No to Paper, No to Stamps, Yes to Savings
June 15, 2010 12:26
| best practices, news
| Permalink
One small, but significant step, is making a voluntary commitment to reducing our use of paper and stamps from OCUUC. This means receiving all communication via email or the web and having a copy of the Order of Service emailed to you.
If you are interested, please let Mike Harmanos know. We already have five OCUUC members who have made a greener choice.
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The Story of Bottled Water
March 23, 2010 04:55
| best practices, news
| Permalink
Hat tip to Reverend Karen on this one. Yesterday, March 22, was World Water Day. The good folks at "The Story of Stuff" tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Great food for thought. Enjoy!
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The Major Project
March 21, 2010 11:42
| news, solar, certification
| Permalink
As I mentioned in the last post, we can get all the projects done except for the one major environmental justice project working with another congregation or collaborative organization.
My preference for a major environmental justice project is tied toward another goal of Green Sanctuary - to quit carbon energy as the church's energy source.
It is never going to be cheaper, more cost effective, and get a faster rate of return on our investment than right now with solar. There are excellent federal and state credits to purchasing a solar panel system. Plus, there's a new law in California called AB 920. That law says that starting on January 1, 2011, if you produce more power than you consume in your solar array, the utilities must do one of two things. One, they must pay you back at market wholesale prices. Or they can roll over your account with credit (like they do with cell phone minutes).
We would not be the first UU church to go solar. But we might be the first church in Orange County running entirely on renewable energy. Enjoy the video below.
I had a friend of Charlie and Birdie Reed's to come out to the church to provide an assessment. He works for Greenway Solar and did a nice job with coming up with a report/proposal. If you'd like to see a copy of the proposal, leave a comment and I'll get one off to you.
The Bottom line is this. For the cost of the investment, we get the following:
This proposal is already in front of the Finance Council today. How they come up with the cost is something I will leave in their capable hands. But I would love to hear all of your thoughts as well.
My preference for a major environmental justice project is tied toward another goal of Green Sanctuary - to quit carbon energy as the church's energy source.
It is never going to be cheaper, more cost effective, and get a faster rate of return on our investment than right now with solar. There are excellent federal and state credits to purchasing a solar panel system. Plus, there's a new law in California called AB 920. That law says that starting on January 1, 2011, if you produce more power than you consume in your solar array, the utilities must do one of two things. One, they must pay you back at market wholesale prices. Or they can roll over your account with credit (like they do with cell phone minutes).
We would not be the first UU church to go solar. But we might be the first church in Orange County running entirely on renewable energy. Enjoy the video below.
I had a friend of Charlie and Birdie Reed's to come out to the church to provide an assessment. He works for Greenway Solar and did a nice job with coming up with a report/proposal. If you'd like to see a copy of the proposal, leave a comment and I'll get one off to you.
The Bottom line is this. For the cost of the investment, we get the following:
- We make our own clean, green energy forever at OCUUC.
- We make a 1046% return (over 10 times!) on our investment over 30 years.
- We live out our seventh principle.
- Once the system is paid off, we then work with the Finance Council and the Board to come up with some sort of arrangement similar to Loose Plate.
- This allows us the financial resources to work with another organization or other congregations on a major collaborative project toward environmental justice.
- We have a positive cash flow, at the very latest, in seven years, based on historical averages.
This proposal is already in front of the Finance Council today. How they come up with the cost is something I will leave in their capable hands. But I would love to hear all of your thoughts as well.
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News and Thoughts About Climate Change/Global Warming
February 17, 2010 07:33
| emerging trends, news
| Permalink
Tom Friedman in today's New York Times provides some timely food for thought and I wanted to share.
Here are the points he likes to stress:
1) Avoid the term “global warming.” I prefer the term “global weirding,” because that is what actually happens as global temperatures rise and the climate changes. The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous.
The fact that it has snowed like crazy in Washington — while it has rained at the Winter Olympics in Canada, while Australia is having a record 13-year drought — is right in line with what every major study on climate change predicts: The weather will get weird; some areas will get more precipitation than ever; others will become drier than ever.
2) Historically, we know that the climate has warmed and cooled slowly, going from Ice Ages to warming periods, driven, in part, by changes in the earth’s orbit and hence the amount of sunlight different parts of the earth get. What the current debate is about is whether humans — by emitting so much carbon and thickening the greenhouse-gas blanket around the earth so that it traps more heat — are now rapidly exacerbating nature’s natural warming cycles to a degree that could lead to dangerous disruptions.
3) Those who favor taking action are saying: “Because the warming that humans are doing is irreversible and potentially catastrophic, let’s buy some insurance — by investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency and mass transit — because this insurance will also actually make us richer and more secure.” We will import less oil, invent and export more clean-tech products, send fewer dollars overseas to buy oil and, most importantly, diminish the dollars that are sustaining the worst petro-dictators in the world who indirectly fund terrorists and the schools that nurture them.
4) Even if climate change proves less catastrophic than some fear, in a world that is forecast to grow from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion people between now and 2050, more and more of whom will live like Americans, demand for renewable energy and clean water is going to soar. It is obviously going to be the next great global industry.
Here are the points he likes to stress:
1) Avoid the term “global warming.” I prefer the term “global weirding,” because that is what actually happens as global temperatures rise and the climate changes. The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous.
The fact that it has snowed like crazy in Washington — while it has rained at the Winter Olympics in Canada, while Australia is having a record 13-year drought — is right in line with what every major study on climate change predicts: The weather will get weird; some areas will get more precipitation than ever; others will become drier than ever.
2) Historically, we know that the climate has warmed and cooled slowly, going from Ice Ages to warming periods, driven, in part, by changes in the earth’s orbit and hence the amount of sunlight different parts of the earth get. What the current debate is about is whether humans — by emitting so much carbon and thickening the greenhouse-gas blanket around the earth so that it traps more heat — are now rapidly exacerbating nature’s natural warming cycles to a degree that could lead to dangerous disruptions.
3) Those who favor taking action are saying: “Because the warming that humans are doing is irreversible and potentially catastrophic, let’s buy some insurance — by investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency and mass transit — because this insurance will also actually make us richer and more secure.” We will import less oil, invent and export more clean-tech products, send fewer dollars overseas to buy oil and, most importantly, diminish the dollars that are sustaining the worst petro-dictators in the world who indirectly fund terrorists and the schools that nurture them.
4) Even if climate change proves less catastrophic than some fear, in a world that is forecast to grow from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion people between now and 2050, more and more of whom will live like Americans, demand for renewable energy and clean water is going to soar. It is obviously going to be the next great global industry.
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