But first you may be asking, what is the Interfaith Sustainability Project? Our project began in the Spring, when Obama issued "The President's Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge"inviting institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith and community service on- and off-campus programming. Director of Religious Life Kelly Burk and I wrote a detailed plan of action, submitted it, and got the White House's approval. We chose environmental sustainability as our theme. In addition to abiding by our “Principles and Practices,” which states that we must “work for an environmentally responsible and sustainable future,” this theme is appropriate for Earlham because of its well-established passion and momentum on campus.
Over the next two semesters, our project will be pursuing both on- and off-campus initiatives. Our on-campus events will always be co-sponsored by one of the many student or faculty religious and/or environmental groups with whom we are collaborating. Those events include, but are not limited to, highlighting environmental sustainability during religious emphasis week, film showings, religious text studies on environmental themes, speakers, and a back-campus trash pick-up/meditative walk.
Our off-campus initiative aims to build relationships with Richmond faith communities and help them make their communities more green. We will train and equip student interfaith "Green Teams" to provide multiple free services for the faith communities. A unique service we will offer is energy audits that inform the faith communities of heat leaks in windows and doors. We will then work closely with them to help them fix those leaks in the most cost-effective way. We are currently looking for more student volunteers! Spread the word, and contact me if you're interested. You can get Bonner hours for it!
Our goal is to offer our services to every faith community in Richmond that is interested. However, we are especially interested in providing services to faith communities that have a high percentage of low-income families. By reaching out to low-income faith communities, we hope not only to address environmental concerns, but also to work at reducing utility costs for communities struggling to make ends meet.
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Now that you know what we're all about, here's an update on our progress! This past Saturday, September 10, the Interfaith Sustainability Project and Earlham Environmental Action Committee co-hosted showing of Renewal at Interfaith House (Thornburg). Renewal documents faith-based environmental action all over the US. According to its website, "Renewal is the first feature-length documentary film to capture the vitality and diversity of today's religious-environmental activists. From within their Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim traditions... these women, men and children are re-examining what it means to be human and how we live on this planet."
The showing was a great success, and afterwards we had a question-and-answer period about what it would mean to be on a Green Team. Collin Schulze, Molly McIntosh-Case, Jacob Willner, and I constitute the steering committee for this project. We fielded questions about the Green Teams, and by the end of the evening we had twelve people committed to volunteering this semester. A fantastic start! We're hoping to have at least twenty-five volunteers this semester, and the rest of the volunteers will be found through meetings with religious life groups, environmental action groups, and religious life houses.
That's all for this evening. Thank you for your time, and spread the word to any Earlham students you think may be interested in getting involved!
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