UUP Green Sanctuary

Join our Green Sanctuary:
Share Ideas about how to tread lightly on the earth

Let's support each other in this effort!

At our service on October 15 entitled "Restoring the Web" we shared
ideas about how to live out the Seventh Principle - Respecting the
interdependent web of life - in our every day lives. Included below we have catalogued all of our answers to give you ideas. We've also developed a worksheet that you can use to track your "eco-savings." Email uupetaluma at gmail dot com for a copy of the spreadsheet. Help us figure out how much water, energy, and other
resources we are saving as a congregation. This is a great
opportunity to create a story that we can share with the community
and to gain visibility while inspiring others to 'restore the web'
too. Stay tuned for more resources to come on the UUP website.

UUP Ideas for the Green Sanctuary

1. Ride your bike or walk whenever you can
2. Carpool and drive the smallest/most fuel efficient car that you can
3. Replace light bulbs with compact fluorescents. They last up to 7 years and use a fraction of the energy of an incandescent light bulb. You’ll save money in the long-run.
4. Line-dry clothing in the summer to save energy.
5. Buy recycled goods and shop at thrift stores to reduce consumption, and thus, energy used.
6. Reduce and reuse first. It saves more energy and natural resources and recycling levels are much lower than you might think (1-2% for plastic bags, slightly higher for other plastics.) Recycle when these first two options are exhausted. (Thus the order of, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”)
7. Use canvas bags at the grocery store (or any store), which saves energy, trees, and the production of plastic, which is toxic to the environment and kills over one million sea mammals annually through ingestion of plastic ocean pollution.
8. Use the same bottle over and over for water to save energy and prevent the production of plastic, which is toxic to the environment.
9. Keep a pitcher at the kitchen sink to catch water before the water gets hot
10. Keep a bucket by the shower to catch water before the water gets hot
11. Turn the shower water off when shaving your legs, shampooing, and lathering up with soap
12. Choose habitat-friendly landscaping (that attracts birds, bees, and butterflies) and avoid pesticides and herbicides where you can.
13. Compost food scraps (other than dairy and meat) to reduce the amount of waste that garbage trucks carry and the amount that goes into landfills
14. Use less of toxic cleaning supplies like Clorox and Pledge and choose non-toxic cleaning supplies where you can (Borax and Vinegar, like Grandma used to use). All of these go down our drain and eventually, end up in the ocean.
15. Buy produce (organic, if possible) at the farmer’s market or at a local organic farm to support local growers, use less fuel for transport, and less packaging as well.
16. Eat less meat and fish. Raising cattle is extremely water and resource intensive compared with growing vegetables, fruits, and nuts. The world’s oceans are on the brink of collapse. They need time to regenerate from drastic over-fishing which has left only 10% of the fish population intact.