1. In The Kitchen:
1. Use “real” dishes for events at your house of worship.
1. Replace paper plates and bowls with ceramic
2. Replace plastic utensils with silver ware
3. Replace paper or Styrofoam coffee cups and cold drink cups with ceramic coffee mugs and glasses or re-usable hard plastic cups.
1. If you do not have a dish washer, ask members of your congregation to sign up to take turns washing the dishes after weekly dinners.
2. If you serve coffee during Fellowship Hour (you may call it by a different name), ask congregants to sign up to wash coffee cups.
4. If you can’t switch to “real” dishes, switch to recycled paper (plates, bowls, cups, napkins) or better yet, wheat ware or corn starch.  You can throw these in a composter and feed the house of worship’s flower beds with the compost!
5. Refuse to use Styrofoam!
1. Styrofoam (also known as polystyrene) never biodegrades.
2. Polystyrene breaks down into very small pieces and is quite often eaten by birds and marine life.  It is toxic to their systems and in many cases does not digest, making the animal feel full, yet it is starving to death.
6. Use cloth table cloths and napkins.
1. Many people think that they don’t have room for these items (at home or in their house of worship).  Think about it; if you have room to store plastic table cloths and paper napkins, why wouldn’t you have room for cloth?  Cloth napkins actually take up less room than paper!  Sure, there is an initial expense, but in the long run, you save an enormous amount of money; money that can be spent on programs at your house of worship!
2. Consider the life-cycle, or as I like to call it, the death cycle of a paper napkin.
1. It takes approximately 5 gallons of water to make one napkin!
2. Most napkins are made from virgin wood – not recycled paper!  That tree could have been left standing in the forest, where it belongs, producing oxygen and absorbing the dreaded carbon dioxide that is warming the earth.
3. To top it off, it takes a lot of electricity that produces, among other pollutants, carbon dioxide, to producing paper napkins that are used once and thrown away.
4. Once the paper napkin is thrown away, it goes to a landfill.  Landfills take up a lot of space, space that the earth is running out of.  Landfills, these days, require air-tight “lids” that prevent decomposition of many items that could, otherwise decompose and therefore take up less landfill space.  Because of these enclosures, landfills stay full much longer than they used to, before these practices were put into place, and that of course requires waste management companies to look for even more land to fill!
3. Plastic table cloths will not biodegrade – ever.  They will break down, leaching toxins into the atmosphere and ground water.  Plastic is made from petroleum, which makes Americans even more dependent on non-renewable oil.   We need to reduce our dependence on oil, foreign or domestic and look for alternatives, one of which is cloth.
2. Use dish rags and dish towels rather than disposable sponges (that hold onto germs) and paper towels.
1. The information from napkins also applies to one paper towel.  Marketing companies want you to believe that paper towels are better for your health; this is just a ploy to get the consumer to buy more, more, more.
3. Use environmentally friendly, biodegradable dishwasher detergent (Shaklee, Seventh Generation or equivalent) and dish washing liquid.
4. Use environmentally friendly household and institutional cleaning supplies.
1. Baking soda and white vinegar do a wonderful job of killing the germs that cause mold and mildew --- and they are edible!  Vinegar is a natural disinfectant and baking soda helps scrub away hard to clean debris, not to mention, they will shine stainless steel quite well.
5. Do not run the water while washing or rinsing dishes. 
1. If rinsing dishes to place in the dishwasher, fill the sink with about 2 inches of hot water and use a dish cloth to wipe the excess food off the dishes.
2. If washing dishes with a one tub only sink, wash the dishes and set them aside until you are finished washing.  Once finished, fill the sink with about 2 inches of clean hot rinse water; place the dishes back in the sink and rinse.
6. In The Office:
1. For all of your printing needs (letterhead stationary, envelopes, tithing envelopes, brochures, bulletins, newsletters, etc.), use Post-Consumer paper and insist that your printer use Soy-Based Ink.  There is a difference between Recycled and Post-Consumer paper.  Recycled means that the paper may have come from trimmings from a printing company; the paper was never actually used.  Post-Consumer means that the paper was once a magazine or newspaper.  Insist that your printer show you samples of post-consumer stationary options.  One company that supplies post-consumer paper and tree-free paper is New Leaf Paper; visit their website at http://www.newleafpaper.com.
2. Around The Facility:
1. Use environmentally friendly household and institutional cleaning supplies.
1. Baking soda and white vinegar do a wonderful job of killing the germs that cause mold and mildew --- and they are edible!  Vinegar is a natural disinfectant and baking soda helps scrub away hard to clean debris, not to mention, they will shine stainless steel quite well.  Both are inexpensive.
2. Unplug small appliances that are not in use.  Appliances still use energy when not in use and account for approximately 5% of our energy bills annually.  In the U.S., we use an estimated 5 billion watts annually - the output of five standard power plants - to power electronics while they're turned off.  The energy used creates so much greenhouse gas, it's as if we put an extra 2 million cars on the road and asked them to drive in circles.  Below is a list of items that you may want to consider unplugging in your congregation if they are used infrequently:

1. Once these energy saving features are in place, consider installing solar panels or wind energy.  It is best to bring all of your appliances and lighting up to the new Energy Star standards first, so that you get the full benefit of your renewable energy source.
1. Outside:

Here in Southern California, we receive and average annual rainfall of approximately 14.5 inches each year.  We need to put serious water conservation measures into practice due to world-wide water shortages.  With that in mind, consider doing most, if not all of the following:

1. Adjust or deactivate sprinklers during the rainy season.
2. Adjust sprinklers so that water lands on the plants, not on the sidewalks and parking lots.
3. Install a SmartTimer irrigation system.  These systems read daily weather reports via satellite and water your lawn and garden accordingly.  If it’s raining, the SmarTimer automatically goes into “rain delay” mode, turning off your sprinklers until the rain stops.  For more information on this system, please visit the SmartTimer website at http://www.mwdoc.com/SmarTimer/.  Many municipalities give rebates on these water wise systems.  While on the SmartTimer website, click on the link of “Participating Water Providers” to see if your district participates in this program.
4. Don’t water on windy days; this causes too much evaporation.
5. Install a bioswale:  A bioswale is a shallow depression created in the earth to accept and convey stormwater runoff.  It uses natural means, including vegetation and soil, to treat stormwater by filtering out contaminants being conveyed in the water.  For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website at:  http://www.ia.nrcs.usda.gov/news/brochures/bioswale.html
6. When considering your landscaping choices, choose drought tolerant or better yet, native plants.  When designed properly, these landscapes can be quite beautiful and provide you with year-round color.  They can also be designed to attract butterflies and humming birds – a great place to teach pre-school children about the various plants and animals that God created.  For more information, visit the California Integrated Waste Management Board website at http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Organics/Gardening/default.htm.
7. Use a broom to clean sidewalks and parking lots instead of a garden hose.  The average home uses up to 150 gallons of water to wash sidewalks and driveways.  Considering the size of most houses of worship, this number could be more than 10 times that of the average home.

• New Construction:  If you are in the process of building a new house of worship or adding onto your existing facility, consider using “Green Building” practices. Download the National Council of Churches "Building a Firm Foundation" Guide for more information.