You’re Invited: Best Practices - Dream of Green Future

• Tour LEED certified building in your own community
• Share best practices for integrating “green” in your faith community
• Discuses common stumbling blocks

Background: Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL just became the first certified LEED Platinum synagogue in the country. Join us and see how local buildings are going green, mingle with other green faith leaders, and be inspired to bring these sustainable behaviors back to your own congregations.

Choose from any of these convenient times and locations:

• Thursday, March 13, 6:45pm - Friends Committee on National Legislation, 245 Second Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. To find out more about their building visit: http://www.fcnl.org/building/
• Tuesday, March 18, 7:00pm - Eastern Village Co-Housing, Silver Spring. For directions go to http://www.easternvillage.org/evsummary.html#where
• Thursday, March 27, 7:00pm - Walter Reid Community Center- 2909 16th Street S., Arlington, VA 22204

Due to space constrains each tour is limited to 25 individuals. Please RSVP today.

Highlights from Last Month

Creation Care 101

Green leaders from 24 congregations gathered on Sunday, Feb. 24 to learn, share, pray and take action about Virginia’s energy future. They gathered as Virginia is deciding on the approval of a new coal power plant in Wise, VA.

The program began with an inspiring song, “Open Your Eyes,” written and performed by Cantor Allen Leider and presentations on why this is a faith issue from Rev. Pat Watkins and Mohamad Chakaki. Rev. Watkins declared that building the proposed coal-fired power plant would be a “determent to creation.” Matt Watson of Appalachian Voices presented a poignant sideshow, which highlighted the destructive practices of mountain top removal, its negative effects both to the health and economies of communities, and how our energy policies encourage the practice. View the slide show.

Cantor Allen Leider at Creation Care 101.

The program ended with commitments from attendees of how they were going to take action on what they had learned: many decided to collect post cards from congregational members addressed to Gov. Kaine asking him to oppose the Wise county plant, while one said that she would add the people of Wise, VA to her congregation’s prayer list.

Next Steps:

• If in Virginia, ask your clergy to sign-on to the letter to Gov. Kaine asking him to lead VA to a clean energy future. View the letter. To sign-on, please send an email to Allison@gwipl.org by Tuesday, March 4.
• Email Allison@gwipl.org if you would like post cads for your members to fill out this weekend.

Global Warming Action Day
Four Unitarian Universalist youth groups joined over 200 citizen activists from throughout Maryland for Global Warming Action Day on Feb. 18 in Annapolis. The day began at the UU Church of Annapolis with yummy food, meeting new friends, and exploring issues around global warming and the solutions. The youths were particularly concerned with global warming because it is their future.

The group ventured to the capital and listened to presentations by elected officials, like Rep. Michael Busch, Speaker of the House of Delegates, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, about the Global Warming Solutions Act and other priority environmental issues.

The Global Warming Solutions Act would allow Maryland to continue to be a leader in solving global warming - setting some of the most progressive science based standards in the country: reduce global warming emissions by 25% by 2020 and 90% by 2080. Participants then met with their elected officials about this very important issue.

We invite you to join our youth and make your own voice heard in support of this leading piece of global warming legislation. Send an email.

Upcoming Events

March 5, Mobilize for Green Jobs and Clean Energy Future in MD
Gov. O'Malley invites Marylanders to stand with him and tell the Annapolis State House to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act! This emergency clean energy mobilization will take place in concert with the governor and it is vital that we seize this opportunity.
Where: Lawyer’s Mall outside the Annapolis State House, MD
When: Wednesday, March 5 at 10:00 am
Why: Join Gov. O’Malley for an emergency clean energy mobilization to urge your elected officials to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act.

March 9, Learn how each of us can make a difference to God’s creation
Hear Matthew Sleeth, author of “Serve God, Save the Planet,” preach at Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington. Mt. Olivet is the first church in Arlington to be certified as a "Green Church" in the Arlington district of the Virginia United Methodist Conference.
When: March 9 - 11a.m. & 4:30 p.m. services
Where: Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church, 1500 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington
Getting There: The church is located on the corner of 16th St. and N. Glebe Rd. Served by bus from Ballston Metro (even on Sundays). Also an easy walk from the Ballston Metro. Parking lot also available; enter from Glebe Road.

March 19, Can Green Jobs Create Justice?
Book Signing, Wine Reception, Lecture, Discussion with Bracken Hendricks, author of the new Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy. Bracken Hendricks is Senior Fellow for climate change and energy with the Center for American Progress.
When: Wednesday, March 19, 7pm – 9pm
Where: Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, One Westmoreland Circle (On Mass. Ave., north of American University)

Weekend of April 18-20, Celebrate Earthday in your Congregation
Resources from GWIPL coming soon.

For more events, go to the GWIPL Event Calendar

Congregation in the Spotlight

National Baptist Memorial Church and Zipcar began partnering in September 2006 to use car sharing to provide transportation for older members of the congregation. While many of the congregation’s members live within walking distance of the church’s Mt. Pleasant location, some elderly congregants were unable to get to services.

Enter Zipcar. In exchange for allowing the car sharing company to place two of its cars in the church parking lot, National Baptist received driving credit that could be used for reserving the cars. As Pastor Kasey Jones notes, the ability to select which type of car would be placed on their lot—in this case, a minivan—persuaded them to give the arrangement a try. As soon as they signed the lease for the parking spaces, the company moved a minivan to a reserved spot at the church as requested.

Volunteers and staff soon began using the Zipcars located at the church to transport seniors, some of whom hadn’t been to the church in years, to Sunday services. Pastor Jones soon discovered other uses for the cars as well. Church staff also use their driving credit to reserve Zipcars for visitations, donation pickups at DC World Vision, and youth outreach programs. Once they find volunteers, they also hope to use the Zipcars to pick up groceries for seniors in the congregation.

In addition to using the cars themselves, National Baptist Memorial Church is also contributing to the surrounding community by making car sharing more readily available to residents. By providing easy access to vehicles that can be reserved by the hour or by the day, Zipcar provides a convenient alternative to car ownership. With 40 members for each car in DC, car sharing programs like Zipcar help residents reduce parking pressure, air pollution, and traffic congestion in their communities. For more information about the environmental benefits of car sharing, please see Zipcar’s website: http://www.zipcar.com/carsharing-greenbenefits/.

By providing parking in exchange for driving credit to Zipcar, National Baptist Memorial Church has not only found an environmentally friendly solution to their transportation problems, but they are also providing a valuable service to the neighborhood.

GWIPL also utilizes Zipcar to get to all of those non-metro accessible congregations. For more information about partnering with Zipcar, please contact Sarah Wagner, Regional Marketing Manager, at swagner@zipcar.com.

Support GWIPL today
You can make a secure online donation at http://www.gwipl.org/support_us.asp. Every dollar helps us to protect creation.