Kansas City Interfaith Council
hosted by CRES: promoting understanding among peoples of all faiths

THE EPS TASK FORCES: ENVIRONMENT
ARTICULATING THE WISDOM FROM THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS
to address the three great crises of secularism:
Environmental destruction....Personal misdirection....Social fragmentation
EPS Overview Page    Research program 

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Next meeting of the Environment Task Force:
TBA
     If you are interested in serving on the Environmental Task Force please contact staff@cres.org

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     "The gifts of pluralism have taught us that nature is to be respected, not just controlled. Nature is a process that includes us, not a product external to us that can just be used or disposed of.  Our proper attitude toward nature is awe, not utility.  When we do use nature as we must - for food, housing, and other legitimate purposes - we should do so with respect and care, preserving its beauty and mindful of its connection to the Sacred and ourselves.

Environmental Task Force

Best Environmental Practices

[These are suggested guidelines that can be implemented by the faith communities at their place of worship/gathering to affirm their commitment to environmental preservation.  We realize that it is not a complete list.  Please feel free to send any other ideas to simon@cres.org, attn. ETF]

1. Conservation and Pollution Prevention
a) Using non-disposable plates and dinnerware
b) Use cloth grocery bags, refillable printer cartridge; cloth diapers, etc.
c) Energy efficient lighting (at a minimum replace all incandescent bulbs with fluorescent)
d) Green building design (for additions to existing structure, remodeling, or new buildings)
e) Using rechargeable batteries
f) Environmentally friendly garden  and lawn chemicals (avoid toxic pesticides and herbicides)
g) Use non-toxic cleaning supplies, office products, etc.
h) Use of environmentally friendly personal transportation, e.g. bicycles and hybrid automobiles
i) Simple life style—minimum use of resource
j) Modifying food habits
· more grain consumption
· using minimum ice in water and drinks

2. Food
a) Buying organic food products and locally grown food
b) Fair trade foods (coffee, etc.)
c) Eating low on the food chain
d) Community garden initiative

3. Recycling
a) Beverage cans, newspaper, magazines, and paper products, plastics, glass, etc.
b) Composting food waste and yard clippings

4. Educational Efforts
a) Speakers
b) Films and videos
c) Discussion groups
d) Adult education toward environmental awareness
e) Children’s education
f) Field trips to nature sites, camping

5. Advocacy
a) Political activism
b) Social activism—environmental justice issues

6. Inclusion of Environmental elements in worship

7. Participation in Environmental Organizations
a) Stream cleanup teams
b) Adoption of  highways for litter control
 

11/29/04 version
 

Minutes of November 16, 2004 Meeting

Attendees: Syed Hasan (Islam), Rose Huelsman (Catholic), Terry Wiggins (Unitarian Universalist). Excused Jean Eiler (Buddhist)

The meeting began at 5:40 pm and concluded at 6:20 pm.  The following is a summary of the discussions held:

1. After welcome and introduction, it was agreed upon that the four members have advanced the task to the point that it should now be disseminated to all other faith communities asking them to develop statements on environmental ethics using the model developed for Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, and the Unitarian Universalist faiths.

2. Discussions were held on the “Best Environmental Practices” document and some changes were suggested.  The revised document is attached.

3. It was also decided to seek input from each faith group on what practical steps they are taking toward environmental stewardship.  Members present agreed to send the information about their faith group efforts to Dr. Hasan who will compile and forward it to Simon for web posting and seeking input from other faiths.

4. The group agreed to prepare a list of  local organizations that provide information on environmental topics, such as recycling, etc.  Bridging the Gap and the Mid America Regional Council (MARC) were mentioned as two great resources for environmental information.  Name and contact info. of other local organizations will be added later.  The ETF will also develop a list of organizations that accept cell phones and/or computers for recycling/reuse.

5. No date was set for the next meeting.  It was the consensus that information/ideas should be exchanged through email.
 

Respectfully submitted
 

Syed Hasan
Chair, ETF
11/29/2004

Best Practice Guidelines for the Environment (9/26/04 version)

1. Conservation and Pollution Prevention
a) Using non-disposable plates and dinnerware
b) Use cloth grocery bags, refillable printer cartridge; cloth diapers, etc.
c) Energy efficient lighting (at a minimum replace all incandescent bulbs with fluorescent)
d) Green building design (for additions to existing structure, remodeling, or new buildings)
e) Using rechargeable batteries
f) Environmentally friendly garden  and lawn chemicals (avoid toxic pesticides and herbicides)
g) Use non-toxic cleaning supplies, office products, etc.
h) Use of environmentally friendly personal transportation: bicycles
i) Hybrid automobiles
j) Simple life style—minimum use of resource
k) Modifying food habits
· more grain consumption
· using minimum ice in water and drinks

2. Food
a) Buying organic food products
b) Fair trade foods (coffee, etc.)
c) Promoting vegetarian diet
d) Community garden initiative

3. Recycling
a) Beverage cans, newspaper, magazines, and paper products, plastics, glass, etc.
b) Compositing of food waste and yard clippings

4. Educational Efforts
a) Speakers
b) Films and videos
c) Discussion groups
d) Adult education toward environmental awareness
e) Children education
f) Field trips to nature sites, camping.

5. Advocacy
a) Political activism
b) Social activism—environmental justice issues

6. Inclusion of Environmental elements in worship

7.       Participation in Environmental Organizations
a) Stream cleanup teams
b) Highway adoption of Highways for litter control
 

Minutes of July 26, 2004 Meeting

Attendees:  Jean Eiler (Buddhist), Syed Hasan (Islam), Rose Huelsman (Catholic), Terry Wiggins (Unitarian Universalist)

The meeting began at 5:37 pm and ended at 6:35 pm.  The following is a summary of the discussions held:

1. After welcoming the attendees, Dr. Hasan suggested that we should attempt to complete our task in the coming 2-3 months.  Toward this goal, we should focus on:
a) Preparing a statement from the various faiths highlighting the role and importance of environment in each.  After discussions, we agreed to limit the statement to 100 words and for Jean, Rose, Terry and Syed to prepare a draft in two weeks.  Email submission should be sent to the Chair at hasans@umkc.edu by August 9, 2004. These will be reviewed and finalized at the next meeting.
b) The ETF should then contact all representatives from other faiths to develop similar statements using the 3-4 statements as model.
c) Simon will be requested to help us with web posting and contacts.

2. The Task Force should also finalize the “Best Practice” concept, using various methods and techniques being implemented at various religious institutions for a sustainable environment (waste minimization, pollution prevention, recycling, energy, water and other resources conservation, green buildings, etc).

3. The next meeting is scheduled for Sep. 13 at 5:30 pm in the Loose Park Room, Administrative Center, UMKC.

Respectfully submitted
 

Syed Hasan
Chair, ETF
8/2/04

Minutes for June 21, 2004

After welcome and introductions, Dr. Hasan explained the purpose of the ETF.  Terry Wiggins read
the declaration from the 2001 IF Conference.

      Various ideas relating to sustainability, green architecture and ways to reduce waste were
discussed. It was agreed upon that as a first step the ETF should:

      1.  Prepare a statement drawn from scriptures/teachings from various faiths dealing with the
environment and the place and role of humans. (Terry Wiggins will follow up on this item)

      2.  Compile a list of "best practice" being implemented at various religious institutions that area
aimed at waste minimization, pollution prevention and resource conservation.  Send email to all faith
groups requesting them what they are doing by way of "best practice."

      3.  Educate members of individual congregations on environmental matters.

      4.  Join hands with existing organizations, such as "Bridging the Gap" and the "Shawnee Mission
East High School Earth Fair" to promote and optimize ETF's efforts.

      5.  Next meeting of ETF will be held, Mon, July 26 5:30 pm at the Administrative Center, UMKC.

      Meeting concluded at 6:50 pm.

Our last meeting was on Sept. 5th, 2002.,attending were Terry Wiggins, Chris Caseres, Clifton Wolfe, Kris Krishna
and Larry Sousley.

We continued our discussion of exploring ideas of putting together or organizing Enviromental type WEBSITES to be made available to the Interfaith Community. This collection of websites could be used as a resource for congregations,families or individuals seeking information or services, local or regional, pertaining to the many topics relating to our needs and impact on the Environment.

Action for task force members: share/discover favorite websites local or national that you have dicovered, we'll start making a list of all that have been suggested, then pick the best or most useful for our purposes.

We also discussed again:

• No Shopping Day or Buy Nothing Day
• Interfaith Walk...combined with some type of national or regional
• Earth/Environment/Energy day
• Help facilitate ease of writing to K.C. Star , to help build a regional
• voice expressing our desires and concerns
• Interfaith tree planting ceremony

We welcomed a new member to the group from the Ba'hai faith, Clifton Wolfe. We said good bye to Susan Bailey - Unity, as she has accepted a ministry out of state.

Action: expand, add to Environmental statement generated from 2001 Interfaith Conference -see Interfaith web site for wording. Please consider other wording, phrases that you feel fully or more fully expresses overall summary sentiment.

Please let me know if you will not be able to attend next meeting and if not send a substitute.

Feel free to communicate "anything"  via e-mail or website, before or after meetings, we do not have to wait for meetings to share anything that comes up....

See you on  Thursday Oct. 24th.

Larry Sousley