FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 8, 2014
Media Contact:
Gail Wechsler, Jewish Environmental Initiative, . 314-442-3894.
Make A Bigger Difference: Greening Your Life, Community & House of Worship, featuring Environmental Author Don Corrigan
Many people, from elected officials to the Pope, are speaking out on the scientific and moral imperative to care for our planet and to address climate change. Now is the time to redouble efforts to focus on reducing energy use in all aspects of our lives. With this in mind, the event Make a Bigger Difference: Environmental Action for Your Life, Your Community and Your House of Worship on Tuesday, August 25, 2015 will provide specific tools to take action and make a difference to the environment. The event takes place at The Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Road, from 7 to 9 PM.
The program is sponsored by the Jewish Environmental Initiative, a committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JEI), Missouri Interfaith Power and Light (MO IPL) and the U.S. Green Building Council-Missouri Gateway Chapter (USGBC-MGC), with support from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL).
The event is a follow-up to last year’s program Make a Difference: Environmental Action for Your Home & House of Worship.
“Last year’s participants were very pleased to learn tangible action items that could make a difference for their homes and houses of worship,” said Susan Mlynarczyk, Chair of JEI and a member of the Steering Committee of MO IPL. “We are taking everything a step further this year to address how to make a difference outside your home and to provide more information for greening houses of worship.”
Don Corrigan, Professor of Environmental Journalism and Global Communications at Webster University is the keynote speaker for the forum. Corrigan is a recipient of the Lewis C. Green Environmental Service Award in recognition for his decades of writing in the area of environmental journalism, as well as for founding the program for the Outdoor/Environmental Journalism Writing Certificate at Webster University’s School of Communications. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and has won numerous awards from the Missouri Press Association for his journalism on the outdoors and the environment. Corrigan has published three books on the environment in Missouri: “Show Me…Natural Wonders,” “Show Me…Nature’s Wrath,” and “Environmental Missouri.”.
After the keynote speech, two concurrent breakout sessions will address greening your house of worship and greening your life and community. The house of worship session will focus on next steps beyond recycling and will include panelists from congregations that have taken major actions to incorporate greening into all aspects of their spiritual communities. The greening your life and community session will include panelist on topics including local eco-communities, native plant landscaping, greening our schools, and becoming an environmental advocate.
Make a Bigger Difference: Environmental Action For Your Life, Your Community, & Your House of Worship takes place August 25th at The Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Road 63117, from 6:45 to 9:00 PM, with light refreshments served. The event is free, but registration is required at http://bit.ly/082515. For more information, contact Gail Wechsler at 314-442-3894 or .
About the Jewish Environmental Initiative, Missouri Interfaith Power & Light and U.S. Green Building Council – Missouri Gateway Chapter:
Jewish Environmental Initiative (JEI) is a committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis with a mission to educate the Saint Louis Jewish community about the connection between Judaism and the environment and to help Green the Jewish community in terms of its practices. It also collaborates with other environmental organizations on projects, initiatives and advocacy. JEI publishes Planet Jewish, an environmental blog. It also holds the annual program "Project Noah: A week for the environment" and has an active teen group. For more information: http://www.jcrcstl.org/jei.php#two.
Missouri Interfaith Power & Light (MO IPL) is a religious response to global warming and aims to engage, equip and educate Missouri faith communities to be stewards of God's creation by addressing the environmental and social justice consequences of climate change. MO IPL is one of 40 state affiliates of Interfaith Power & Light and works with congregations to model energy stewardship in their communities. There are over 14,000 congregations involved in national IPL programs. For more information: www.moipl.org.
U.S. Green Building Council – Missouri Gateway Chapter (USGBC-MGC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community of members, chapters, advocates and practitioners that give voice to our commitment to improve human health, support economies and protect the environment through green buildings. The Missouri Gateway Chapter is one of 77 USGBC Chapters and serves the community by educating and advocating for green building principles and practices. They are partnering with the St. Louis Regional Chamber, signatories of the St. Louis High Performance Building Initiative and Missouri Interfaith Power & Light on the regional 25 x 20 Voluntary Energy Benchmarking Campaign – www.25x20.org. For more information: www.usgbc-mogateway.org.
Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA)
JCPA, the public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community, serves as the national coordinating and advisory body for the 14 national and 125 local agencies comprising the field of Jewish community relations.
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