Micah Team Is Part of Grassroots Effort to Improve Environment

Temple Micah members are in the forefront of a nationwide grassroots campaign to reduce global warming one building--even one light bulb--at a time.

Just as many communities around the country in recent months have taken the initiative in combating the pollution that leads to rising temperatures, Micah members have embarked on an effort to make the temple "green." The relatively new Green Team wants to educate the temple's leaders and members to do their part as individuals and as a community to protect the environment.

"We want to encourage the growing awareness of the need to conserve energy and be environmentally friendly," said Paul Shapiro, one of the Green Team's founders. "We would also like to see the environment tied into our celebration of Jewish holidays, into our Jewish education at all levels at the temple and into the construction and operation of the temple's building."

The Green Team, which was created in 2006, has adopted four goals. It aims to make Temple Micah a leader in environmental stewardship, to incorporate principles of tikkun olam in its education programs, to use Jewish holidays as occasions for teaching, learning and taking action on environmental issues, and to see that the temple building is designed and operated in an environmentally sound manner.

The Green Team has been working with members of the temple's expansion committee and architects to help make the building as green as possible, said Liz Poliner, another team founder. The team also is looking into the feasibility of hiring a consultant to conduct an "energy audit" of the temple's energy use and to find ways to reduce it.

In December, the Green Team sponsored "Change Your Light Bulb Month" in conjunction with Hanukkah. It sold nearly 50, eight-bulb packs of compact fluorescent light bulbs, which team members said could save 40,000 pounds of carbon emissions in a year. Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to the greenhouse gases that help cause global warming. Another 50 bulbs were donated to low-income families. The compact bulbs use less energy and in the long run cost less money to use than traditional incandescent bulbs. One compact bulb can cut energy costs over its lifetime by $30 to $60 compared to an incandescent bulb, according to Allison Fisher, coordinator of Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light (GWIPL).

Additionally, Fisher said, using lightemitting diode exit signs could save Micah and other congregations an average of $24 per sign each year and reduce the signs' carbon dioxide emissions by 502 pounds annually. An average church or synagogue has a dozen exit signs.

The team plans to use the $163 profit earned from the bulbs' sale to help pay for a bike rack intended to encourage more members to ride their bicycles to temple. That, in turn, would help reduce gas consumption and lower air emissions, said Green Team member Alan Cohen.

Earlier, working with members of the Green Team, Rabbi Zemel developed special prayers for Sukkot and other Jewish holidays as well as discussion points for the temple's Friday evening and Saturday morning services. The team also wrote a brochure for Micah members to use at home during Hanukkah.

Most recently, the Green Team sponsored a special Tu B'shvat service Feb. 3, along with a screening of former Vice President Al Gore's Academy Award-winning movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." More than 90 temple members and friends attended the Havdalah service and screening. It was especially relevant, Shapiro said, because Tu B'shvat is the Jewish holiday for planting trees, which help remove carbon dioxide from the air and lower greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.

Beyond Temple Micah, Shapiro said the Green Team plans to join similar efforts to promote energy efficiency and environmental consciousness by Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, a coalition of 72 churches, synagogues and other religious organizations. "We hope to add a strong voice for the environment through all of our congregants," GWIPL's Fisher said. "We hope to raise the consciousness of global warming and other environmental issues."

So does Temple Micah's Green Team.

"We're just beginning to gather steam," Poliner said. "We would love to get more temple members interested in the environment. We want to educate the Micah community on environmental stewardship and tie environmental awareness into our practice of Judaism. We want to make the environment part of tikkun olam, our mission as Reform Jews."

[By Jeffrey P. Cohn; from March 2007 Vine]