The Social Responsibility Committee has been tasked with honoring our seventh principle (“ Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part”).  But this is not a job for one committee.  It is a whole church endeavor.  We need people who understand how to balance our projects with our finances.  Someone who understands the different components of the building and its facilities.  We need a long-time member  who understands the history of the church and the building. Someone who knows it’s secrets.  We need idea people and numbers people.  In short, this is a whole congregation commitment. 

Although we will be applying for Green Sanctuary Certification, our higher goal is to green the church and save it a lot of money that is literally now floating out the windows.  Our goal is to have our church be a part of the climate crisis solution.

We are beginning this endeavor by applying for Green Sanctuary Certification from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). This will serve as a guideline for our long-term plan.

We will start by developing a plan to obtain UUA Green Sanctuary Certification.  It is not a summer project.  It will take several years to reach our final goal.  It won’t be easy.  Time is running short and there is a lot to do to slow climate change to the point where life as we know it can go on.  

Other churches have set Net Zero goals for 2030.  That means they want to reduce their usage of carbon emitting energy sources and to replace it with an equal amount of energy produced from non-carbon emitting sources.

How do we do that?  We increase the energy efficiency of our church, that is insulation, energy star windows, efficient lighting, energy star appliances and equipment.  It means investing in renewable energy sources and supporting renewable energy or carbon sequester projects through monetary contributions, known as carbon offsets.

 We often say we want to deal with climate change, but then we have trouble figuring out what we can do. Alone we can do something.   Together we can do even more.   The question is: Are there enough people willing to step up to make this happen.  Is this something the congregation is willing to support?

We will share more of our ideas in upcoming newsletters along with information about what other churches our size have done and are now doing.  Stay tuned and think about how you can help.  There will be a Town Hall meeting on April 23 after the service to gauge the sense of the congregation.  Please attend.