Steps Toward Sustainability: One Congregation's Journey to Green
"Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish."― Munia Khan
The cornerstone of GIPL’s work is supporting and educating Green Teams in faith communities across Georgia. One way we work with Green Teams is to help members explore their energy and resource use within their worship spaces. Temple Sinai, a reform synagogue in the Sandy Springs area, recently completed an energy audit through GIPL’s Power Wise program, inspiring them to take on a variety of sustainability projects as a congregation.
Active for over 50 years, the congregation has a membership of over 1600 families. Their Environmental Awareness and Action Campaign, established under the leadership of Rabbi Ron Segal and congregant Josh Marks, has identified several projects to pursue.
Working with GIPL’s Community Organizer Joanna Kobylivker, Temple Sinai completed an energy audit to improve the synagogue’s energy efficiency. During the audit, Gary Gabriel, P.E., met with congregational leaders to walk through the campus, review space use and energy use, and explore areas of the building that would be more energy efficient with retrofits. A full report was then given to the congregation which included several suggestions for low-hanging fruit – simple, tangible projects a congregation can complete to start on their sustainability journey.
Temple Sinai plans to retrofit nearly all the lights in the entire building to lower energy-consuming LED lights. Additional facility plans include potentially upgrading to a more energy-efficient HVAC unit as well as completing a solar assessment for the roof and even parking lot. To complete some of their suggested sustainability measures, Temple Sinai applied for and received funds through GIPL’s Power Wise Energy Efficiency Matching Grant program.
Getting outside and experiencing nature is a huge area of passion for this group as well. In December 2021, despite the cold and rainy conditions, a large group of Temple Sinai members planted trees with Trees Atlanta at Autumn Park in Doraville. Their hard work will provide cleaner air, cool shade, and all-around improvements for humans and wildlife living in our community!
Future outdoor outings, including a river clean up, exploring their own vast wilderness right on their campus, and potentially growing a garden are all on their agenda.
Another area of passion for Temple Sinai is to advocate for policies that will protect our most precious resources. Ardent fans of the Okefenokee Swamp, one of the world’s largest and most fragile wetland ecosystems, congregants are heavily involved in advocating to protect the Okefenokee from a destructive mining proposal. Rabbis Ron Segal, Brad Levenberg, and Sam Trief were some of over 100 clergy leaders across Georgia who signed a letter urging Georgia leaders and the state’s Environmental Protection Division to deny the mining permit. And congregant Josh Marks has helped galvanize the state’s conservation, business, and scientific communities and secured national media coverage of their efforts.
Additional plans include further integration of sustainability into Temple Sinai’s organization and Jewish education for all ages.
Josh Marks says, “Sinai is thrilled to be collaborating with GIPL on its ambitious agenda. GIPL has already proved to be an invaluable partner in the synagogue’s sustainability investigation and enhancement project as well as its action and advocacy programming. Sinai is very fortunate to have such great allies like Joanna Kobylivker and Hannah Shultz, and looks forward to a great many accomplishments with them in 2022.”
If your faith community is interested in engaging in sustainability projects and advocacy efforts, reach out to Hannah Shultz, Program Coordinator, at hannah@gipl.org.