Sustainability

Gardening Classes At Garfield Park Conservatory Beginning Soon

Learn to nurture new life and healthy practices with gardening:  
Are you interested in joining the Gardening Revolution that is sweeping the country?  If so, (since Spring is just around the corner) you need to be prepared!

Root Riot Hosts Composting Workshop - January 21st @ 10:30AM

As the temperatures outside drop and snow covers the ground you may find yourself beging to day dream about the upcoming growing season, you may be looking for ways to prepare.  Composting expert and Root Riot gardner Nicole Stuart is going to be teaching a composting class this coming Saturday.  She will be covering the basic principles of  both indoor and outdoor composting.  This class will give you what you need to begin to prepare great fertilizer for your garden bed in time for the growing season.

World Water Week August 21-27 2011

Metropolitan Water Reclaimation District (MWRD) Commissioner Debra Shore put out a newsletter today reminding us that this is World Water Week. This year's theme is "Water in an Urbanizing World". In the newsletter, she speaks to the record setting rains of last July 24th in the Chicago area and the massive amounts of flood damage that it caused to homes and businesses. Yet little has been discussed about things we can do reduce the impact of torrential rains in the era of climate change. Here's one thing to consider; disconnect downspouts from sewers where possible and divert the water to open grass or garden areas.

GSLC Presents at Earth Fest 2011

Members of GSLC presented information about our church's green initiatives at Oak Park's Earth Fest in May. See the YouTube video at the link below: http://youtu.be/B9sKpKSUdVw

Sustainability Plan Available for Comment

The Draft Environmental Sustainability Plan for Oak Park and River Forest continues to generate great feedback from residents, businesses, government, and community institutions. To review the plan and provide input via a brief feedback survey, please visit www.sevengenerationsahead.org/planitgreen .

PlanItGreen

PlanItGreen is offering an exciting opportunity to plan a more sustainable future for the communities of Oak Park and River Forest.  PlanItGreen, part of the OPRF Community Foundation's Communityworks initiative, is designed to engage community residents and stakeholder organizations in creating and realizing a vision for an environmentally sustainable Oak Park and River Forest.  Community participation is a fundamental part of the process and your completion of the survey will provide us with the community's priorities and ideas for a Green Oak Park and River Forest.  Seven Generations Ahead (SGA), one fo the lead consultants for PlanItGreen, receives funding annually from Good Shepherd.  GSLC members Gary Cuneen, Mark Ledogar and Warren King are all on the SGA Boar

Try this Water Use Calculator!

Do you know how much water you and your family use?
Try these water footprint calculators.
waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/waterfootprintcalculator_indv_ext
watercalculator.fieldmuseum.org

What's The True Cost of All Our Stuff?

Find out at a workshop on June 28th at Unity Temple. Co-sponsored by the Oak Park Interfaith Green Action Network. See the attached flyer for details.

Water Drops

Flushing the toilet uses the same amount of water a person in a developing country uses for washing, cleaning, cooking, and drinking each day.

It takes more than a thousand drops of water to make one drop of coffee.

Producing one ton of beef requires 15,000 tons of water; producing one ton of grain requires 1,000 tons of water.

About the Sustainability Committee

prairie garden pathprairie garden path

Good Shepherd’s Sustainability Committee believes we play an integral part in being stewards of God’s creation. Our prairie garden on the north side of the church vividly demonstrates our concern for creation. Use the Sustainability link to find out more about our group and what you too can do for creation.

The Best "Green" Website for Churches

The Synod and LSTC (our seminary) created a fantastic web site, www.webofcreation.org, with many important ways to become better stewards of the earth. This web site is full of detailed documents and easy ways to change your own life and change your own planet. It's the place for you to learn how serious the Lutheran Church is about caring for our planet. David Rhoads, Professor, Author and Speaker said at the first Synod Green Event last fall, "caring for our creation is THE number one concern of the church today."

Receive a Green News Letter from the Synod

The Green Steward, is the quarterly newsletter of the Environmental Concerns Working Group of the Metro Chicago Synod, ELCA.

GET YOUR SUBSCRIPTION by adding yourself to the distribution list. Send a note with your e-mail address to Jim Schwab, chair of the Working Group, at jimjeanschwab@att.net. They will also be happy to receive news or ideas from contributors.

Green Team Attends Synod Green Fair

Good Shepherd Green Team exchanged ideas with other congregations on how to be more green in our ministries and events. After the event, the Synod invited our team to lunch, brainstorming and consulting with us for ideas to improve their efforts synod-wide and also, how to create a working Synodical Green Team. What follows is the May 2008 Shepherd Staff Article to read about our exciting day.

Green Article: Living Green

Five Good Shepherd members attended the Green Fair and Green Discussion that the Synod sponsored at Ashburn Lutheran Church in Chicago. We enjoyed a worship service that included our own Kate King’s rendition of ‘It’s God’s World’ (a song that she wrote to raise environmental awareness).

Create a Prairie Garden to feed God's Creatures

At the synod's Green Event on Earth Day many congregations wanted to know how we created our Prairie Garden. The following are the directions. Contact kappyann@gmail.com for more information.

HOW TO REPLACE LAWN WITH PRAIRIE GARDEN
Choose a space of sun-filled lawn that measures 3 X 5 feet. Remove the sod. Purchase/request donations of the following prairie plants: Crimson Butterfly Weed; Blue Globe Thistle; Little Blue Stem Grass; Wild Petunia.

History of the Green Team

The Green Team evolved from a series of initiatives to reduce energy consumption by our congregation. The first initiative was a fundraiser for the teens of the church. They sold energy saving devices in kits to members of the congregation. The initiative was led by Seven Generations Ahead, a not-for-profit organization that our church has supported.

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