Green Sanctuary

Guest Author Michael Dalzell, Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing, Titusville, NJ

“Ever see your electric meter spin backward? It may sound like a dream at a time energy costs are as high as ever, but at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing (UUCWC), it’s a dream come true.

UUCWC has installed a 9.5-kilowatt solar energy system that allows it to generate about 90 percent of the electricity it uses from the sun. Leaders from the Hopewell Township congregation marked the system’s activation with a ceremonial “throwing of the switch,” Sunday, Oct. 5, 2009.

Almost two thirds of the $76,000 system was funded through the New Jersey Clean Energy Rebate Program, which provides incentives for the use of solar and other renewable energy sources. UUCWC’s endowment fund loaned the remainder of the tab. The system is expected to pay for itself in about four years, and will be productive for at least 25 years. read more »

Guest Author Molly Hauck, Environmental Task Force co-chair at Cedar Lane UU Church, Bethesda, MD

“Green Sanctuary Celebration April 25, 2010

Thanking the congregation for the changes it made to become a Green Sanctuary!

The Environmental Task Force (Connie, Ann, Charlotte, and me). We are delighted that the UUA has accredited us as a Green Sanctuary after working on this for SIX years! We would like to thank all who have contributed to making us a Green Sanctuary.

1. The ministers and music directors for environmental sermons and music.
2. The ministers and members of the Social Justice Committee for helping with the environmental justice project at Beacon House on recycling.
3. The Grounds Committee for not using herbicides or pesticides.
4. All who participated in the “Green-In” which was organized by Mike McKenna.
5. Establishment of food as an environmental issue;
   • Ethical Eating Study Group, headed by Donna Runyan
   • David Yano: Farmers’ market and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) will start May 1st.
6. As a congregation we are REDUCING, REUSING, and RECYCLING more, thanks to a policy passed by the Board in 2007.
   • Reducing – Use of energy: We want to thank the Facilities Committee for all the work they have done to make the church more energy efficient.  Amount of paper: Thank Lyn Peters and Sara Deshler for reducing the frequency of the newspaper and introducing ENews.  Garbage: Thank Alice Wahl for introducing composting.
   • Reusing – Use of permanent dishes, utensils, mugs, and glasses – we eliminated the use of disposable cups (styrofoam and cardboard).
   • Recycling – Recyclable products are making it into recycling

Two moneymakers for the church: Cartridge World and the Carbon Fund.
Buy recycled cartridges from Cartridge World and save money and the planet. Cedar Lane will get 5% of what you buy.
We would like to thank Eric and Leslie Carlson for providing 100% windpower for Cedar Lane for the coming year, and for selling RECs to Cedar Laners at a very reasonable price, which will also benefit the church.”

Cedar Lane UU Church was accredited as a Green Sanctuary on March 10, 2010.  Check out the full list of accredited Green Sanctuaries at the UUA website.

The Green Sanctuary Program of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth (UUMFE) invite you and your congregation, as you come back together for the church-year, to dedicate a few moments, a worship service, a month, or a year to reflect on the recent disasters in the Gulf of Mexico.  Many congregations have an annual tradition of a water ceremony/communion at the beginning of each year.  Consider connecting the themes of water with the Gulf of Mexico and our connections to the disasters and hope that can be found there.

Context
August 29^th, 2010 marks the 5^th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.  Hurricane Katrina caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas.  The most severe loss of life occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, which flooded as the levee system catastrophically failed.  Eventually 80% of the city and large tracts of neighboring parishes became flooded, and the floodwaters lingered for weeks.  Hurricane Katrina is considered the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States.

As the news of the horrible aftermath from Hurricane Katrina filtered in, the UUA and the independent Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) mobilized to find a way to help the victims of the devastation. The UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Relief Fund (GCRF) raised more than $3.7 million dollars.  Congregations and individuals stepped up to face the disaster and injustice in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Ministers and staff people worked with Gulf Coast congregations to continue their ministry amidst recovery efforts. Unitarian Universalists (UU) traveled to the Gulf Coast to support area residents, UU and non-UU alike, in rebuilding and recovering their homes and their lives.
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Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (VUUC) in Chandler, AZ became an accredited Green Sanctuary on March 10, 2010.  In their accreditation application, in response to the Green Sanctuary Program Goal “To build awareness of societal environmental issues among UU’s” they wrote “We believe that we have substantially increased awareness of environmental issues among UU’s, especially those related to living in the desert…water conservation and limiting use of electricity for air conditioning.”

VUUC was accomplished this goal in two ways.  First, they set a goal to reduce their water usage by 20%.  They planted desert adapted plants, researched proper watering needs, repaired watering lines, and overall, reduced water usage for landscape irrigation.  Not only did they meet but they exceeded their goal by reducing water usage by over 40% (500,000 gallons/year)!  Second, they set a goal to reduce their electricity usage by 15%.  Due to financial constraints and the lack of an energy audit they were only able to replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and practically and carefully monitoring the thermostat set points.  Again, not only did they meet but they exceeded their goal by reducing electricity usage by 24%

VUUC, through simple measures, was able to become more responsible stewards of their desert environment!  And set an example of how small changes could make a big difference to their members.

VUUC was accredited as a Green Sanctuary on March 3, 2010.  Check out the full list of accredited Green Sanctuaries at the UUA website.

Press Release

One of only five facilities to receive the prestigious Energy Star award in 2009 in the category of Houses of Worship,  the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta (UUCA) is also the first UU congregation and the first congregation in Georgia to receive this award.

The Energy Star Award is a national conservation award developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  to recognize excellent energy performance by building type. Energy Star ranks facilities from 0 to 100 based on their energy and water consumption. In order to receive an award, the facility must be in the 75th percentile or higher (i.e. at least 75% of facilities use more energy than we do). Many consider the Energy Star Award more prestigious than LEED NC certification since it is based on actual energy consumption rather than projected energy savings.

The Energy Star Award confirms the sound sustainability decisions UUCA has implemented in the last ten years. The “Building the Vision” campaign in 2002 and the “Finish the Job” campaign in 2005 transformed our energy inefficient building completed in 1965 into a national leader in sustainable design.  Our renovated facility with the 3,000 square-foot office addition uses less than half the gas required to heat the original building and substantially less electricity.

This national award and the efforts behind it are part of a focused sustainability initiative in the congregation which has entailed exploring the nature of sustainable living. This initiative is not just about the environment: it honors all four points of the sustainability compass simultaneously: nature, economy, society, and personal well-being.

It’s about learning and using the language of sustainability,” says Senior Minister Rev. Anthony David, ” and it IS a second language.”

“We’ve got to think bigger and more systemically. We’ve got to look for solutions that honor the environment even as they grow the economy, create a more just world, and strengthen our individual lives.”

To learn more about UUCA’s 2009 Energry Star Award visit their building profile.

The UU Church of Fresno (in Clovis, CA) offers year-round Spiritual Quest Groups, small lay-led weekly discussion meetings participants delve deeply into Unitarian Universalist principles or covenant.  They work together to learn right relationships, deep listening and communication skills as they grow together on their spiritual journey.

As a part of their Green Sanctuary process, Linda Mack, a member of the church, prepared a new Spiritual Quest curriculum called “Building a Theology of Ecology.”  The curriculum was designed to foster the development of a theology of ecology, helping people to articulate their emotional and spiritual connection to the earth, the meaning they find in life that sustains their hope, and the moral responsibility that impels them to action.  Linda put together eight sessions, beginning with an introductory session, explaining the process, deep listening, and a covenant of right relationship, with the question to be considered based on the 7th Principle.  The  topics she developed were “Awe and Wonder”, “Sense of Place”, “Simplicity”, “Wild Nature/Human Nature”, “Environmental Justice”, “Technology/Ecology” and the concept of “Evo/Devo”.  Each sessions’ curriculum included a chalice lighting, topic introduction, readings, questions, and closings.   This curriculum was then offered to three Spiritual Quest Groups at the church.

Two members of the groups added sessions that they had prepared. (Linda writes: “A sign of success!”)  These included “Simplicity as a Spiritual Practice”, “Connecting with Nature”, “Animals, Humanity’s Place in the Web.”

At the concluding session participants were invited to wrote a credo.  Some of the credo’s written by members of the UU Church of Fresno are: read more »

To outsiders, family life may seem flawless, or relatively easy to maintain. However, this is almost always not the truth, and families have their own unique struggles that they must deal with day in and day out. The film The Farmer’s Wife takes us on an intimate journey highlighting the inner-workings of a farming family that is challenged repeatedly and struggles to survive in rural Nebraska.

Beginning in the mid 1990’s and following the family over a three year period, this film focuses on Juanita and Darrel Buschkoetter. Throughout the three years, we see this couple and their three young daughters struggle to keep their farm from folding as debtors come asking for repayments on loans for equipment and land. Battling a drought and many other adverse weather conditions, Darrel and Juanita find it extremely challenging to pay back the money they owe. Additionally, the Buschkoetter’s are struggling to put food on the table and Darrel’s family, who is also a farming family, is calling on Darrel for extra help around their farm, which adds tension between Juanita and Darrel. Lastly, about halfway into the film, Juanita, who decides to go back to school to get her Associates degree, finds that Darrel is having difficulty supporting her efforts and has trouble seeing the benefit to attending school instead of helping on the farm and raising their three daughters. This conflict exists for the rest of the film and only seems to slightly improve towards the very end of filming.
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    ”If we hadn’t known better, it could have been a pleasant speedboat ride through the Louisiana Coastland marshes. But what we knew was there, and couldn’t see, was troubling.
    When I visited the devastated Gulf region last week, it was clear that the once vast and abundant wetlands had been lost. Precious wildlife and birds of many species once flourished there. Since the gushing oil began, their numbers have been depleted exponentially.
    From our boat, it was difficult to grasp the size of the problem — the vast distance that the oil and dispersants have traveled, and the knowledge that death follows in their wake. But we knew.
    Equally disturbing is the effect on the people who live in the region. Fishermen have lost their livelihoods, perhaps forever. Children have lost hope for a future in the family business that has been theirs for generations. Sport fishing and eco-tourism are over. Thousands will have to move and find something else to do for the rest of their lives.
    We can’t give the fishermen back their way of life. But every single one of us can help make sure disasters like this never happen again.
  A s a Climate Convert, you already know that we need change. That’s why I’m asking you to take the next step toward a clean energy future. Take the IPL 10% Challenge in your congregation, and pledge to reduce your carbon footprint by 10/10/10. If we each reduce our consumption a little bit, we’ll come that much closer to reducing our dependence on oil.
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One of the major barriers of moving to sustainable energy sources in the US is the start-up costs.  Gary Nystedt, a resource manager for Ellensburg, WA, came up with a way to bring solar power to the city in a way that the start-up costs could be defrayed.  Nystedt suggested that the city build the country’s first community solar project, or “solar garden,” in 2006.  The city-owned solar installation would feed right into the city’s grid but would be financed like a cooperative, open to anyone who wanted to invest.  Because Ellensburg, the town, gets more that 300 sunny days a year and already owned a sunny spot of land next to a major highway (an added advantage is that the site allows for free advertisement of solar power to 15,000 drivers every day).

Kittitas Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation, through a drive by the Green Sanctuary council, purchased a panel on the city’s solar grid.  KVUUC also completed many recommendations from their professional energy audit.  The result of these projects was a savings of 60% of the electricity bills during the winter months for the building, which generated kudos from the building owner as well as the congregation.  Additionally, their electric bill is now reduced by an amount proportional to the energy generated by the purchased solar panel.
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