Mission: Supporting and amplifying climate action

“We need teams of people to catalyze the 100’s of decisions that individuals need to make over the next decade to change behaviors, change their home heating, and purchase transportation.” Steve Maier

CVUUS Carbon Footprint

CVUUS is measuring & tracking this. Our Facilities Team with support from the Climate Engagement Team planned alternatives to our propane heating and installed heat pumps in our sanctuary this summer. Contact Llyn Rice for more. CVUUS offsets some of its electric with solar and encourages you to go solar. Contact Rich Wolfson for more & help. Track our carbon reduction efforts here.

Thinking of Going Electric? “Ask me…” Social Hour

CVUUS Climate Engagement Project seeks to amplify the work of the Climate Economy Action Center or Addison County (CEAC) to measure, track and reduce our carbon footprint. CVUUS congregant and CEAC board member Richard Hopkins advises us to “electrify everything” and shift to more renewable energy to offset that electric. We piloted “Thinking of Going Electric? Ask Me…” networking events during social hour following worship that began in spring 2023 to encourage this.

March 12, 2023 We learned from the experiences of trusted others who have tried heat pumps and taken other measures to reduce their household’s carbon footprint. Jean Terwilliger shared this plan for electrifying your household: Electrification One Pager 2023

April 23, 2023 We shared experiences and learned more about greener transportation options, including electric cars and bikes and carpooling. We encouraged people to bring their EVs and offer test rides and review the neighborhood clusters for carpooling on the Fellowship Hall bulletin board.

Sept 3, 2023 We shared earth friendlier yard and garden practices, including electric mowing, pollinator planting and composting practices.

ENERGY NAVIGATOR PROJECT

Climate Economy Action Center or Addison County (CEAC) meets quarterly in Fellowship Hall for invited guests to provide feedback on their activities, especially the new energy navigator project to help homeowners reduce their carbon by guiding them in weatherizing, electrifying appliances and cars and offsetting that with renewable energy. Find brochures in our lobby and read more here.  They will meet next on Tues Nov 19 at 4 pm before 350VT’s Don’t Burn Our Future campaign presentation.

Don’t Burn Our Future Campaign Support

CVUUS Climate Engagement Project seeks to amplify 350VT’s effort to help us strengthen VT’s renewable energy standard and attend information sessions. They will host one on Tuesday Nov 19, 5 pm, Sanctuary. Pizza provided. Learn where VT’s electricity actually comes from, why changes to current law and energy policies in VT are needed to be truly green and just, how this affects ratepayers, and how we can make sure— with your help!— that critical improvements are made this legislative session. Participants will leave with clear next steps.

What If We Get It Right? Book Talk

Join Middlebury College’s John Elder and CEAC in discussing this important book by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on Wed Jan 15 at 7 pm in Fellowship Hall. Ayana gave the 2023 commencement talk at Middlebury College.

Discerning Our Obligations to Respond to the Climate Crisis

Chuck Collins, author of Born on Third Base, returned to Middlebury to discuss his new book, Altar to an Erupting Sun on Wed. Oct 25, 5 pm, Middlebury College Dana Auditorium.  The book has won praise from Bill McKibben, Kim Stanley Robinson and Winona LaDuke, among others, and asks us to confront our moral obligations to act in the face of climate change. Collins is an expert on economic inequality in the US, and has pioneered efforts to bring together investors and business leaders to speak out publicly against corporate practices and economic policies that increase economic inequality. Altar to an Erupting Sun is written to inspire young people to become politically aware and to take positive action with their knowledge and their lives.

VT Interfaith Power & Light

Explore rich offerings for faith communities to support one another at vtipl.org.

Want to try the Low Carbon Diet?

Some tried the “Low Carbon Diet” 30-Day Program to reduce your household’s carbon footprint while gaining energy savings rapidly. This easy-to-follow series met for four Mondays in March 2023 at CVUUS. You learned how to measure your household’s carbon footprint in the first session and about the biggest sources of energy use and carbon emissions for your household. Next, you made an Action Plan from choices in the Low Carbon Diet Workbook working toward a goal of reducing your household’s carbon footprint by 5,000 pounds in 30 days. We reported on our efforts and results and learned more about energy savings and options in subsequent sessions. Future sessions facilitated by Laura Asermily can be scheduled.

UU Ministry for Earth

Explore spiritual & practical actions at  UU Ministry for the Earth. Learn about their annual Spring for Change Campaign and more. 

FULL MOON SPIRITUAL GATHERINGS:  UUMFE holds Monthly Spiritual Gatherings so that we can find time to ground, recenter, and imagine what is possible in a world in need of repair. It follows the Lunar Calendar and gathers each month, via Zoom, on the Full Moon to nourish our spirit.

SPRING FOR CHANGE CAMPAIGN: Spring for Change: A Season of Sacred Activism is an invitation to the Unitarian Universalist faith community to embody the transformational, regenerative power of Spring through sacred activism for Earth and all our relations for two months beginning the evening of March 19 (the night before the Spring Equinox on Monday, March 20th) and continuing through April 22 (Earth Day) and concluding May 22nd (International Day for Biodiversity).

2023 Spring for Change was galvanized by a March 19th concert in honor of World Water Day. From workshops for all ages to special programming for the UU Young Adults for Climate Justice, we’re excited to connect with you. The 2023 Spring for Change theme was Active for Earthcare!

Together, we got active in our faith communities, our spiritual practices, and our relationships to the ecosystems we are home to. We practiced Earthcare by facing the facts and forecasts of our climate and ecological crises with courage, moral clarity, and a commitment to justice, equity, and compassion.

Earth Day Service Earth Day is a special tradition at Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth. Join us annually for a special online worship service- whether at its premiere or for use in your congregation! Together, let’s be “Active for Earthcare!”

Thinking of other actions?

Lise Anderson invites you to contact her about some suggested actions for 2023 listed below. Some have been enacted while others are still forming. It absorbs the work of Green Sanctuary Ministry (more here).

• Heat pump conversion at CVUUS
• Making people aware of, and bring volunteers to, Climate Economy of Addison County’s residential decarbonization project (aiming to develop home weatherization capacity in Addison County)
• Swapping solar tops and tricks, cars, e-bikes, etc purchasing experience at an annual social event (recommendations from trusted UU pioneers)
• Carpooling to CVUUS using our neighborhood UU network (with Caring Network)
• Fundraise for and install new and better bike racks at CVUUS
• Be a hub of “get out the UU letter writers, activists” for key local community meetings re climate
• Inform and direct UUrs who own land to key groups doing agricultural and forestry work
• Have a CVUUS plan to support the community/UUs if rural power goes out, communicate it
• Share the opportunities for action by national campaigns (Third Act, 350.org, Extinction Rebellion, Citizen Climate Lobby)
• Implement a Lower Carbon Diet social group(s) among CVUUSrs (Gershon book)
• Collectively make donations to local efforts–share the basket