Green Sanctuary
The Green Sanctuary program aims to bring positive change in three areas of Unitarian Universalist life: personal lifestyle choices, congregational programs and practices, and outreach and activism within the broader comunity.
The program is broad in scope, with four focus areas:
• Worship and Celebration, in which we create or expand ways to integrate earth-oriented spirituality into congregational worship and communal gatherings.
• Religious Education, where we focus on the environmental components of our lifespan religious education programs.
• Environmental Justice, where we work for a just society in which benefits for some do not come at the expense of others. Environmental justice extends beyond human societies to include all of the beings that inhabit the Earth.
• Sustainable Living, where we focus on the activities in our day-to-day lives that have an impact on the environment. Here we examine congregational practices such as energy use, landscaping, building management, office supplies, cleaning products, waste management, transportation, food preparation and consumption, and water use.
The Green Sanctuary Team is chartered with seeing that ASUUC attains Green Sanctuary Accreditation. In the first step of the process, we performed a self assessment to determine how well ASUUC is currently doing in each of the focus areas. This also included an energy audit of our buildings.
We used the results of the self assessment to plan projects that fill the gaps and improve upon our current environmental practices. It is now up to us to complete our projects to finally attain accreditation.
Green Sanctuary Projects:
- Use an environmental theme for at least one lay-led summer service each year (started in 2010, continuing)
- Identify and invite Environmental Justice speakers for Sunday services and for afternoon or evening events (started in 2011, continuing)
- "Blue Boat Home" summer camp (August, 2011)
- "This Old House of Worship" building energy class (attended by a team of 6 Souls in 2010)
- Partnering with F.R.E.S.H. New London (started in 2011, continuing)
- International Coastal Cleanup, sponsored by Save the Sound (participated in 2011; will continue)
- 40/40 for Earth Challenge, sponsored by UUMFE (participated in "2011 Earth Day: Sacred Waters")
- Keep a Green "To-do" list for the Facilities Team (Started in 2011, continuing)
- Green Practices Audit Plan (provide input to the ASUUC Annual Report)
- 10/10/10 Global Work Party, sponsored by 350.org (participated in 2010)
- Identify Environmental Justice candidates for Good Neighbor Offering (started in 2011 with F.R.E.S.H. New London, continuing)
- Develop outside funding sources for environmental work (in process)
- Raised bed vegetable gardens (built in 2011)
- Investigate green roofs and living walls for the ASUUC campus (in process)