Green Sanctuary May 2024 News

Opportunity Assessment for Reaccreditation
Green Sanctuary is working on Reaccreditation with the UUA Green Sanctuary Program. We have five areas to consider:

• Mitigation is what we do to reduce greenhouse gases.
• Adaptation is what we do to reduce vulnerability to climate change. Resilience is how we build capacity to maintain critical functions.
• Justice and Equity is how we collaborate with marginalized communities.
• Congregational Transformation is how the congregation as a whole, not just Green Sanctuary, is invested in and doing the work of mitigation, adaptation, building resilience, and collaboration.

We have a pretty good idea of how much of this work we have done so far. Our goal for May is to figure out the opportunities for future work. For that, we will be asking members of the congregation for their ideas and advice for the future they dream of.

April Lunch then Learn
In April, Green Sanctuary took folks on a tree walk of the church’s 8 acre campus. We are a little island of (mostly) native plants and animals in a sea of suburban lawns.

Our second Lunch then Learn was how to use funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to make your home more energy efficient.

May All Ages: How to Clean A River
Learn about the Interdependence between common agricultural practices the state allows and how clean our streams, rivers, and lakes are. Play a game to find out what steps we can take – as a state – to make a river clean again.

May Better Together Challenge – Interdependent Systems
Each month we have actions that members of the congregation can take to address mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and justice. Our focus for the spring months is Resilience. For May, look for ways to learn about and preserve diverse natural, social, and economic systems. Here are some ideas….

1. Natural: Explore a Johnson County Conservation Volunteer activity – be a host at Kent Park’s Conservation Education Center (summer), clean up the Iowa River (fall), harvest prairie seeds (fall) https://www.johnsoncountyiowa.gov/conservation/volunteer-information
2. Social: Learn about the different cultures in your community – Coralville Asian Fest, May 18, noon to 7 pm at ST Morrison Park https://thinkiowacity.com/events/month/2024-05/
3. Economic: Shop local produce at Iowa Farmer’s Market Saturdays May 4- Oct 26, 7:30 – Noon, 400 Washington Street (Chauncey Garage) https://www.icgov.org/government/departments-and-divisions/parks-and-recreation/farmers-market or Coralville Farmer’s Market Saturdays May 22 – Oct 2, 4:30 – 6:30 pm, Iowa River Landing (south of Staybridge Hotel) https://iowariverlanding.com/coralville-farmers-market/

How to Help Green Sanctuary’s Work (even if you don’t want to come to a meeting)
Join GS projects we are working on. You can help even if you can’t make our regular meetings. Projects include:

• Ways to engage the congregation
• Exploring battery backup for emergencies
• Helping the Center for Worker Justice with a resilience project
• Helping the Creekside Neighborhood with an environmental threat
• Developing a water quality focus
• Exploring outreach to elected representatives.

To help, just email Jan Weaver at jan.weaver57@gmail.com with your interest, and she will connect you with the project leader. Our next meeting is Wednesday, May 8 at 7 pm. Join us on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88132264216.  Meeting ID: 881 3226 4216. Passcode 533092.