The Green Team first started meeting in November 04. We talked about recycling, using mugs instead of plastic and styrofoam cups, energy consulting for our Whitaker Mill building, green fundraisers. Communicate with refreshment team and staff about green options with food choices and with plates, cups, and utensils. Had a used dishwasher installed at Whitaker Mill location. (Still no mugs, but finally have compostable plates and cups.) Gave staff “Tips UCT can start applying Now!”

Ongoing recycling at UCT started with Karen and Joe taking recycling away to convenience center when Barry Vennard was minister in 99. Starting in the fall of 2007 we signed up with the City of Raleigh downtown recycling program, so recyclables are picked up at the curb now!!

Ongoing fundraisers : Sold Larry's Beans Coffee for almost three years 05-07 (fair trade, shade grown, bird friendly, and organic!!). 06 Collect cartridges for recycling with our Cartridge World partnership. April 08 Collect yogurt containers with TerraCycle’s Yogurt Brigade program to be reused as planting pots and donate money raised to Triangle Land Conservancy and NC Solar Center.

“Green tips” included in bulletin and e-update. Green articles for newsletter.

Month long Connect to Nature theme Aug. 06, including meditative walks in parks, Native American ceremony outside the sanctuary, and fall equinox ceremony at Mona’s.

Connected with Interfaith Power & Light through programs and showing the movies Kilowatt Ours and An Inconvenient Truth. Hosted a lunch featuring local foods in the 1880 Hall Sept. 07 for clergy in the area with Mark and Alice of IP&L (17 people attended).

Connected with Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (Tony Kleese) with the program and movie, The Future of Food

Input with a report from Green Team members on sustainable features to incorporate into our new building.

Worked with Nancy Calihan for the youth’s Service to Mother Earth July 07. Youth learned about conserving water, recycling, and picking up litter. They also learned about owls at a lock-in with a program by Steve Stone from the American Wildlife Refuge who brought rehabilitative Barred and Eastern Screech Owls. The youth also dissected owl pellets to learn about what owls eat.

Mother Earth Awareness Month, April 07 including youth puppet show; informational tables about recycling, solar center, One NC Naturally, Triangle Land Conservancy, etc.; gave congregants a CFL on Earth Day; and birding and hiking opportunities.

Through Interfaith Power & Light, set up an Energy Audit for UCT and the Long View Center that UCT members, LVC staff, and other LVC tenants attended in summer 2007.

Sponsored movie nights showing Green: The New Red, White, and Blue and How Cuba Survived Peak Oil.  Participated in Focus the Nation video presentation. Have shown Story of Stuff, The True Cost of Food, IP&L’s Renewal  and David Suzuki’s Suzuki Speaks  in between services.    

Book Study Aug. 07 in between services --Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Learned about eating locally. Encouraged members with announcement in bulletin and e-update to join the Eat Carolina Food Challenge July 08. Had list of local farmers’ markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

Passed out water timers from the City of Raleigh to use in shower to encourage water conservation during the drought, summer 08.   

Sponsored a program by Amy MacDonald, with Environmental Defense and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy on Global Warming: Learn the Facts. (Evening movies and programs are advertised in the paper and often attract people outside of the UCT community!)

Sustainability: Education Potluck Sampler April 08. After church had potluck lunch featuring local foods, watched Story of Stuff, then broke into groups with topics on: What constitutes a green home, sustainable community, sustaining a daily mind-body practice, safety in skincare, creating a sustainable garden, and an online energy audit to explore your lifestyle.

Set up a display in the hall during and in between services featuring green gift ideas fall 07 and 09.

A few Green Team members attended the Green Tea Gathering at CUCC in May 08 with an interfaith group discussing what our churches were doing and sharing ideas.  

Sustainability NOW! Jan. 09, 9am -5:30 pm. Six speakers presented 50-minute programs. Pam Beck, Change How You Garden;  Lyle Estill, Living in a Local Economy; Andy Wood, with Rep. Grier Martin and Congressman Brad Miller, Motivating to Action: Education and Activism in the Legislative Process;  Carolyn Toben, Thomas Berry’s Sense of Self; Stephen Hren, Renovating Your Home to Be Carbon Free; and Wanda Urbanska as the Keynote, Simple Living: Achieving and Honoring Simple, Just, and Sustainable Ways of Life.. 104 people attended, with 2/3 of the attendees coming from outside of UCT.

Earth Day 08 featured local Lumpy’s Ice Cream and everyone received a reuseable bag from Whole Foods. Earth Day 09 Youth read Lost Generation poem by Jonathan Reed during both services. Bonnie talked about growing your own vegetable garden in between services. Earth Day 10 bird walk at Walnut Creek Wetland Center in the morning. Birds nesting material balls were made by the youth team for people to hang in their yards for the birds   and Ross read his Walnut Creek Wetland poem during the second service.

Brooks de Wetter-Smith presented Southern Ice a multimedia presentation that included Antarctic images, narration, and flute improvisation Oct. 09

Community Earth Care Interfaith Service for 350 at UCT 10/23/09 People from around Raleigh gathered an Interfaith Service for 350 as a kick off to part of the largest day of climate change activism ever. Participants joined more than 5,000 communities in over 180 countries as part of a global day of action coordinated by 350.org to urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions. Russ Stephenson, Raleigh City Council Member, At-Large, read the proclamation declaring October 24, 2009 International Day of Climate Action in Raleigh.

Do You Know Where Your Food Comes From? 3/25/10 Dinner and Movie.  Participants enjoyed a catered dinner from Green Planet Catering featuring local and organic food. After dinner we viewed the movie FRESH, a documentary about our food system and people who are trying to change it. Daniel Whitaker from Green Planet Catering led us in a discussion after the movie about the importance of eating locally and sustainably.

Experience Earth Connection at Peacefalls, 4/10/10 Bob Davis and Judy Morgan-Davis hosted an open house at their home, inviting people to connect to nature. They shared information about the sustainable practices they are incorporating in their lifestyle, including managing soil and water, gardening for food and for wildlife, minimizing resource use, and keeping chickens.

On Saturday, January 24, 2009, the Green Team hosted Sustainability NOW! Symposium at UCT. Including the speakers, we had 103 attend Sustainability NOW! -- 35 where from UCT, the remaining reached out to our local community, including several church groups, and a few from further away in Fayetteville, Wilmington, and Creston.  The speakers were great and the positive energy of those attending and networking with each other filled the sanctuary.

A couple comments from people attending the symposium:

"I enjoyed the conference today. Congratulations to you and your Green Team. It was an eye opening day with many gifted people present. I met a number of old friends and new folks as well. It is good to see this caring for creation movement begin at the grassroots. I know over time it will expand."

"I really enjoyed all of the talks and meeting many of the speakers and other attendees. And I'm delighted that they all live and work in NC-we are lucky to have people with these kinds of ideas living in our state!"

Below was the schedule of the symposium, plus, Wanda Urbanska's blog (Wanda was our keynote speaker). 

http://www.simplelivingtv.net/

Monday, January 26, 2009
Sustainability NOW! is the name of the conference at which I presented on Saturday in Raleigh. I've been speaking at, providing workshops for and attending conferences of this ilk since the book I co-authored, "Simple Living," was first published back in 1992. But Saturday's event was a watershed - unlike any I've ever attended.

It wasn't so much the conference setting, held in the historic Unity Church of the Triangle building, though the 100-plus-year-old former Baptist church facility - with its U-shaped, community-congregating sanctuary and comfortable, hand-carved wooden pews - was spacious and inviting. It wasn't that its location at 118 Person Street in downtown Raleigh was a place to get real, and see reality, up close and personal. (The Raleigh Rescue Mission's headquarters is just around the corner, and you couldn't miss its residents lined up for food in the adjacent Moore Square Park.) It wasn't so much the commitment of its organizer, Karen Bearden, though her efforts to pull off this day were without a doubt exceptional.

What was so unique about this event is that never before have I witnessed such a palpable spirit of optimism, of hope, of the feeling that change is not only possible but imminent as I did this past Saturday in Raleigh. Every one at the conference was in high spirits, buoyed by the inauguration of President Barack Obama and the feeling that the forces of justice and vision in this land have regained the upper hand. Even Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC, 13th District) seemed jubulant as he placed in the past some of the issues with which Congress had been recently contending (i.e., the Bush Administration's deletion of sensitive emails, what he called "a flagrant violation of federal law"). He quipped that it "won't be as much fun with an administration that doesn't screw up as much." Rep. Miller expressed happiness to be able to work with a new administration - one which is not hostile to science, who won't try to "cook the books," and will work earnestly to deal with such issues as global warming. He voiced his concern about the unknown effects of the release of methane gas - containing drastically more damaging greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide - with the accelerated thawing of the Arctic permafrost.

In organizing the conference, Karen Bearden took a page out of Bill McKibben's local-action book. Instead of fishing for big-name speakers from California or Colorado and flying them across the country to make a splash, she made a strategic decision to invite only North Carolinians
to Sustainability NOW. The lineup included the smart, sunny Pam Beck, a Raleigh-based writer and speaker who champions water-wise, nature-friendly, food-producing gardens; Lyle Estill, the Pittsboro-based local economy advocate; the charismatic Representative Grier Martin, a trusted green ally in the NC House; Andy Wood, the engaging Hampstead-based education director for Audubon North Carolina; Carolyn Toben of the Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World at Timberlake Farm in Whitsett; and Stephen Hren, a professional restoration carpenter and author of a new book, "The Carbon-Free Home," that largely details steps taken by Stephen and his wife to reclaim and so transform their 1930s inner-city home.

The speakers were each remarkable, but as always at such events, I am struck by the calibre of everyone present, and believe that any single person you could touch had a remarkable story to tell. Marty Lamb, a long-time fan of the Simple Living series, came up to the podium after my presentation, toting an old rug, which she explained was woven by her grandmother years ago, one of many that cover floors in her home. She wanted me to consider it for use on the show as a "Thing That Refused to Die." I met a remarkable realtor named Louise Griffin, who has taken it upon herself to build a simplicity lending library to counsel her clients about "right-sizing" their home purchases. She comes to conferences like this to buoy her spirits for the uphill battle she fights every day. She admitted to being taken aback when childless couples come in and buy huge homes to accommodate their large anticipated families of the future - a future that we all know may never materialize.

As all communities are inherently small, it is always gratifying to meet people who are part of my extended community though we may not yet have met. One such person was Will Hooker, an attendee whose expertise as a permaculturist at NC State would have qualified him (rather than me) to be the keynote speaker. When he introduced himself, he reminded me of a conversation we'd had on the phone about eight years ago on the subject of permaculture and asked after a mutual friend, who was a former student of his. After my presentation on my steps to achieve the simple life in Mount Airy, Will's was the first hand to go up.

What would he ask, I wondered. Why my garden fell short of the ideal of permaculture? My personal recommendation about how to bring the American public on board to curb global warming more quickly? The composition of my soil? "How old is your son?" he wanted to know. When I told him eleven, he smiled broadly, "That's the same age as my son! Thanks for all your tremendous suggestions."

And so I left the conference, Raleigh, and my new friends with a sky-high feeling that we all shared. For the first time in a long time, it seems that sustainability is of the moment, sustainability is now!

Tip of the Day
Monday, January 26, 2009 - Embrace sustainability NOW!
Sustainability - that lofty goal that so many have aspired to - seems more achievable today than it has in years. Enjoy the moment and take action steps to promote change.

                                                       Sustainability NOW!  Saturday, January 24, 2009 Unity Church of the Triangle

9-9:45 am Registration

9:45 am Opening Remarks

10-10:50 am Pam Beck

Change How You Garden - It is time to reevaluate your landscape and your relationship with it. Let’s plan for sustainable urban landscapes filled with healthy plants. It is time for realistic gardens that are maintainable, water wise, nature friendly, and food producing, created with a holistic approach. Local garden writer, Pam Beck, will lead this segment filled with practical suggestions to apply in your own outdoor habitat.

11-11:50 am Lyle Estill

Living in a Local Economy - Hear the story of how a small town (Pittsboro, NC) found sustainable solutions to problems. Residents discovered how it is possible for a community to feed itself, fuel itself, heal itself, and govern itself. An inspiring true story about sustainability!

12-1:30 Lunch catered by Green Planet Catering

1:30-2:20 pm Andy Wood (with Rep. Grier Martin and Congressman Brad Miller) 

Motivating to Action: Education and Activism in the Legislative Process - Climate change legislation will be proposed in the new Congress. We have the opportunity to inform and help move elected leaders to make sound decisions when they vote on issues of local, regional, and global importance. This presentation introduces and connects participants to Audubon’s Climate Action programs including the Petition to Repower, Refuel, and Rebuild America, e-Activist List, and an upcoming collaborative National Teach-In. An open discussion will also be held with Andy and local legislators taking part in questions from the audience about upcoming sustainability issues. 

2:30-3:20 pm Carolyn Toben

Thomas Berry’s Sense of Sacred- Thomas Berry’s work in bringing into consciousness a new vision of the human-earth relationship is known all over the world. As a friend and student of Thomas, Carolyn will share with us his deep understanding that a recovery of a sense of the sacred is essential, and help us to reconnect and to be fully aware in the present moment, with its transforming possibilities for the earth and for ourselves.

3:30-4:20 pm Stephen Hren

Renovating Your Home to Be Carbon-Free - Stephen will present a slideshow and give a talk on simple to complex tasks that homeowners and renters alike can do to wean their homes off fossil fuels. He will detail renewable energy projects done to his own house with his wife, as well as projects detailed in their book, The Carbon-Free Home.

4:30-5:30 pm Keynote Wanda Urbanska

Simple Living: Achieving and Honoring Simple, Just, and Sustainable Ways of Life - Drawing on lessons learned from producing four seasons of the nationally syndicated public television series, Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska, Wanda will offer actionable ideas for pursuing simplicity and sustainability in one’s everyday life. She’ll point to “best practices” she’s gleaned from such inspirational role models as President Jimmy Carter, Bill McKibben, Cecile Andrews, Sarah Susanka, and Richard Swenson as well as flesh out her mantra, “Nothing’s too small to make a difference.”

Closing Remarks

Presenters

Pam Beck - Pam is a freelance garden writer, lecturer, and photographer (www.pambeckgardens.com). Pam and co-author Laura Peters published Best Garden Plants for North Carolina, in 2006. A member of the Garden Writers Association of America, she wrote “Perennially Yours”, a gardening column for the Raleigh News & Observer for five years. Pam is a frequent lecturer and also teaches Residential Landscaping for Wake Technical Community College’s Adult Continuing Education Program. Pam’s free time is spent gardening at her home on Falls Lake in Wake Forest.

Stephen Hren - Stephen and his wife, Rebekah, live in Durham, where they are both actively involved with renewable energy, natural building, and edible urban gardening. They are currently renovating a conventional 1930s inner-city home to be fossil fuel free and documenting the process (www.thecarbonfreehome.com). Stephen is a professional restoration carpenter, focusing on antebellum houses. He teaches natural building classes and workshops at the local community college.

Lyle Estill - Originally from Canada, Lyle is “Vice President of Stuff” at Piedmont Biofuels (www.biofuels.coop) in Moncure, NC. Lyle has won numerous awards for his work in the biodiesel business, including Educator of the Year in 2004 from North Carolina Environmental Educator’s Association for outreach on biodiesel. He is the author of Biodiesel Power and Small is Possible: Living in a Local Economy.

Carolyn Toben - Carolyn is Co-founder of the Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World at Timberlake Farm in Whitsett, NC (www.beholdnature.org), an earth sanctuary dedicated to teachers and children based on the work of Thomas Berry. Her background includes 30 years of interdisciplinary and renewal education in North Carolina and California and extensive post-graduate studies in depth and spiritual psychology. She has been a student and personal friend of Thomas Berry since 1978.

Wanda Urbanska - Wanda is a nationally known author and expert on simplicity. Her series, SIMPLE LIVING WITH WANDA URBANSKA, (www.simplelivingtv.net) currently airs on PBS stations nationwide (locally Sunday nights at 6:30 pm on WUNC). A graduate of Harvard University, Wanda has published articles in many national newspapers and magazines and is the author or co-author of six books, including Moving to a Small Town and Nothing’s Too Small to Make a Difference. Wanda is active in community life in her hometown of Mount Airy, NC.   

Andy Wood - Andy is the Education Director for Audubon North Carolina (www.ncaudubon.org). Prior to his post with Audubon, he served for 13 years as the Education Curator for the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. From 1987 to present, Andy has reported his observations in nature as a weekly radio commentator on Wilmington’s public radio station WHQR. A compilation of this work was recently published in Andy’s first book, Backyard Carolina: Two Decades of Public Radio Commentary. Andy and his family live in Hampstead, NC.

Thanks to Tara, Aaron, and Daniel of Green Planet Catering (www.greenplanetcatering.com) for the lunch featuring organic and local foods! Recently GPC received Sustainable North Carolina’s Entrepreneurship Award at the Sustainable Solutions Expo and a Green Award by the Triangle Business Journal for its “Entrepreneurial Effort/Innovative Idea.”

Thanks to Rep. Grier Martin and Congressman Brad Miller for taking part in the open discussion. We appreciate your time!

The lifetime crusade of your days must be to develop a new energy ethic to sustain life on earth. Cherish sunsets, wild creatures and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the earth. ~Stewart Udall

People from the community attended an Earth Care Interfaith Service for 350 at Unity Church of the Triangle, one of
over 5,000 events taking place across the world in over 170 countries. The service was part of the largest day of climate change activism ever,  coordinated by 350.org to urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

After Neusom Holmes welcomed everyone Karen Bearden talked about the importance of 350 ppm and shared some other actions taking place across the world.

Karen introduced Russ Stephenson, Raleigh City Council Member, At-Large, who read the proclamation declaring October 24, 2009 International Day of Climate Action in Raleigh.

Randy Senzig shared a Thomas Berry quote about The Great Work. A prayer stick ceremony with people coming forward to offer prayers for healing the Earth by wrapping colorful yarn around a stick was lead by Nancy Huslage, while Mark Malachi sang Kadosh and Shalom beautifully in Hebrew.

There was also storytelling and a Lokata song sung by Laura McKelvey and Jennifer Holder sharing a message of intention.

“The environment does not need fixing, it is our behavior and relation to it that needs to change,” was one of the powerful Dali Lama quotes Venerable Tendron shared. Those attending held hands as they sang the song, O Great Spirit.

The service transitioned to a call to action. Jennifer, Veronica Butcher with 1 Sky, and Karen described the action items people could choose from. Ogun Holder played the drums giving rhythm and excitement to the building climax of the service while people signed up to volunteer to plant trees with Trees Across Raleigh, signed cards to Sen. Kay Hagan for Green jobs and renewables in NC, lit a candle and took an affirmation of intention, and rang the church bells 350 times. Both the adults and kids had fun with ringing the bells!! Sandy Hemenway sang his powerful song Citizens of the Earth to end the service.

 Photo credits and Special Thanks to New Image Studio, Raleigh, NC.

Check out this video from 1Sky showing 350 events around North Carolina, which includes the interfaith service:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnnEYpb6pxg&feature=channel

This video is from 350.org showing actions around the world:

http://action.350.org/t/10062/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1601

Bill McKibben's 350.org campaign is coordinating International Day of Climate Action on October 24, 2009. 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to creating an equitable global climate treaty that lowers carbon dioxide below 350 parts per million. Check www.350.org for much more information.

Join the Green Team and people from the community on Friday, October 23rd at 7:30 pm for a Community Earth Care Interfaith Service with a focus on connecting with and caring for the Earth.

The service will be held at Unity Church of the Triangle (located at 118 South Person Street in the Long View Center across from Moore Square in downtown Raleigh). We'll share our common faith perspectives with message, music, art, ringing of the bells, and action. The service will kick off the largest global day of climate action ever with over two thousand 350.org actions taking place that weekend across the world! Some of the actions taking place near the end of the service will be volunteering to plant trees with Trees Across Raleigh, signing postcards to Senator Kay Hagan for green jobs and renewables in NC, and ringing the bell 350 times!!

You can RSVP for this event (or just show up!) at http://www.350.org/o24/action/4436 or by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .