. sustainable living – congregants put leaves on tree with what they want to do, and get flowers on the leaves when they accomplish it. Guilt is a great tool in this regard!!
d. environmental justice – take concrete action; traveled to Alaska and saw a village washing away due to climate change; also working with Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
3. Lisa Rose – Santa Clara Valley Green Business Program
lisa.rose @ aem.sccgov.org
For link to site, go to www.sccgov.org/portal/site/iwm and click on “green business” (You can see Lisa in the streaming video!!!) Has three main areas:
1) Integrated Pest Mgmt
2) Cleaning Products
3) Solid Waste Mgmt
Compliance Plus Program (with all environmental regulations)
Part of larger Green Business Program – coordinator Danielle Lee
Green Biz conference March 21st 8:30am-1pm
Checklist for certification, get the following benefits:
• Get listed on Bay Area website
• Several working group members are already certified; they can be mentors for the process.
In Palo Alto there’s a way to switch to all renewable energy through the city of Palo Alto.
Work with Santa Clara Valley water district. Offer free toilets and free installation (floor mounted). www.valleywater.org/Water/Water_conservation/In_business/Commercial_high_efficiency_toilet.shtm [Help for wall-mounted toilets but not free] They focus primarily on small to medium sized businesses; a little on larger businesses; resources are for orgs who don’t have environmental health and safety staff on board.
4. Debbie Mytels – Acterra
debbiem @ acterra.org
Cool Campaign: Holistic congregational education program
What you can do among the community of your congregation
A simple, effective 4-6 month program
Target audience: people who are concerned about the environment but don’t know what to do about it.
4 simple elements to program:
2) monthly topics
3) website and online community so people can share ideas
4) end of each month, total up groups success, either survey monkey or on paper, can track progress of congegrant actions, can show how much of a difference you’re making
How do you do it?
Congregation needs to identify an overall coordinator
Can have kick-off campaign
One group used beatiful river stones for token of participation – put in bowl as people took action
Early adopters are very inspirational – Acterra studies the way in which ideas move through a group – we are the early adopters
Q. Many congregational leaders would like to know where do you buy green stuff?
A. Resource guide from Oct.’07 Convocation is being put together – lists all presenters, sponsors, and participating congregations – Marianna and team are working on this.
• One presenter from October: Biodegradable dishware and utensils: www.worldcentric.org
A few words from group member Gail Slocum– PG&E:
www.pge.com – climate smart program, energy efficiency and on-site renewable, can balance out carbon footprint through small additional charge per KW/HR. PG&E partners with a forestry protection organization.
Large Group wrap-up notes
Why an interfaith group?
1. To get fantastic resources to take back to congregation – to impact both facility and congregant community
2. To invent the wheel together – a lot more fun and encouraging rather than doing it all ourselves
3. To identify the areas where we have an interest in acting
Why keep coming to meetings? Why bring someone new?
1. It’s a shot in the arm, a boost, keeps the energy and ideas flowing. One meeting is wonderful, but a continuous presence is incredibly helpful.
2. If it exists it must be possible!
When you really look at the facts about climate change… It is terrifying. We know morally, spiritually and ethically that we have to respond.
We’re looking for the next host facility – host will need to open up room ½ hour early for conversation and snacks (host org provides snacks). Next meeting will be an evening in April, need to pin down a site and a date.
ACTION TEAMS:
NOTE: If you are at all interested in participating in any way on any of the following Action Teams,
please send an email to Lee Erman, indicating which Team(s) you're interested in.
1) Clergy Education – quarterly luncheon with speaker and time for sharing questions, ideas, encouragement
ACTION – lunch with Sally Bingham on a Wednesday in June
Co-leaders: Jessica Brown & Rev. Eileen Altman
2) Getting Started -- providing materials, guides and referrals to help congregations organize for action.
ACTION – helping compile the resources – getting it ready to be published
Leader: Rev. Margo Tenold
a) Sign the CIPL covenant (join first, if not already a member, it's free!) www.interfaithpower.org/covenant.htm
b) Consider having your congregation become a certified Green Business – a great, free program www.greenbiz.ca.gov/index.html
c) Spiritual practice, education, facilities, members take action at home, work and in community
d) Resource guide (some resources on CIPL website already. Guide from Interfaith Convocation coming soon.)
e) Post videoclips of success stories on youtube
f) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on climate science (separating truth from fiction)
g) Support groups for low carbon living/action (Acterra is a resource for this)
h) Collect and share spiritual texts/resources from spectrum of faiths to motivate action
3) Renewable energy and energy efficiency – combined with financing ideas from last meeting
Leader: Max Greenberg
a) energy audit and lighting retrofit (utility plus Right Lights www.rightlights.org )
b) other energy efficiency measures
c) purchasing or leasing renewable energy (how to finance?)
d) ethical finance
e) loan fund or other methods of financing PV, Energystar appliances, etc.
4) Water -- Leader: Ben Hammet
a) audit by Water-Wise Consulting at (866) 685-2322, for Santa Clara County businesses and residences, funding available to replace toilets, showerheads and other water regulation resources.
b) also check out Water Efficient Technologies (WET) program for Santa Clara County Businesses www.valleywater.org/water/water_conservation/In_business/WET_Program/index.shtm and
www.slowtheflow.com/whatswet.html
5) Waste reduction and recycling -- Leader: Claire Felong
a) bulk purchasing of "green" products
b) include custodial staff in the process of instituting recycling program(s)
c) food composting (e.g. Roche in Palo Alto)
6) Political action/lobbying –- Leader: Susan Chamberlain
a) getting media to include climate change in the Presidential campaign,
b) supporting legislation such as the bill to provide rebates for purchasing hybrids (see ucsaction.org/campaign/4_27_07_CCCD_Assembly_Floor/?qp_source=wacucs%5fcalifornia )
c) lobbying car companies and the EPA to stop suing California and other states who want to protect the environment ucsaction.org/campaign/12_20_07_EPA_Clean_Car_Waiver?source=wacucs_cv
d) compare candidates on environmental policies. See California League of Conservation Voters www.ecovote.org/heat/index.html
7) Sustainable food -- Leader: Joan Ferguson
a) community garden? composting?
b) education on link between what we eat and the health of the environment, climate and farmers
c) low carbon diet support groups (eating local, sustainably grown food, etc.)
8) Transportation -- Leader: Norma Jean Bodey
a) carpools and public transit to events and services (including our interfaith working group meetings!)
b) bulk purchase of hybrid or plug-in hybrid cars
c) start biodiesel cooperative
9) Take action on Earth Day (week/month) -- Leader: Jessica Brown
Join with City of Palo Alto – Mar. 30 energy, Apr. 5 water, Apr. 12 waste reduction, Apr. 17 film festival, Apr. 19 transportation
10) Outreach and Philosophy
ACTION: to reach a broader audience, FAQs, what about the science, post videos on you tube, etc.
Leader: TBD – Lee Erman contact only
a) reach out to congregations in lower income areas (Rev. Altman will present to East Palo Alto Ministerial Association; CIPL working with Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights to train people for green jobs.)
b) shift from "culture of shortage" to one of meeting non-material needs with non-material means
NOTE: If you are at all interested in participating in any way on any of the Action Teams,
please send an email to Lee Erman, indicating which Team(s) you're interested in.