2019 Annual Report of the Green Team

2019 Annual Report of the Green Team

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The Green Team is an ad-hoc committee within the Church. Its purpose is to promote good environmental stewardship in the church's facilities, in our homes, and in the wider community. The committee works to foster action on the Climate Crisis and on Climate Justice. Our motto is “We can do this!” We meet once a month during the regular church year. We welcome new members and new ideas. Everyone is welcome to participate!

All-Church Retreat: We hosted an all-church retreat on nature, the environment and creation care. It took place on Oct 5-7 2018 at the AMC Highland Center at Crawford Notch, NH. All ages took part. We were both outdoors and in. Rev. Jim Antal, the outgoing Mass UCC President, was the special guest speaker. Because of the recent Columbia Gas crisis, the discussions and workshops took on added importance. From this came Mary Pritchard founding the group Working to Educate for Climate Action Now (WECAN).

The Green Bee: A new feature in the Weekly Buzz – these short pieces give tips about being "more green" with links to articles that go into more depth about environmental issues.  They have been ranging from 7 to 24 "clicks" when these links have been offered, an excellent response! (Nora is able to chart these.) 

Report on the Solar Panels - after 6 years in service, and with efficiency improvements at the church, the solar panels are now producing MORE than 100% of our annual electricity needs. You can find the report on the solar panels on the church website green team page: http://southchurch.com/green-team/

Divestment: The Green Team raised the issue of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and fossil fuel divestment for the church's investments.  At the request of Church Council a separate committee was established to facilitate a church-wide discussion on the topic.  The SRI committee hosted several open discussions, and published its findings on the church website here: http://southchurch.com/socially-responsible-investing/   As a result of this discussion the Trustees of the Trust Funds have begun shifting the church's investments in the direction of SRI (or Environmental, Social and Governance, as it is often now called).  A number of individual church members have also made changes in their investments as a result.

Green Picnic: Last June, we again helped make the all-church picnic a “green” event again by setting up and demonstrating how to compost food waste, paper products and recyclables, and how throw away trash can be greatly reduced, almost to zero. Our goal was to show that it’s easy to do this at your home once you know how.

Earth Day: In 2019 Earth Day fell on the day after Easter, so there was no specific Earth Day worship service. However, there was a church-wide ONCET meeting on April 27 in which church members discussed their visions for the environment and future generations in South Church's future ministries.  Also, Faith Forums hosted a several week study/discussion titled "The Climate Crisis - What Will We Do?"

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Bohrer, Candy Dann, Bill Schroeder, Susan Johnston, Steve Fink, Fran Fink, Janet Clarke, Graham Long, and Iric Rex.                                                 Contact us at greenteam@southchurch.com