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17 items

  • Greening Your Church

    "A Practical Guide to Creation Care Ministry for Parishes, Dioceses and Religious Communities," as this book's subtitle reads, author Norman Lévesque identifies and outlines strategies to creating environmentally friendly congregations. In 104 pages, learn about the theology of creation care ministry and how to green-ify your community to reduce impacts on God's creation. ISBN: 9782896466368

  • Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

    The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is an organization that advocates for better labor laws, financial services, sustainable development, and accessible health care. It is their mission to incorporate social values into corporate actions. Founded in 1971, the ICCR has been an integral part of advocating for resilient and sustainable corporations, but has been met with pushback from industries that do not want to follow regulation and social values. More information about programs, resources, and membership is available on their website.

  • Congregational Profile: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Grove City, OH: How it began in one parish

    In 2016, prompted by Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si,” we at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Grove City, Ohio, held two 8-week sessions of discussions on the encyclical and at the end of the second session, our pastor, Fr. Daniel J. Millisor, appointed the discussion leader, Sister Nancy Miller, OSF as chairperson and called together a team to explore how the parish might lower our carbon footprint. The Creation Care Council (CCC) of our parish meets monthly for prayer, discussion and action in response to Laudato Si’s call for greater care for our common home.

    We conducted a parish survey, with the intention of enhancing awareness among parishioners, as well as to determine if, and how, members were already incorporating recycling and composting into their daily lives. The results were highly, though not entirely, favorable. In addition to regularly inserting information and suggestions into our parish bulletins, taking the CCC members to tour a landfill, recycling plant, and the OSU Byrd Polar Research Center, we requested that all committees at the parish look at ways to reduce or eliminate their use of Styrofoam dinnerware. Rather than condemn polluters, we wrote thank you notes to businesses that showed environmental stewardship. We began annually purchasing and giving away seedling trees to plant on Earth Day. We took on trying to improve parish recycling efforts – providing new recycling containers for all parish offices, inviting a local official – an environmental expert – to explain to us what is and is not recyclable, preparing an interactive recycling quiz at the parish festival, and then attempting to bring recycling to the parish picnic and festival.

    The efforts to incorporate recycling in parish events “failed” the first year, but we got it right the second year and this (the third) year, we successfully introduced food waste composting to Lenten Parish Fish Fry dinners, the Parish Picnic, and our largest parish event of the year: the Parish Festival. The 2019 Parish Festival served an estimated 5,000 meals, working with food vendors to increase their ability to serve compostable dishware and cutlery. In total, the CCC was able to divert 2,704 gallons of waste from the local landfill, which constituted 86% of all waste at the Festival.

    We also exceeded all expectations in soliciting nearly 100 volunteers to help teach and monitor correct depositing of these materials - without tapping the usual volunteer corps that was still needed to keep the regular parts of the festival going. With the support of our pastor and dedicated CCC members, we’ve come a long way, and still feel like we have only just begun!

  • Bishop Hartley High School, Columbus, OH

    Bishop Hartley has assembled a Care 4 Creation faculty committee, which focuses on long-term plans at the school. There is also a Care 4 Creation Association, which is for students and is also student-led. Instructors Rick Kohut and Ann Hawk have spearheaded some of the more long-term creation care projects there. Each have set up a vermicomposting bin in their classrooms, offering that it works well and is relatively low maintenance. Students from one of Rick’s classes had worked on a project where they created a poster/chart with pictures of endangered animals. Some of the students from Rick's classes engaged in the school's climate strike. One highly motivated student, Jamal, wrote a letter about the event which he sent to local politicians. Ann has been attending a yearly AEP Ohio energy efficiency program, and they in turn provide her with free energy savings kits for each of her students. AEP also offers energy saving kits for residential customers who are willing to complete their online Home Energy Profile. In addition, two new drinking fountains are about to be installed at the school that are designed to fill reusable water bottles. The school is also in the process of creating water bottles for sale with their school’s logo on them. The intent is to cut down on students and faculty purchasing and bringing in individual plastic bottles of water.

  • Engaged Organizations: St. Vincent de Paul School, Mt. Vernon, OH

    Creation care work at St Vincent de Paul School, Mt. Vernon, began in 2006 when the school received funding from the Knights of Columbus to purchase a dishwasher for their kitchen. Following this, the school began participating in the Hope Now program – an organization that provides used old donated doors to build tables. The school provides transportation to their annual K-6 field trip to The Brown Family Environmental Center at Kenyon College and their annual 5th grade summer camp through Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio (students take turns weighing food waste). Additional sustainability projects include collaboration with the parish and the local community. The school participated in an all-parish project through the Green Tree Plastics company’s A Bench for Caps sustainability program (students collected and sorted bottle caps in exchange for three benches). The school plans to create a grotto area using their three recycled benches. In order to foster green living and healthy community-school relations, the school provided planter flowers to local businesses.

    Administrators at St. Vincent de Paul acknowledge the importance of maintaining social justice programs in accordance with Laudato Si's urgent message to care for the poor. Students from Beth’s Robinson's 6th grade social studies classes participate in a demographics project. Each year students select one continent, usually Africa, to learn more about the conditions of poverty. The class then raises money through various fundraisers and donate to parts of the continent through Catholic Relief Services. An upcoming project includes having students sew plastic bags together to create tarps to be donated to homeless shelters in the area.

  • Engaged Organizations: Recyclean, Inc. Kenosha, WI

    Recyclean, Inc., is a deconstruction company located in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with a new branch to be opened in Columbus, OH in the near future. About 15 years ago, the owner recognized that there was too much waste entering landfills, as construction landfill waste is predicted to double by the year 2025. The company focuses on the reuse and recycling of materials and structures from the deconstruction work of their residential projects, which comprises 70 percent of their business, as a way to decrease the amount of materials that enter the landfills. Prior to renovations and tear downs, the company provides a quote for the materials and a 3rd party independent appraiser assigns value to the estimated donation value. Some of the materials are donated to community charities – i.e. Restores of Habitat for Humanity or Columbus Architectural Salvage. Homeowner are able to choose a charity based on the options provided by the company. Other materials, such as brick and wood, are recycled (purchased for use elsewhere). Recyclean, Inc. aims for 70 percent of the materials to be recycled and reused. The company also provides facilitation for the transfer, including delivery of materials and building structures, to their respective designated entities.

  • Engaged Organizations: The Catholic Foundation of Ohio - Columbus

    The Catholic Foundation of Columbus, Ohio is designed to be responsive to interests that come from within the diocesan parishes and schools. To the extent that those interests have included creation care work, there has been grant activity. Dan Kurth, Director of Grants for the Catholic Foundation, offers that the foundation’s rubric for creation care initiatives is essentially: Does this project have any green energy sustainability pieces to it? The energy efficiency component of the foundation’s responsive grants is the main integration of a Laudato Si' principle into the foundation's grant work. As the Laudato Si encyclical has grown in awareness, more funding has become available as energy efficiency-related projects have become more commonplace over time.

    The foundation has recently partnered with the Columbus Catholic Diocese on their Diocean Loan LED program, which has had considerable impact on diocesan savings. In addition, the foundation encourages schools to establish their own maintenance reserve funds in order to maintain more efficient operations. Specifically, there is a push to have schools and parishes upgrade their boilers, change over to LED lighting, and replace their windows with more efficient ones.

  • Engaged Organizations: Christ the King Catholic Church, Columbus, OH

    Jason Cervenec, Education and Outreach Director for OSU's Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, has helped plan and carry out a number of initiatives for events and projects at Christ the King Catholic Church over the past few years. With the assistance of Deb Steele, the Volunteer Coordinator for Ohio Interfaith Power and Light (Ohio IPL), Jason has organized energy audits that were conducted by Ohio IPL programming and support. The LED retrofit with diocese Facility Director, Bruce Boyan, has been a noteworthy achievement at the parish as well. Additional energy efficient projects have included window replacement (also with Bruce) and the installation of an HVAC system. While the parish center is currently undergoing renovation work, Jason and other parishioners have reviewed the plans to look for additional efficiency and sustainability improvements. Recently, Jason had designed creation care bulletin inserts, with feedback from the Creation Care team at the Columbus Catholic Diocese, that have been widely circulate around town. The annual creation care information program that Jason initiated has garnered substantial support, with roughly 30 people in attendance each time. An additional work in progress project includes the installation of a bike rack station outside of the parish.

  • Engaged Organizations: Habitat for Humanity Restore

    Habitat MidOhio Restores aims to reduce costs associated with affordable housing construction as well as reduce the amount of waste going into landfills. Restores accepts new or used household items and materials from individuals or businesses. The proceeds then assist with Habitat MidOhio's administrative costs in building affordable housing.

    Recycling Inc. often donates there following their building deconstruction projects.

  • Low-Cost Construction Techniques for Earth Keepers

    Technology for the Poor, a non-profit charitable organization based in Westerville, Ohio, discuss their techniques for low cost construction from an excerpt from their manual:

    "The Construction Techniques described in this manual use straw as filler in wall sections. It further describes how one need not have to bale the straw to use it for wall construction. The author used the techniques described in this manual to build plastered straw structures in India and Pennsylvania. The pictures in the following pages should provide sufficient information for anyone to construct a low-cost, earth-friendly building using straw as building material for the walls."

  • United Methodist Agency Green Roof

    John Hill, from the Board of Church and Society at the United Methodist Agency, narrates the video below about their recent green roof addition. The series of squares used covers the entire area of the flat roof, reducing energy consumption, making the building cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. In addition, and equally important, it reduces storm water runoff. When it rains, the water remains in the roof rather than adding pollutants into the nearby watershed, which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay.

  • Engaged Organizations: General Board of Global Ministries

    General Board of Global Ministries discuss their vision and span of their work on their website. Their areas of impact run the gamut for a multitude of environmental and social justice issues:

    "Connection is at the core of our work. Global Ministries connects The United Methodist Church, its people and congregations to partner with others engaged in God’s global work, which takes place in a variety of settings, countries and cultures.

    Global Ministries works through missionaries and partners in more than 60 countries around the world. "

  • Shepherd's Fest (Shepherd's Corner)

    Shepherd's Corner ecological center provides information regarding their annual festival on their webpage:

    "Explore our food pantry gardens, take a hayride around the property, meet our sheep, and walk the meditation trail & labyrinth. Savor delicious food from a local food truck (Moody Trudy). Meet the Jefferson Township fire department and check out a fire truck up close. Watch Gail Maraman, a local felt artist, demonstrate her art. Chat with AEP representatives about electricity savings, consider more responsible energy use with Columbia gas. and learn about the environmental efforts of Green Spot Columbus. We will have a farm stand featuring of our naturally grown produce, 2019 maple syrup, and crafts made by the Dominican Sisters of Peace and volunteers."

  • Engaged Organizations: A Rocha International

    A Rocha International discuss their mission on their website:

    "At A Rocha USA, our mission is to restore both people and places through collaborative, community-based conservation.

    We resource Christians to care for creation where they live by building a network of hands-on conservation projects in communities across the nation. Through partnerships with individuals, churches, and community groups, we provide content, curriculum, and a network of support for improving local habitats and increasing biodiversity."

  • Resolution on Global Warming and Atmospheric Degradation

    The Church of the Brethren of The General Board issued their Resolution on Global Warming and Atmospheric Degradation on October 21, 1991. The final section of the resolution, discussing the General Board commitment, is as follows:

    "FURTHER the General Board commits itself to; support and participate in national and international networks of religious bodies and other non-governmental organizations addressing the greenhouse effect; and continue through its program staff, within the context of a theology based on caring for the earth, and educational effort to acquaint the members of the Church of the Brethren with the nature, causes, and consequences of the greenhouse effect, including suggestions for individual and collective action to help address the problem. This will include the promotion of the use of the General Board’s study resource, Creation in Crisis: Responding to God’s Covenant, in all congregations. We will elicit the cooperation of District Executive as agents within each district to work directly with pastors to reach the membership of the church."

  • Creation Care Tips Summer 2019

    This Creation Care bulletin insert provides quotes from Pope Francis, encouraging Christians to utilize their talents, while drawing upon their culture and experiences to care for the environment. It also provides ways to support Pope Francis's message to care for the Earth, such as reading the Laudato Si' encyclical, encouraging children to go outside, and hosting creation care events and retreats.

  • Creation Care Tips Autumn 2019

    This creation Care bulletin insert provides benefits of changing over to energy-efficient LED bulbs. It also provides additional cost saving suggestions such as turning off unnecessary lights, where to set your thermostat, and purchasing the most efficient appliances.