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How to Green your Parish
This article is about the importance of parishes to participate in environmentally sustainable actions based on Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’. It encourages parishes to strive to become more eco-friendly by taking work together as a community and focusing on change one issue at a time. The article focuses on three main areas: reducing the parishes greenhouse gas, sustaining food and land use, and preserving water. -
Nature-Based Solutions Database
As a part of the Equator Initiative and the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), the Nature-Based Solutions Database connects communities through sharing thousands of viable eco-solutions from 500+ communities across five continents.
Explore the Solutions Database to learn how outstanding local communities and indigenous peoples around the world are making possible the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals through nature-based actions.
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Conference of the Parties (COP)
The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements. -
Green Umbrella Impact Team: Faith Communities Go Green
MISSION: Partnering with religious communities to create a more sustainable and equitable future for all by mobilizing their moral voice to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change.
VISION: Religious communities collaborating to integrate care for creation in their lives and society. -
Free Webinar: Learn Ways to Lower Your Facilities Utility Bills
This event is hosted by the Green Umbrella Impact Teams in collaboration with Faith Communities Go Green
Date and time: June 7, 2021 7:00 -8:30 pm
Learn about different types of energy audits, renewable energy choices and PACE financing for nonprofits. There will be opportunities for focused conversations in smaller breakout sessions.
Who should attend?
Executive directors, building supervisors and congregational members: Everyone is welcome. -
The Greening of the Federated Church of Orleans
The church began in 1646 – That year Pilgrim families from Plymouth Colony moved across the Bay to settle on Cape Cod, and some of the group ended up in today’s Orleans. They quickly established regular patterns of worship and fellowship, and eventually, in 1718, they built their meetinghouse on the site of today’s church – next to the cemetery, on the road to Nauset Beach.
August 2016 – The church started a new green journey. Federated Church's 10-person Care for Creation Team (aka C4C) began its work. It soon adopted the UCC “Green Congregation Challenge.” Ten months later the church had completed enough environmental-friendly steps in the Challenge’s Level One to be recognized by the UCC Mass. Conference's annual gathering as a “Green Congregation.”
Now (March 2018) – We anticipate completing enough additional steps to be recognized in June as a Level Two “Green Congregation.” We hope to complete Level Three next year! -
Patagonia's Environmental Activism Page
From mission statements to multimedia resources to annual reports, this page displays projects essential to Patagonia's sustainability efforts as a business as well as an environmentalist community. The site can serve as an inspiration template for organizations and businesses when seeking ideas for storytelling and communications with a wider audience. -
A Bahá'í Compilation on Soil and Earth
This compilation gathers a selection of references to soil, earth and minerals in the Bahá'í Writings, including the ways these are referred to both symbolically and literally.
Contents:
Mineral Kingdom
Agriculture
Metaphorical Uses
Humility
Earth as Tomb
Rain on Soil
Fertile versus Barren
Cultivation - Divine Education -
Indigenous environmental justice and sustainability
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
Volume 43, April 2020, Pages 35-40 -
American Jewish World Service- Land, Water, and Climate Justice: Story Collection
The American Jewish World Service compiled a website of their outreach stories from the US, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Reflections from work with Indigenous communities are included as well. The environmental activism showcased on their website also defend women and their crucial involvement with agriculture and the environment. From the website;
"We aid communities and movements organizing to protect the land, water and natural resources that people depend on for their survival".
More information on how to get involved is listed on their website. -
Inflation Reduction Act Resources to Help You Electrify Your Home
"The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the largest climate and clean energy investment America has ever made, with strategic incentives to make the transition to clean energy and a decarbonized life easy, financially smart, and equitable.
It created programs to help you go electric — swapping out your old, fossil-fueled appliances for new, clean electric ones — over the next ten years. The IRA’s home energy offerings include upfront discounts, tax credits, and low-cost financing that together provide a substantial pot of money for every household to electrify the machines they rely on — the cars they drive, how they heat the air and water in their homes, cook their food, dry their clothes and get their power — regardless of income level.
Much of the solution to the climate crisis is just doing two things: getting all the carbon out of our electricity supply, and then electrifying everything we can.
As people of faith and conscience, shifting our household energy use to efficient technologies that use renewable energy is an opportunity to help bring about climate justice based on our shared values: caring for one another and our common home.
Jamal Lewis, Director of Policy Partnerships and Equitable Electrification for Rewiring America, joins us for a conversation on electrification, what it looks like, and what federal resources are available to help you do it.
Join us to learn more about the incentives that will be available to help make your home healthier and more efficient." -
Climate and Energy Resources for Faith Communities: A Briefing with the U.S. Department of Energy
"The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) created the largest climate and clean energy investment America has ever made. These bills provide federal funding for energy and climate resiliency improvements that can be used in houses of worship and our individual homes. This historic legislation provides people of faith and conscience with an opportunity to live our values of caring for one another and for our Sacred Earth. The IRA included clean energy tax credits for wind and solar, EVs, efficiency upgrades, heat pumps, and much more. It also made it easier for nonprofits and houses of worship to access clean energy funds and tax credits through a program called 'direct pay.' Before the IRA, only homeowners and commercial entities with some tax liability could claim tax credits when installing solar panels or other eligible technologies on an eligible property. Now, the 'direct pay' option means non-taxable entities can also benefit from these credits.
Join us for a briefing with the U.S. Department of Energy to learn more about direct pay, the tax credits, the programs, and the role faith communities can play in helping our country address the climate crisis and ensure that all communities are supported.
If you aren't able to attend, you can still register, and we will send the recording out to everyone who registered." -
By the Sun: A Home Solar Workshop by Green Muslims and IPL-DMV 2023
"Join Green Muslims and Interfaith Power & Light as we gather to learn how we might power our homes with clean energy -- "wash shamsi wa duhaa haa," by the sun and its brightness! (Quran 91:1)
Along with members of Masjid Muhammad and other local masajid ... you're invited to learn about and consider joining Solar United Neighbors (SUN)'s open solar purchasing groups for homeowners in Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia.
Together we:
- Reflected on the Muslim call to be khalifa - stewards - of our world
- Heard from Sis. Bayinah Shaheed whose home is powered by the sun
- Connected with Sukrit Mishra from Solar United Neighbors, which is convening solar purchasing groups this summer.
- Asked your questions about going solar at home
- Started your solar journey
- DC, NoVA, & Montgomery, Prince George's, Frederick Counties MD: https://www.bit.ly/SolarSwitchIPL
- Baltimore & surrounding counties: https://www.energyprograms.civicworks...
(Calligraphy in illustration is text of Surah 91 Ash-Shams by Everitte Barbee: https://www.saatchiart.com/.../Drawin...)" -
Fairmount Presbyterian Church achieves another environmental milestone
"Each year, the Cleveland 2030 District and the NEO Local Leadership Team of USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) Ohio host a friendly green building challenge to recognize exemplary new green construction and renovation projects in this region. In May, the winning entries were announced and—among recipients such as Oberlin College, the Progressive Insurance Campus, and the Maltz Performing Arts Center—Cleveland Heights Fairmount Presbyterian Church (FPC) was recognized for its work in achieving a 50% electricity use reduction." -
Moving Forward: A Guide to Climate Action For Your Congregation and Community
This guide was created by ecoAmerica and the Blessed Tomorrow coalition. It includes actions that individuals, household, and community groups can take with regard to the eliminating of pollution, conserving energy, transitioning to clean power. It also focuses on supporting policies that support care for creation. -
Catholic Diocese of Columbus: Creation Care Guide
The Creation Care Team of the Catholic Diocese of Columbus has created a Creation Care Guide based on the teachings of Laudato Si’. This guide contains information on energy conservation and efficiency, purchasing and recycling, transportation, and water conservation. Additionally, they have a section on making Laudato Si’ more accessible to younger generations. The inspiration for this guide came from the Archdiocese of Atlanta who wrote a document titled, An Action Plan for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta. -
Interfaith Power and Light
"Interfaith Power & Light effort began in 1998 with Episcopal Power & Light and the support of Grace Cathedral as a unique coalition of Episcopal churches aggregated to purchase renewable energy. In 2000, this Episcopal effort broadened its focus, brought in other faith partners, and California Interfaith Power & Light was born.
California IPL developed a successful organizational model that engaged hundreds of congregations, educated thousands of people of faith about the moral and ethical mandate to address global warming, and helped pass California’s landmark climate and clean energy laws. Building on California’s success, this model has now been adopted by 40 state affiliates, and we are working to establish Interfaith Power & Light programs in every state.
The Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham, IPL founder, has brought widespread attention to the link between religious faith and the environment. As one of the first faith leaders to fully recognize global warming as a core moral issue, she has mobilized thousands of religious people to put their faith into action through energy stewardship. Sally continues to serve IPL as a President Emeritus." -
The Rewiring America Handbook: A Guide to Winning the Climate Fight
"The COVID-19 pandemic showed the world the dire consequences of ignoring science and its predictions of global crises. But the pandemic was just a rehearsal for the climate disasters humanity will face – unless we act now.
In his new book, Rewiring America, Saul Griffith, PhD argues that we can still address the threat of climate change, but only if we respond with a massive war-time mobilization effort to transform the fossil fuel economy into a fully electrified one, run on wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources. Based on the vast data about energy flows in the U.S. economy that his company, Otherlab, has mapped, Griffith details how to not only save us from climate disaster, but to help us enjoy a cleaner, healthier, and more prosperous future." -
Compostable
"A compostable outhouse made from recycled/reused wood and aluminum, built with tools fueled by solar and biodiesel." Taken by Ashley Murphy. Submitted to the RESTORExchange Sustainability Photo Contest. -
On Top of a Sustainable World
"On top of a Sustainable World: this photo shows the view from the top of Volcan de Pacaya just outside of Antigua, Guatemala. In the background a set of windmills can be seen and just at the foot of the volcano is an eco-turism hub that uses hydroponics to grow produce in the volcanic soil. I paused when taking this photo to pause and think about what a sustainable built environment could look like with windmills replacing non-sustainable power plants, agriculture and local food production becoming a norm, living locally with access to public transportation, and equal access to opportunities." Taken by Mikayla Carey. Submitted to the RESTORExchange Sustainability Contest.