Green Tip of the Month
Are you sending flowers for Easter and Mothers Day? Did you know that you can purchase “fair trade” bouquets? Similar to Fair Trade Coffee, you
can purchase “fair trade” flowers, or VeriFlora certified flowers. VeriFlora growers don’t use pesticides
that sicken flower workers, and they agree to respect local labor rights and environmental regulations.
We’ll spare you the horror stories, but the production of most of those lovely bouquets we buy
are grown and processed offshore and require painful, low-paid labor by a largely female workforce.
It may not be easy to find Veriflora certified flowers, but their website www.veriflora.com encourages
consumers to ask for them and to request local florists to offer them. (This would at least raise
awareness of the problem and perhaps even result in local availability.)
The Sustainable Living Committee meets on the second Tuesdays of each month at 7PM in the program room at UUSE. Anyone interested in environmental concerns within UUSE and in the wider community is welcome to join us.
The Committee’s Co-Chairpersons: Kat Dargan and Ellen Castaldini.
Ways to Contact the Co-Chairpersons:
Write to UUSE153@sbcglobal.net and in the subject line put “Sustainable Living Committee”
Mission of this Committee:
The mission of the Sustainable Living Committee is to encourage and inspire the members of UUS:E, both as individuals and as a congregation, to become increasingly aware of how our use of energy, goods, and resources affects the entire Earth, its people and the eco-system, and to act on that awareness by striving to live sustainably with the Earth.
Our purpose is to put into action our Unitarian Universalist principles of affirming and promoting “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part” and “the inherent worth and dignity of every person”.
Long Range Plans of the Committee:
Our primary GOAL has been to help transform our religious community into a “Green Sanctuary” by using the process developed by the UUA affiliate, the Unitarian Universalist Ministry For Earth. Having achieved this goal by becoming a certified Green Sanctuary Congregation as of June 2006, we now plan to facilitate and sustain the work of keeping UUS:E green and to promote environmental consciousness and action for environmental justice within and beyond our UUS:E congregation.
Upcoming Activities of the committee with dates, times and locations:
For more information on ongoing work of the committee that is part of the UUS:E GREEN SANCTUARY Program, please check the Green Sanctuary page. Look for the Green Tip of the Month, the Guidelines for Keeping a Green Sanctuary kitchen and other items and activities there.
Needs of the Committee: Committee members and supporters are needed for the ongoing work of the committee and for some of these areas:
Links important to this Committee:
If you are interested in helping UUS:E in its work as a Green Sanctuary congregation, you are invited to attend the next meeting of the Sustainable Living Committee on Tuesday, March 11, at 7:00 P.M. in the Program Room. For more information contact co-chairs, Ellen Castaldini at ellen.castaldini@sbcglobal.net, 860-644-1539, or Kat Dargan at 860-533-0456, katdargan@sbcglobal.net.
We thank all those who came out on January 26 to our program and film showing of the “Warming of Connecticut.” We were especially grateful that Roger Smith of the CT Climate Coalition was able to join us for a very valuable discussion following the film. We hope the displays and booths and activities gave food for thought and action and that you went away with new ideas and information on solutions to global warming and climate change.
One way to combat global warming is to support a local organic food system. To learn more about this, consider attending CT NOFA’s annual conference, Cultivating An Organic CT, on March 8 at Windsor High School. With over thirty workshops to choose from, a keynote address by Chef Michel Nischan of the Dressing Room in Westport, a fantastic potluck lunch for around three hundred people and an organic marketplace to browse in, you will find something of interest< and information for everyone. Go to www.ctnof.org to register and read about the conference. Some brochures should be available in our lobby.
Whatever your thoughts are on the wisdom of the Federal Stimulus Package, here is one
thought on how to use it: Stimulate your LOCAL economy by purchasing a share in the produce of a
local organic farm. Joining a CSA means paying up front for a weekly supply of fresh organic produce.
You pick it up at the farm from July through October (generally). We have contacts with two
CSA farms in Glastonbury (and I just learned about a new one in Ellington). Check with Janet at
janet.heller@snet.net for more information.
This spring we are planning to install two rain barrels to collect rain water from the UUS:E roof, which can then be used to water the organic vegetable garden in back of UUS:E this summer. The barrels will be installed by the Building and Grounds Committee. One will be donated by Sham and Jennie Elshakhs, and the other will be purchased by the Sustainable Living and Religious Education Committees.
The annual organic vegetable garden is a project of the Religious Education classes and adult volunteers. If you have an interest in helping to plan and organize the garden project this year, please contact Janet Heller,645-6897 or janet.heller@snet.net. Or you can talk with Vicki Merriam. Many helpers are always needed.
Last updated March 6, 2008
