Tuesday, May 3, 2011

About the Green UUs

Many of our members of our congregation are environmentally active in their personal and professional lives. We have a great pool of expertise available from green building designers, solar power scientists, community planners, bicycling advocates, master naturalists, authors, poets, and agricultural innovators. I personally tend to pull on my engineering experience with energy audits in buildings, and working at Camp Drake for five summers as the Eco-Stud. So my dream merit badge might have to do with recycling soda bottles to make solar hot water panels for camp showers. (If you’ve never taken a shower under the stars you’ve missed a religious experience.)
The goal of the UUA Green Sanctuary Program is to encourage living the UU 7th Principle: Respecting the interdependent web of existence on our planet. The program requires 12 projects in 4 program areas: Worship & Spirituality, Religious Education, Environmental Justice, and Sustainable Living.
Over the past couple of years we have completed seven of these projects and have three more actively in the works. Highlights include:
-A Deep Ecology Chalice Circle led by Emily Laugesen and Amy Hassinger, which allowed us to explore our spiritual connection to our environment.
-We have led several Worship Services including Amy’s memorable “On Pests” short story and the upcoming flower service and monarch waystation dedication June 19th with help by GreenUUs, Barbara Jauhola and Gail Hueting.
-Monarch Waystation Garden with the kids of RE including planning by Renee Cogill, Karla Peterson and with master gardeners Japhia Ramkumar, Mary Kay Solecki. Look for a dedication in conjunction with the 5-19 flower service.
-Green Cleaning and Beauty Products and information with Patrick Stewart.
-Ethical Eating Together (October 2010 local harvest potluck).
-Walnut tree recycling with help from Ann and Dave Sharpe.
-Building efficiency improvements with Property Committee and Myron our sextan. (Some projects are small such as new LED bulbs for five exit signs which will save $30/yr each. Then some projects are large like a new boiler which might cost $20k but save a couple of thousand each year.) Note that our new wing already has fairly high efficiency heating and cooling. In the far distance wouldn’t it be an awesome goal to offset our energy impact with renewable energy credits or solar panels on the roof?
We were able to share some of these accomplishments this last fall with other congregations at a workshop put on by Faith in Place, a religious environmental advocacy group based locally and in Chicago. It was good to hear from other local congregations about their efforts.
Future projects might include: stewardship gardens with Faith in Place, bike for kids workshop or rodeo, adult RE class on our sense of place, and battery recycling (which will hopefully be able to re-use the pennies for peace jars). The UUA has a challenge of having 20% of its congregations certified by 2012. We feel that this is a good goal for our congregation too.
Many of these projects are done in close cooperation with other committees. When we are brainstorming, you will hear the names of people in RE, Property, Membership, and Social Action. We would like to give appreciation and thanks to all the members and volunteers that have helped. The GreenUUs can help you or your committee with your own Green projects.
I would like to leave everyone with the task of doing their one simple thing. Perhaps that’s doing something financial like switching to buy your electricity from a renewable source or purchasing a carbon offset for your home from a company like Sterling Planet. Or maybe that’s just taking the time this weekend to stop and enjoy the weather and appreciate how much this beautiful Earth means to you and your family. Whether we are gardeners of this earth, or part of the garden, we have a responsibility and the evolutionarily granted ability to treat it with kindness and respect. I was always taught to leave a campsite in better condition than I found it and I hope we all can do the same. Thank you.
Find out more about the Green UUs at our website: http://uucuc.org/green-uus
Or check out and join our Google group email list: https://groups.google.com/a/uucuc.org/group/greenuus/topics?hl=en.