The Bishop’s Challenge:

Programs

Congregation Challenge:

Integrate care for creation into programs pertaining to waste management, recycling, and reducing pollution.

Ready to try an action in this area?  Ideas for actions (and resource links) are below, or you can come up with your own innovative action idea and let us know about it.

Food Waste and Diet

Start a community food pantry or soup kitchen

Start a Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFBNJ) program to "provide food directly to the needy, ill or children in the form of meals or food boxes for a minimum of 3 months."

Support Buy Fresh Buy Local

Encourage community members to buy local produce and support local farms and markets or start a Buy Fresh Buy Local chapter.

Reduce Food Waste / Composting

Add a compost pile/container to the church property so that food waste from church events can be immediately composted and not added to landfills.

Hold Meatless Monday events; feature meatless offerings at church events

Encourage community members to limit meat consumption, during Lent or year-round.

Encourage whole food plant-based eating

Encourage community members to limit meat consumption, during Lent or year-round, and explore the link between faith, the environment, and plant-based eating.

Start or expand a community garden

Host a community garden on church property.

Glean from church garden or congregational backyard gardens (donate to food banks)

Provide fresh produce from a church garden or backyard gardens to partner food banks.

Build a hydroponic tower garden

Use hydroponic tower gardens to grow fresh produce.

Plant based recipes

Check out these plant based recipes to help offset meat consumption.

Reduce Waste

Hold a Zero Waste Education Event/Workshop

"Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them." — Zero Waste International Alliance

Conduct a Waste Audit

Conduct a study of the waste generated at your site and make improvements to recycling and composting based on your findings.

Reduce print waste

For example, recycle toner, use refilled toner, default double-sided printing, re-use paper, reduce printing of emails and attachments, and/or utilize eBilling.

Commit to Green/Zero-waste fellowship events

"Toward Zero Waste" Reusable crockery, utensils, and/or bamboo coffee stirrers for coffee hour; Green "Clean up" station after coffee hour or dinners with bins for compost/recycle/dishwasher

Limit use of office paper and other paper products

Create a print-waste reduction policy for re-use of paper, use of recycled paper, and scanning/electronic copies as opposed to paper files.

Hold a Reusable Bag Education Program

Support the NJ Bag Ban! Educate community members and provide a bag swap for those who need bags.

Reduce Air Pollution

Anti-Idling Information/Enforcement

Support the NJ DEP's Anti-Idling campaign by posting signs and sharing leaflets to discourage idling on church property and elsewhere.

Recycling

Begin or Expand a Recycling and Waste Reduction Program

Participation in municipal/county recycling, recycling communion cups via TerraCycle, recycling plastic bags/film via Trex; Provide a collection point for programs that recycle fabric, batteries, bras, toilet paper rolls, frying oil, and/or take-out containers.

Participate in Institutional Recycling

Recycle furnishings and equipment through platforms and organizations (such as Buy Nothing) that match them to those who need them.

Participate in Hazardous Waste Recycling (tech recycling)

Take part in muncipal and county programs to recycle toner cartridges and electronics or contribute to in-store programs.

Implement a Materials Reuse Program

Hold an upcycling art event, "repair cafe," rummage sale, or other event encouraging creative reuse rather than disposal of old items. Encourage members to take advantage of community re-use programs.

Governance, Policies, and Communication

Adopt a Green Purchasing Policy

Adopt a green purchasing policy that promotes buying recycled paper, compostables, green cleaning products, etc.

Adopt a Creation Care Resolution

Work with the church council to develop a congregational creation care resolution for adoption by the congregation.

Distribute monthly e-blasts with eco-friendly tips and products

Incorporate green tips into e-newsletters.

Other

Encourage Prescription Drug Safety and Disposal

Hold an education event or post signs encouraging safe disposal of prescription drugs.

Congregations already working in these areas:

Our Savior (Stone Harbor)
Pastor Eloise Shanley

St Paul (Ridgefield)
Sharla DeLawter

St. Matthew (Secaucus)
Pastor Danielle McCleary

Abiding Presence (Ewing)
Heidi Furman

Sustainable Hospitality at Abiding Presence in Ewing

Replaced all disposable cutlery, plates, mugs, and cups with re-usable options:

Stainless cutlery Stainless juice cups      Re-usable table covers

Ceramic plates Ceramic mugs     Re-usable “to go” containers

Created “clean up” stations to sort re-usables to be washed, paper and food waste to be composted, and items for recycling/Terracycling.

Worked with the church Fellowship Team to ensure all coffee hours and fellowship events are ~zero-waste, hosted low-waste events for the NJ synod, and incorporated re-usables into all new building use contracts.

In one year we estimate that we kept over 14,000 items out of landfills by replacing disposables with their re-usable counterparts!

Contact Karen Le Morvan at Abiding Presence at aplcoffice@gmail.com with questions!