Green Sanctuary
Environment Assessment — January 31, 2008

The information for this environmental assessment (EA) was compiled by some of the members of the Green Sanctuary Task Force and Property Management Committee, our Business Manager, Religious Education staff and the Chair of the Religious Education Committee, and an energy engineer from our neighboring Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis. Except where otherwise noted, the EA generally describes UUSS activities since July 1, 2005, and it summarizes more detailed information that was provided for some of these topics.

We are a congregation of 402 members and we own our buildings and our beautiful 6.4 acre campus.

Worship and Celebration

The UUSS ministers and worship committee deeply understand that we are all children of the Earth and exist in a total interconnectedness. Because of this understanding, during our Sunday services they regularly use song, prayer, meditation and sermons to express and investigate the intertwining of humans, all other living beings and Earth.

In order to help bring people together and have an alternative to traditional communion we use Norbert Capek's 1923 Flower Communion Ceremony. The opening words are "children of the earth and sky, we are supported by the earth's strong, firm crust and find holy light in blossoms, bird song, and sky."

We also use drama and music to help us experience our eco-kinship. For instance, in August 2007, the play "Mother Earth vs. World's People — Perhaps the Most Important Trial in the History of Civilization" was performed for our Sunday service. This play was made available by UU Ministry for Earth and was so well received that plans are to perform it again sometime in 2008. Another Sunday service in 2007 featured Jim Scott, an acoustic guitarist, singer, and composer of music that celebrates our connections with each other and with nature. His music focuses on issues of planetary importance and furthers the ideals of ecology, justice, and peace. He will lead another UUSS Sunday service in March 2008.

To help the whole congregation focus on our impact on the planet, in 2007 the UUSS Ministry for Earth held an Earth Day fair with activities related to recycling, energy conservation, vegetarian diet, planting trees, animals and agriculture, food choices and global warming, water, and solar ovens. It was very well received, and we hope to have another Earth day celebration in 2008.

An additional way that we emphasize our bond with Earth and its cycles is to each year celebrate the solstices with the adaptation of an ancient ceremony and a potluck. At times a labyrinth has been rented for the ceremony and used for a walking meditation.

Personal Assessments of UUSS Members and Friends

To help the UUSS members be mindful and focus inward, we made available during December 2007 and January 2008 an online survey for our congregation members and friends to look at our own individual practices and behaviors which use natural resources and/or impact our environment. We felt that taking the survey might help each of us to raise our level of awareness and sometimes motivate us to action we might not otherwise take. The survey was also done to learn about the individuals in our congregation and use this information to help choose projects for our Green Sanctuary Action Plan. We've kept the results for us all to consult as we evaluate what we could do to work toward more sustainable lifestyles. As of this writing, 79 people have participated in the survey!

The survey gave us reasons to celebrate. Nine out of ten participants do a lot of recycling — metal cans, glass food containers, plastics, newspapers, mail and other paper, and cardboard. Over half say they will try harder to purchase recycled paper products and almost that many will try harder to use re-usable towels, rags, wipes, and napkins. Sixty-five percent have replaced their incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent light and another 26% say they will try harder to do this. Three out of four don't use air-conditioning or have set their thermostats for 75 degrees or higher. Regarding our food choices, over 80% said they have reduced their consumption of meat and poultry or will try harder to do so. Over 90% said they usually buy locally grown food and organic food or they will try harder to so.

The survey also said we want more information on many of the ways we can reduce our ecological footprint such as photo-voltaic solar for electrical power, solar hot-water panels or solar hot water tubes, insulating heating ducts and water pipes, toilets with dual choice of flushing water, how to identify businesses that don't harm the environment or who have good labor practices, composting, replacing fossil fuel heating system with efficient electric heat pump, reducing or eliminating outdoor watering, planting native plants which do not require watering, on-demand water heaters, purchasing biodegradable and non-toxic cleaning products, and avoiding overfished endangered species of seafood.

Transportation seemed to be a difficult area to reduce our energy usage. Over half said that it was not practical for them to use public transportation or car-pool or van-pool to work. On the positive side, over 80% said at replacement time they either will or will try to substitute a higher mileage vehicle and consider hybrid or bio-diesel.

Religious Education

In the area of Adult Enrichment, programs have been offered in Solar Cooking and Personal Energy Conservation. In October 2007, we hosted an author and geography professor who spoke to the congregation about the latest scientific consensus on global climate change. In November 2007, ten people in the congregation participated in the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) discussion course Voluntary Simplicity. In January 2008, another ten held a second NWEI course: Global Warming: Changing CO2 Course.

Other intergenerational activities have included the educational displays and activities on small changes individuals can make to help lower the impact on global warming, including information about carbon footprint, solar cooking, shopping and eating for sustainability, 10 Tree Challenge, and making a wind-powered pinwheel (April 22, 2007); showing and discussion of "An Inconvenient Truth," April 29, 2007; showing and discussion of "Who Killed the Electric car?," May 27, 2007; and a "Water Tasting" comparing various kinds of bottled, filtered, and tap water and providing information on the environmental cost of bottled water, June 3, 2007.

An effort is made to include environmental awareness an implicit as well as explicit part of our religious education curriculum at all times. Children typically include recycling and care for the environment as part of the classroom covenants that each class creates at the beginning of each year. Efforts are made to use recycled and reused materials for craft activities and to have students recycle their classroom papers and other materials.

The following are specific lessons devoted to environmental concerns during the time frame on which this EA focuses:

Summer 2005: "Roy G. Biv: "Seventh Principle I": Read The Lorax, discussion, made key chains to sell as a rainforest fundraiser and "Seventh Principle II": Read Birds Build Nests, discussion, made birds' nest cookies.

2005-2006 Church Year: "Big Questions." The 2005-2006 church year featured church-wide monthly themes, the last of these was "How can my faith help the world?" In the course of the month each grade level explored the web of interdependence and participated in a "Garden Day," joining with members of the congregation to work on the UUSS grounds.

Summer 2006: Creation Stories: During the summer of 2006, thirteen creation stories were studied from cultures around the world. Each of these stories sought to explain the creation of the earth, its creatures, and natural phenomena. Some contained more explicit conservation messages as well.

2006-2007 Church Year: "Bible Stories for Open Minds": The overall theme for this year was an exploration of Judaism and Christianity, using holidays (grades 1 and 2) and stories from the Bible (grades 3-5 and 6-8) as "raw material." One of the holidays studied by the 1st-2nd grade class was Tu B’Shvat, the "New Year of the Trees," which is celebrated in Israel by the planting of trees. The preschool and kindergarten class did not participate in the yearly theme, but instead used an age-appropriate curriculum designed to provide an "opportunity to learn about our faith simply by playing and having fun with their church friends." Approximately one-third of the lessons centered around the natural world.

Summer 2007: Summer of Seuss: "The Lorax: Respecting the Environment"

Social Action Relating to Sustainable Living and Environmental Justice for all Living Things

Four times per year the congregation hosts up to four families that are participating in the Family Promise Sacramento program which aids homeless families and addresses specific reasons for homelessness. Congregation members serve on the Board of Directors and advisory groups as well as provide volunteer support for the Family Promise day center. Additionally, once per month two separate crews help to cook and serve a noontime meal for up to 800 persons for Loaves and Fishes. Once per month a group provides the ingredients and prepares a full dinner for 100+ residents at St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children.

A limited pilot program has been started to provide families who complete Family Promise with a start up supply of CFL light bulbs, information on proper disposal of the bulbs, and tips on energy conservation. There is some limited continuation of a program to provide water tasting (a comparison of bottled to tap water), an overview of the issues regarding bottled water, and reusable water bottles to participants in the Family Promise program.

One Saturday each month UUSS members and friends help to cleanup and maintain a mile of one of our local treasures and natural areas — our American River Parkway. Our congregation uses fair trade coffee.

One area in which our congregation is not now very active is being advocates for all of the other living creatures with whom we share this planet and who make up part of our interconnected web of life. These other beings are in dire straights due to loss of their habitat and climate change and we could do more to help them exist in harmony with us.

The congregation or individual members are involved with several organizations which offer potential for education and action on local environmental issues. The UUSS is a member of the California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL) which provides forums regarding a wide range of environmental topics. Individual members of the congregation are involved in organizations such as the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) a consortium of environmental groups, the Sierra Club, Effie Yeaw Nature Center, and Master Gardeners and are anxious to engage the congregation in the programs of these organizations. These congregation members can bring their skills, knowledge, interests, concerns, and opportunities for environmental action and education to the Green Sanctuary Program and to others in our church.

Even with the above activities we realize that this is an area in which we could do more. There seems to be a lot of interest in organizing to be more of a force for social action in the community and in the larger world related to sustainable living issues and environmental justice both for humans and for Earth's other creatures.

Sustainable Living on the UUSS Campus

Our Business Manager did a detailed environmental assessment of the management and operations of our UUSS campus. Following is the summary of his findings.

UUSS uses Waste Management, Inc to recycle its paper, plastic, metal cans, and glass products. We have two large recycling containers for plastic, cans, and glass located in the mail hall. Paper products such as orders of service, mail, cardboard and other paper products are recycled. We do not have any specific policies on recycling but we will look at developing a comprehensive policy in the coming year. The UUSS recycling program is primarily implemented by custodial and office staff. Large recycling containerss were recently purchased to assist with collection of bottles and cans. UUSS recycling level of compliance is about 75%. Our kitchen is used infrequently therefore composting kitchen waste is impractical. However, members who compost at home may want to develop a system to collect UUSS kitchen wastes for recycling after an event. The congregation has begun using reusable plates, glasses, and flatware for some church dinners.

Two full time paid custodians provide custodial service to the UUSS campus. We attempt to purchase non-toxic cleaning supplies when appropriate.

Operational supplies such as office products, paper plates and napkins, copy paper, cleaning products are usually purchased in bulk from Staples or similar store. UUSS uses large amounts of white and colored paper products for Orders of Service, Blue Sheet, Unigram, copies for committees, special events, etc. Most of the office paper products are acid free and contain at least 30% post consumer waste recycled paper. Purchases are generally based on cost savings, products that are easily available in bulk, and as recycled content. We do not have specific policies on purchasing recycled content supplies, non-toxic cleaning products, and material for sustainable resources. However, the majority of our purchases are environmentally friendly as awareness in the congregation is high on our responsibility to be stewards of our environment and to respect the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

UUSS invests half of each Sunday's Plate collection in donations to organizations which support the homeless, underprivileged, community outreach, and other community and social concerns. Our investments focus on our mission to come together to deepen our lives and be a force for healing in the world. Since 2005, members, friends, and visitors have nearly doubled their Sunday offering plate contributions each year. We share one-half of non-designated plate contributions with the organizations selected by the congregation at our October congregational meeting. The UUSS members and friends contributed $20,185 to the organizations identified below during the period July 2006 to September 2007! In 2005 we sent community contributions totaling $5,176. In the 2005-2006 church year, the total was $10,295.

We are investing and making a difference in people’s lives!

The congregation’s makes efforts to practice sustainable living policies with food for community events. Each UUSS event we hold has vegetarian and often vegan options as a regular choice for members and guest. This includes Sunday Lunches, Holiday Dinners, Harvest Fest and Silent Auction, and Stewardship events. Small group dinners like Circle 8 functions offer a variety of sustainable food choices when fellow UU’s gather. We regularly purchase fair trade coffee products from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee web site for our Sunday coffee.

Landscaping

First of all, here are some cold hard facts. To get these numbers our Chief "Grasshopper", with great dedication and time input, measured our grounds, calculated the size of these areas, and made a map of it which is attached to this document. Our campus comprises 6.4 acres. About 2.3 acres are "green" i.e., lawn and trees or natural vegetation.

Analysis of Campus Areas as an Estimated Percentage of Total Grounds

*This overlaps with lawn and tree area.

Our landscaping is maintained almost exclusively by hard working church volunteers: 27 really green "Grasshoppers" who mow, trim, rake, and generally maintain the tree and lawn areas, a volunteer master gardener who installs and maintains Mediterranean and native flowers and shrubs in the planting beds, and four to five "Waterbugs" who water the planting beds. Thanks to their commitment we have a beautiful, emotionally nurturing campus on which to pursue knowledge and spirituality.

When UUSS members and guests come onto our campus they may experience the feeling of entering a wonderful forest. This experience is created by approximately 190 lovely trees growing on our campus in varying sizes from vigorous young saplings to fully mature giants such as our grove of vernerable old blue oaks. Our forest is beautifully diverse, being made up of about 18 different species, including California natives:

• Umbellularia californica - California bay
• Quercus agrifolia - coast live oak
• Quercus douglasii - blue oak
• Sequoia sempervirens - coast Redwood
• Cercis occidentalis - western red bud

The preceeding species are native plants proudly carrying on the legacy of the California before humans arrived. Also on the grounds are:

• Nyssa sylvatica - tupelo
• Pistacia chinensis - Chinese pistache
• Arbutus unedo - strawberry tree
• Celtis sinensis - Chinese hackberry
• Eucalyptus species - eucalyptus
• Quercus palustris - pin oak
• Cupressus semperivens - Italian cypress
• Olea europea - olive
• Prunus species - laurel
• Ulnus parvifolia - Chinese elm

This large number of trees acts as a natural air conditioner in the summer, with the dense green canopy providing shade from the intense valley sun. And throughout the year the canopy functions as a filter, removing air pollutants before they can get to our lungs.

The eastern perimeter of the campus has a bit of a wild feel that is created by a dense green canopy made up of some of the above tree species and a number of shrub/tree types that have been allowed to grow to a small tree height. These large shrubs include Privet, Oleander and Cherry Laurel. Walking in this area, especially along the creek, makes one feel as if they have entered a whole different world.

In addition to the above trees and shrubs the grounds are graced with at least 50 other types of plants which provide a rich garden feel as they come into bloom. Over a dozen of these are native species including such things as blue flowered Ceanothus, pink and white flowering Arctostaphylos, bright orange and ocassional yellow flowered Eschscholtzia californica (California poppy), aromatic Artemesia califonica (California sagebrush), delicate orange-red flowered Epilobium incanum (California fuchsia) (which are loved by hummingbirds), and the very striking large yellow flowers of Fremontodendron, the flannel bush. Our UUSS volunteer master gardener has compiled a list of most of the plant species on our campus and this list will be placed in the office for UUSS members to peruse.

Native species referred to above not only give much pleasure but provide much needed habitat to our local wildlife. Our forest is great for bird identification (a mixed flock of about 25 Robins and as many Cedar Wax Wings decorated our campus on a recent Fall Sunday) and sometimes at night you may see raccoons, opossums, etc. out for an evening stroll on our grounds. In addition to being wildlife friendly most native species can live with little or no supplemental watering and don't require fertilizer.

A small creek which runs in winter and spring encourages various forms of wildlife to use it as habitat. Ducks sometimes use it during this time, and last year our creek was home to a duck family including 15 babies. The site currently supports some wildlife in an urban setting. In the future we could look at how our campus relates to habitat for non-human species and whether to add more plants that attract additional birds, butterflies, and other wildlife.

And the list of benefits of the UUSS plants goes on. The existence of over 70 species of plants on our campus aids in helping to maintain biodiversity which is needed for ecosystem stability and the existence of the very large green biomass continually locks up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide to help fight global climate change.

A lot of attention is paid to maintaining a sustainable campus. Organic fertilizer is scattered over most of the planted areas once or twice each year. All the raked up leaves are put into a large pile which is turned about once per month. Compost generated from this pile is spread over the planting beds. Herbicides and pesticides are used only on rare occasions when needed to kill weeds growing into the planting beds; pesticides are incorporated only if there is a large outbreak of pests which cannot be controlled by the beneficial insects in the garden.

Water

Water for the UUSS campus comes from a combination of surface and well water depending upon the season. The ground water we use comes from a well behind Loehman Plaza. The surface water we use currently comes from Folsom Lake and is treated through another water district before coming to us. Our water supplier also recently installed the infrastructure needed to enable them to supply our water from the American River water intake at Sacramento State College if it is needed in the future. Water is a precious commodity in California and almost 20% of the electrical energy used in California is used to treat and deliver water.

The following chart shows, by month, water use for the UUSS campus (including kitchen, restrooms, drinking, landscaping, etc.). Units are CCFs: one CCF = 100 cubic meters of water or 748 gallons.

Our campus comprises 6.4 acres. About 2.3 acres are "green," i.e., lawn and trees or natural vegetation. Of this about 2 acres are irrigated, a small portion automatically, the remainder with moveable hoses and sprinklers. Some of the irrigated acres have been automatically watered but the mechanisms are no longer working due to systemic breakdowns. Current plans call for repairs and expansion of the present automatic segment. The balance of the "green" area is not watered but is mowed seasonally to prevent fire hazards. This includes our grove of blue oak trees which does not have to be irrigated at all because of their low water demands.

A great deal of the water we use is for our landscaping. Planting bed watering is thoughtfully done. The beds are watered once each week with soaker hoses. In 2008 there are plans to cut back irrigation time in some beds to once every 10 - 14 days. Other beds are either hand watered with a watering wand or they get by on lawn irrigation water.

Energy Usage

The energy audit of UUSS buildings, including options we can consider to make our buildings more energy efficient, was completed by the energy engineer on March 31, 2008. A copy of the report can be found here: Energy Audit