Current Green Sanctuary Projects

RIGID STYROFOAM COLLECTION PROJECT

RECYCLE BOX IN THE FELLOWSHIP HALL.  LOOK FOR THE POSTER

 

 

CASH FOR CARBON

There’s still time for members of the Fellowship to calculate their carbon footprints.
This is the pounds of carbon dioxide that your household produces in a year. We all need to use the same online footprint calculator:
https:// www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/  

The calculator has three categories: home energy, transportation and waste.
  1. In the home energy section you will need to know your average monthly natural gas and electricity bills. Fuel oil or propane costs may also be entered. If you have solar array, a wind turbine or if you pay your provider for green energy be sure to indicate what percentage of your electricity is green. (Paying your provider for green energy allows you to claim 100% green energy.)
  2. In the transportation section you will need to know the average miles you drive each of your cars in a year. You will also need to know each car’s miles per gallon. If you don’t know your cars’ miles per gallon you can click the “i” information button next to mpg and get official values.
  3. For the waste section all you will need to know is what materials you recycle.
Each section also allows you to predict how much you can reduce your footprint by making future changes. Make realistic guesses about the changes you might make. The final result is your carbon footprint in pounds of carbon dioxide. Also calculated is your future carbon footprint if you make all the planned actions you have listed. Your carbon footprint is compared to the U. S. average. Be sure to record all the information you input and of course the final result on the report page. You may want you to calculate your carbon footprint in a year to see if you have improved.
When you have calculated your carbon footprint report your result, the number of pounds of carbon dioxide your household generates in a year, report by email to Shelly Storm at uumankato@gmail.com.  the total weight. We have a few signed up and 1 winner…it’s not too late to sign up for the 9th & 20th place winner for a $25 cash prize !!!!! Consider putting your winnings towards something that will reduce your carbon footprint like a new pair of walking shoes or LED lightbulbs. Have fun!

Your Green Sanctuary Committee
 

Movie Screening & Community Discussion

What are throwaway plastics doing to animals, to our health, to the environment and to the planet?

“The Story of Plastic” Virtual Movie Viewing April 18 – 30 (View at your convenience.)

Virtual Community Discussion May 1, 3:00 pm  Develop local actions to address plastic pollution.

 

      

For questions or more information contact Jane Dow:  507-469-5537 or janedow47@gmail.com

 

 

Sponsored by Beyond Plastics Greater Mankato Area

Click here to see : Story of plastic poster web

Guest Panelists:

Macy Gustavus – researcher at Utah University pursuing an MS in Watershed Sciences with work focusing on the transport of microplastics.

Gay Trachsel – social activist in Duluth instrumental in securing the success of the Duluth ordinance to put a fee on plastic bags.

 

 

 

Think Resilience Course

Think Resilience features twenty-two short video lectures by Richard Heinberg, one of the world’s foremost experts on the urgency of transitioning society away from fossil fuels. “The world is flooded with information about our nanosecond in planetary history, and the mess we’ve made of it. What’s much harder to find is a clear, cogent depiction of the much, much bigger picture… That’s what I got from the Think Resilience videos: the context of everything. It colors everything I’ve read since about the climate and our future.” – David Pogue, New York Times columnist and technology writer

While our formal discussions of Post Carbon Institute’s Think Resilience Course are over for this spring, you can still access the course.  We may decide to re-visit this course and resume discussions in the fall when we can meet in person.

 
Click Below for Instructions on how to access the Think Resilience Course

How_to_sign_up Download

If this is not a good time for you to participate in a discussion group, you can still watch the videos on your own schedule and use the Think Resilience Discussion Guide below for your own reflection process. Or you could invite a friend or two to join you.

Think-Resilience-Discussion-GuideFall2017Download

 

Carbon Footprint Challenge

FootPrints

We are now promoting a carbon footprint challenge. Click below for more information:

Introduction to Carbon Footprint Project

Carbon Footprint Calculator Information

Stopping Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline Support

Our own Bob Finley has been keeping us up-to-date on the efforts to stop the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline.  Click here for his article.  

Mitigation Projects at the UUFM

Picture of UUFM

 

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Mankato (UUFM) is in the process of accomplishing or is planning to accomplish several major mitigation projects that will potentially reduce our contribution to the cause of greenhouse warming-the burning of fossil fuels. See this document UUFM Mitigation Projects for more information on the mitigation projects we are currently working on.