In Davis, various faith organizations have pioneered work on sustainability and care of God’s creation. Below are details of the activities of different faith groups who are currently partners of Cool Davis.
Davis Community Church: Stewards of God’s Creation Group
Diane Colborn says that the Stewards of God’s Creation Group, “in response to God’s love for us and for all creation, seek to live out our calling, both as a community and as individuals, to restore creation and to live in balance and harmony with the earth and all living creatures.”
The group has spear-headed efforts at the DCC to complete an environmental and energy audit of their church facilities, and have taken steps to implement the results of the audit, such as, using green building materials for renovations, building a 3-bin compost bin, and planting a community organic garden on church property. Other efforts include co-sponsoring the formation of a Davis chapter of the Voluntary Gas Tax Initiative and giving a number of educational classes on environmental stewardship and conservation including Low Carbon Diet classes.
Davis Episcopal Church of Saint Martin: Care for God’s Creations Commission
St. Martin’s Episcopal Church is a partner of the Cool Davis Partners Coalition. The church works through the Care for God’s Creation Commission to reduce the carbon footprint of their physical plant and encourage members to implement similar steps in their households.
The Commission is most proud of their recycling program, which diverts most of the building’s waste from the landfill. This includes composting waste from Davis Community Meals, which are served three days a week at St. Martin’s. The church had some solar panels installed previously and will be adding more this spring to reduce electric bills by 70%. They are working with their church’s Landscape Committee and Buildings and Grounds on design of a low-water-use healing/meditation garden.
Members of the Care for God’s Creation Commission participate in the Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice, and they took a lead in the Travel Lite program to encourage members of all congregations to walk, ride bikes, use transit, or carpool to worship. Recently they loaned out watt meters for church members to check for phantom energy use and note sources of energy waste at home.
The Church of St. Martin, led by it Care for God’s Creation Commission, chose to join the Cool Davis Partners and the Interfaith Alliance, knowing that we are all stronger when we work together. They appreciate coordinating with other faith groups, for example on the upcoming March 30 Interfaith Climate Crisis Conference: Putting our Faith into Action. They have sponsored the Cool Davis Festival and look forward to more involvement.
Davis Friends Meeting
The entire 35-member Davis Friends Meeting, a small, liberal congregation, reached consensus to join Cool Davis as a partner after taking time to deliberate the commitment thoughtfully. While their first purpose is to provide accessible and appropriate worship space and opportunity for community, the second is to encourage putting their principles into practice, including care for the earth.
Cool Davis asks that partners be committed to the Cool Davis mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate. The members of the Meetinghouse have already made significant efforts to lower their carbon footprint in the three categories Cool Davis has identified in its Cool Home Campaign.
The Friends accomplishments are impressive. In terms of the energy efficiency of their meetinghouse, they have added ceiling insulation, removed a tree to let in more outside light and installed the following: a point of service hot water heater with a timer, independent heating and cooling on programmed timers for the two main rooms, ceiling fans, low energy lighting, double pane windows with clear glazing and effective window shades.
In terms of consumption, they have paid special attention to water conservation with low-flow toilets, most grounds covered in wood chips or native plants, low or close-to-zero water use landscape in the west garden, turf removal in favor of bark mulch on north, a low-flow, uniform sprinkler system with timer, irrigation of the one children’s grass areas via programmed timer, awareness of appliance water use, and efficient dish washing procedures.
The Friends are conscientious consumers. They separate garbage, compostables, recyclables and paper, bring their own utensils, purchase post-consumer recycled toilet paper and half-sized paper towels for the restrooms, select local food when possible, and more.
To reduce their Transportation prints, friends encourage biking. Some drive hybrid cars.
Davis Friends strive to make following the Cool Davis mission their own practice.
Davis United Methodist Church: Church & Society Committee
The United Methodist Church’s Social Principles address the climate crisis from a place of deep reverence for the sacredness and diversity of life on this earth. The Church advocates for caring for God’s creation through sustainable use of resources and prevention of air, land, and water pollution.
The Church & Society Committee of the Davis United Methodist Church embraces the Social Principles advocacy for environmental sustainability and environmental justice. Jim Cramer, past chair, reports, “The Davis UMC, with leadership from the C & S Committee, has implemented numerous programs aimed at environmental sustainability. We have adopted many energy conservation measures and have installed solar panels to provide most of our electricity. We have moved substantially toward electronic communication and use of reusable implements for banquets and social gatherings, and we have sponsored numerous educational programs for residential energy conservation. Our Grace Garden provides over 1000 pounds of locally grown fruits and vegetables for the local food pantry. Davis UMC has received awards from California Interfaith Power & Light and from Seattle-based Earth Ministry for its environmental sustainability programs.”
Lutheran Church of the Incarnation
The mission of the Lutheran Church of the Incarnation is “to be an inclusive, multi-generational congregation living in the grace of God, and a sanctuary that equips us for service in the community while bringing the Good News to all.” Pastor Dan Smith is most proud of meeting the spiritual needs of his congregation and community, providing food and workers to the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter, and encouraging and facilitating support for a number of local, national, and international ministry partners.
Cool Davis has been grateful to be one of those chosen local partners. The Lutheran Church of the Incarnation came forward with a generous and unexpected donation for the first Cool Davis Festival in addition to finding enthusiastic volunteers to help. Since the 2010 Festival, church members have continued to participate as steadfast volunteers in Cool Davis festivals, and the church has been a regular sponsor as well!
In addition to expanding their witness throughout the Davis community, this church plans to further develop a “green” strategy and ministry. They have renovated the facility to lower their carbon footprint as much as possible and have established sustainable, ongoing practices such as extensive recycling and Second Sunday Cycling to Service.
Perhaps partly because he has two young children, Pastor Dan Smith is completely dedicated to earth stewardship which he believes has solid biblical roots. His ministry celebrates and emphasizes the importance of protecting creation. His Earth Day sermons are inspirational, and In his own words, “We practice what we preach.”
Here’s how Pastor Dan responded to Bill McKibben’s April 2012 visit to Davis. “…As Mr. McKibben said, doing the right thing for the environment in our own personal lives, using less energy, recycling, and eating more local and more vegetarian are all necessary but insufficient. He’s right. We need a multi-layered approach to this problem that recognizes both our own complicity in environmental degradation, while at the same time demanding that our political leaders help us to have access to better choices. Many of us want to do the right thing, but we don’t know how, or can’t imagine a different future. If we are part of the problem, that means we can also be part of the solution. Perhaps our most important asset right now is the imagination to see things in a new light and live differently with planet earth. From my perspective, I don’t see any way around it.”
Despite Pastor Dan’s commitment, the congregation sometimes lacks a clear focus to move forward in their green ministry. Kristin believes, “being part of a larger “green” community such as Cool Davis will help us to focus our efforts. Just bringing us into community with other organizations with sustainability as part of their mission will help to strengthen our resolve.”
The Lutheran Church of the Incarnation is an active part of Cool Davis.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis: Green Sanctuary
The Unitarian Universalist Church in Davis (UUCD) has put its faith into practice on sustainability for many years, and it has been an active member of Cool Davis since it began in 2010. In 2005, UUCD embarked on the important and daunting task of becoming a Green Sanctuary: a church whose members truly live with “respect for the interdependent web of which we are a part.”
“A number of us at UUCD recognized that Earth’s systems were in peril from human activities, and as people of faith, we faced a moral and spiritual crisis of utmost importance,” explained Judy Moores, who led the task force.
Becoming a Green Sanctuary, a program sponsored by the national Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), required the church to form an on-going oversight committee, do an extensive audit of the church’s buildings, grounds, and practices, and develop twelve projects in worship, religious education, sustainability and eco-justice.
All members of the congregation had to be involved in one or more projects and the church had to reach out to other churches and groups and involve them in an on-going eco-justice project. In February of 2007, the UU Church of Davis was accredited as an official Green Sanctuary, and recognized at the annual national UUA Convention. In spring of 2007, the City of Davis recognized the pioneering environmental work of our church with an Environmental Award.
Since becoming a Green Sanctuary, we have recognized that the work to integrate environmental awareness, sustainable practices, and environmental justice into our church community, our personal lives, and our wider community is always an on-going effort.
Each year we dedicate a number of services to environmental topics stressing our responsibility to take care of our planet.
The Green Sanctuary Committee (GS) has sponsored various educational initiatives including Northwest Institute classes for adults on Global Warming, Voluntary Simplicity, etc., and David Gershon’s Low Carbon Diet along with workshops to teach canning techniques and to make earth-friendly cleaning supplies and body care products.
Members of UUCD have collected signatures and organized letter writing campaigns for a number of CA climate issues. In 2010, when our landmark CA AB32 Climate Action bill was subject to recall, the GS committee worked with the California UU Legislative Ministry to collect signatures of support. Similarly, the UUCD supported CA AB685, the UU-authored Human Right to Water Bill, which ultimately passed and has profound, world-wide implications.
In the fall of 2014, the GS installed a permanent water feature thus qualifying our grounds to receive National Wildlife Federation Certification as a Wildlife Habitat. This is particularly important as development crowds around the 6+ church acres which is truly a wildlife sanctuary.
Our recent renovation project took care at every step to be as “green” as possible.
Currently, GS is working with other social justice groups at UUCD and in the Interfaith community to address climate change.
Since UUCD started our GS Committee the state of planet, increased greenhouse gas emissions, species extinction and other environmental issues have become more ominous. Fortunately, our state and local governments are working hard to meet some of the challenges, but they need grassroots efforts of support to champion their work.
We join with other faith groups and local non-profits now working for the health of our Earth home. We know that our UUCD Green Sanctuary work is not a fait accompli, but rather the prelude to challenges that grow with each passing month and year. There is much to be afraid of in the world today. However, when we face our fears – and what better place to do so than in a loving, supportive faith community – we find hope and the will to meet the challenges of the climate crisis before us.
Unity Center of Davis: Earth Care Team
Rev. Robyn Plante, Senior Minister of Unity Center of Davis, supports raising awareness and inspiring each other toward living a more Earth-friendly lifestyle. The Earth Care team at church demonstrates this awareness and invites others to become more conscious with reuse vs. refuse. She believes that partnering with Cool Davis will help create greater Earth-friendly practices that can become positive, life-long habits.
University Covenant Church: Faith, Compassion, and Justice Ministry
UCC has a thriving Faith, Compassion, and Justice Ministry, part of which is dedicated to environmental stewardship, which we believe is a key component of our faith. We believe in a holistic Gospel, that Jesus’s Kingdom includes reconciliation at all levels, including our relationship with the earth. UCC is striving to be good stewards of God’s creation through a variety of initiatives. First and foremost is a review of our consumer choices, both within the church and by members of the church. We continue to evaluate our purchases, recycling, and energy use by various church activities and to make adjustments. The greatest of these was our decision two years ago to go solar. Since the solar panels have been installed on our roof, UCC now receives close to 100% of its electricity from solar power. With regard to consumer choices by members of the church, we have a Simple Lifestyle Consumer Tips newsletter, informing the congregation of the social and climate impacts of various food and consumer goods choices. These issues are also discussed occasionally in Sunday school classes and other forums.