As of February 2024, our church was certified by the Presbytery as an Earth Care Congregation. This required the Earth Care Team, made up of Karin Bennett, Alison Binder, Coleen Smith, Amy Taylor and Marilynn Pysher, to take actions and record activities in the areas of Worship, Education, Facilities and Outreach. A 13 page application was then completed and submitted to the Presbytery with points earned for the activities in each of the four areas. Work is ongoing as the church must be re-certified yearly to retain Earth Care status.

Among other things: Eco Tips are put in the bulletin regularly, speakers are brought in periodically, and a bulletin board has been put up in Fellowship Hall where all can share Earth Care ideas and information.

If we as Christians can't be better stewards of this beautiful earth, who can? We encourage all to do everything possible to follow good Earth Care practices at all times. We owe it to ourselves, our loved ones, our community, our planet, and our God.

ECO TIPS FOR DECEMBER

The Holidays are bad for the planet!

Household waste can increase 25% or more between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  That’s like creating 1 million extra tons of trash per week!

Here’s how to have a more sustainable holiday:

-Shop locally; avoid online shopping that adds transportation emissions and lots of

plastic wrap to the environment.     

-Buy eco-friendly gifts made from recycled materials and made with organic and fair

trade principles when possible.     

-Make your own gifts, cards and wrapping paper. It’s fun & creative! 

-Around 120 million trees are cut down yearly worldwide contributing to large-scale

deforestation. Buy a potted tree and decorate it with LED lights which are 90%

more efficient than your old string lights.  

-Use natural or edible decorations such as popcorn or cranberry strings for the tree

and pine cones and greenery for the table.

-Refer to the Eco Tips for November (see below) when planning your menu.  

-Keep travel, especially air travel, to a minimum.

Just changing one practice can make a huge difference in having a more eco-friendly holiday.

ECO TIPS FOR NOVEMBER

Have a Greener, more sustainable Thanksgiving

Avoid as much food waste as possible by planning your menu mindfully in accordance with the number of people eating and their dietary preferences.

Shop locally produced and seasonal food to reduce your carbon foot print of imported foods and use of plastic food packaging.

Incorporate more plant-based foods and/or sustainably sourced turkey or fish. 

Reducing meat consumption even slightly makes a significant impact on the environment.

Use reusable dishware and cloth napkins to avoid the huge amount of paper waste that can occur—it’s also more elegant.

Encourage guests to take home leftovers (wrapped in waxed paper not plastic!) or donate excess food to local shelters. Compost scraps to keep them out of the landfill.

Decorate with Nature rather than plastic.

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks so take a moment to appreciate the

planet and this beautiful island on which we live.

ECO TIPS FOR OCTOBER

Use as much of that pumpkin as possible!

During the Halloween and Thanksgiving season, billions of people massively buy this fruit. If you’re going to buy pumpkins, buy them organic when possible.

1.3 billion pounds of pumpkin get tossed out and rot in America’s landfills.

40% of consumers buy fresh pumpkins to hollow out and carve, but 60% of those don’t use the flesh, which contributes to the approximately 63.1 million tons of food waste generated annually in the U.S.

Use the flesh to cook some yummy, healthy recipes.

Bake the seeds for a few minutes in the oven to eat as a snack.

Once the season is over, instead of throwing the pumpkin or its rind away, compost it. When left to decompose in a landfill, pumpkins will produce methane gas, a greenhouse gas with much higher destructive properties than carbon dioxide.

Avoiding food waste is a part of embracing a more conscious lifestyle.

ECO TIPS FOR SEPTEMBER

What is the BEST thing we can do to reduce our carbon foot-print and help the earth?

CONSUME LESS BEEF AND DAIRY PRODUCTS

WHY?

Raising cattle is very resource-intensive.

Doing so:

1. Causes deforestation
2. Takes up ¾ of agricultural land for grazing and growing crops for feed
3. Uses and pollutes an abundance of water
4. Produces a great deal of methane (cattle passing gas)

Instead:

Eat chicken, fish and plant-based food

Try meat substitutes

Better yet, become a vegetarian

Eliminating meat from our diet just 2 days per week would substantially cut emissions, land and water use.