Happy holidays to all the different faiths celebrating holy days this month! You can see all of the holidays celebrated on Interfaith Cincy's Multifaith Calendar!

2023 Meeting

We'd like to gather (via Zoom) in the next month or so to brainstorm and share some ideas about our work in 2023.

If you would be interested in gathering, please complete the Doodle poll here.

Earth as Common Ground: The Call for a Moral Voice:

February 16 @ 1:00-2:00 pm - OR - 7:00-8:00 pm

The United Nations is engaging faith communities worldwide to address the climate crisis through the moral teachings of faith traditions. Join us for an “insider’s preview” of their newest initiative and explore how our local faith communities can become part of the global action.

Presenter, Sr. Cj Willie, Ph.D., is program director at EarthConnection and Co-Chair of Faith Communities Go Green. Previously, she served at the United Nations (UN), where she worked extensively in the areas of environmental sustainability, poverty eradication, and interfaith initiatives.

As a result of her outstanding work, she was invited to evaluate the UN’s pilot online Faith for Earth initiative, which will debut this year. We are honored to have Sr. Willie share a preview of that initiative’s approach to its three main objectives:

1) to inspire and empower faith organizations and their leaders to advocate for protecting the environment

2) to green faith-based organizations’ investments and assets to support the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and

3) to provide them with knowledge and networks to enable their leaders to effectively communicate with decision-makers and the public.

Faith Communities Go Green is proud to offer this opportunity with Sr. Willie. Discover how your faith tradition can be a part of this important global challenge to care for creation.

Register for this inspiring zoom conversation!

We had a great turn-out at the very informative and interesting solar webinar on January 31. Did you miss it and want to watch the webinar later? Check it out here to review any archived webinars (If it's not up yet, keep checking back!).

Success Story!

Susan Carlson has been very concerned about the environment and decided that she was tired of using #1 plastic clamshells and salad boxes. These are not recyclable in our area so she knew these were a significant contributor to our landfill. 

So Susan began to store up the containers, boxed them up, and sent them back to the companies with a letter about the polluting problem, suggesting they use more sustainable materials, and become an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) company (An EPR company takes responsibility for the product from creation to endpoint, including packaging).

To her surprise, Susan received detailed and personalized letters from company executives at both Driscoll's and North Bay Produce reacting to the package with their thoughts on alternative packaging and their views on the company's responsibility for the plastic packaging. It was clear that sending an actual package with a large amount of the product's plastic packaging made an impact! 

Since North Bay's letter stated that they are responding to what the companies that they sell to would like the berries to be packaged in, Susan contacted Kroger and after connecting with some of the FCGG leaders, Kroger's Head of Sustainability agreed to hold a meeting with the North Bay leadership! We are hopeful this conversation will result in forward progress toward more sustainable packaging options in our region!

Thank you Susan for your hard work and advocacy!

Save The Date!

2023 Earth Day Event

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Noon-5pm

Summit Park, Blue Ash

FCGG will have a booth (#15) at the event and volunteers will be needed. You can sign-up here to help. Keep an eye out for more info in the coming weeks and months!

COMING SOON!

FCGG Book Club

March 30, 2023, 7:30pm-8:30pm via Zoom

Food From the Radical Center by G. P. Nabhan

Facilitated by Deborah Jordan

Facilities Working Group Program

Beat the Crowd; Learn about Grant Application Details and Deadlines for

New Federal Funding for Energy Efficiency Upgrades for Religious Organizations 

March 14, 2023, 7:00pm-9:00pm via Zoom

FCGG Donation Tab

If you'd like to donate to the FCGG work, a new donation tab has been added to the site. Check it out here!

FCGG Green Team Spotlight

Check out this month's Green Team Spotlight, highlighting the work of the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish who received the Laudato Si award from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Your stories are important tools to inspire other congregations to action. To showcase your congregation's success story email Joanne Gerson.

We also welcome you to let us know about your Green Team's congregational events that are open to the public and promote caring for our environment.

Land Acknowledgement

We now occupy the ancestral lands of the Shawnee and Miami Indigenous Peoples. We acknowledge the painful history of colonization, genocide, and intergenerational trauma that they have endured, and commit to working toward truth and reconciliation. It is our hope that in our work we will honor the traditional values of creation stewardship and conservation maintained by many Indigenous People. We will work in collaboration with faith communities to build awareness of the history, traditions, and contributions of Indigenous cultures.