103 results for tag: Carbon Footprints


Making Dance Green

By Stacey Menchel Kussell, director of Renewal: A Film About Art and Ecology Contemporary ballet and environmentalism are not topics that often go hand-in-hand. That is until you meet Israel’s Vertigo Dance Company. The dance group’s unique approach to ecological activism is the inspiration for my new film Renewal. Dance is one of Israel’s most impressive art forms, and it engages people worldwide regardless of language. Renewal is an opportunity for new audiences to learn about a unique and powerful aspect of Israeli culture, and gain new perspectives on dance and environmentalism. The documentary profiles Vertigo, a ...

Beyond the Letter of the Law: Jewish Ethical Investing in the Light of Climate Change

Responding to a Dangerous Impasse on Climate Change Climate change resulting from the use of fossil fuels poses a well-documented, grave threat to humanity and the ecosystems that support life. But in the United States, a real national response to climate change has been stymied by political inaction, cultural inertia, and the concerted effort of fossil fuel companies, which have funded propaganda and disinformation in opposition to limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Increasingly, environmental organizations have resorted to various actions meant to break this deadlock. One of these tactics is encouraging divestment from fossil fuel ...

Shabbat Noach is Coming!

In celebration of Parshat Noach this coming Shabbat, Jewcology is proud to share a wealth of resources on the topic of Noach. Please enjoy and share these resources from many of our partners and participants so we can all benefit from the lessons of Parshat Noach. Explore all of our Parshat Noach resources Here's a sampling: Countering Destruction - Lessons from Noah Although the flood and the life of Noah occurred thousands of years ago, the story of Noah offers important lessons about how our actions affect the world. The Torah teaches that ten generations after Creation, all life on the planet had "corrupted its way on the earth"...

Covenant Campaign Blog from The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

At the Starting Line: 14% by 2014 By Susan Paykin, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) Two years from now, we will celebrate the beginning of the Shmittah year, or sabbatical year. Shmittah marks the seventh year in the ancient agricultural cycle, when we are commanded to “release” (the literal Hebraic translation of shmittah) the Earth from human stress. Our land is to lay fallow and any fruits or vegetables that grow are ownerless, open to anyone who needs or wants to eat them. In the new millennium, observing Shmittah is not as simple as it was during the Biblical era. In North America, most of ...

Action Alert! Tell the EPA: Support Strong Carbon Limits Today!

BACKGROUND COEJL and The RAC (Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism) are joining together to demonstrate the Jewish community’s support for our nation’s first-ever proposed limits on carbon emissions from new power plants. The proposed Carbon Pollution Standard for New Power Plants will prevent any new power plant from emitting more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. With conventional coal plants currently emitting more than 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt, pollution controls setting higher technology standards are long overdue. Carbon dioxide is a threat to the health and ...

New COEJL Webinar on Funding and Creating an Energy Efficiency Project

Join COEJL for the third in our series of webinars for Sustainability Liaisons. These briefings will enable your organization to take concrete actions toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions 14% by 2014. Get the practical information that you need to fulfill the commitment your organization made in signing the Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign Declaration. Our panelists have implemented energy efficiency projects of all sizes, from insulating pipes for a quick payback to building a brand new facility. What happens once you identify actions you can take to reduce energy use? How do you choose which actions to take? How do you select a contractor? How ...

Join the “Fast for the Earth”

Join the “Fast for the Earth”! Launching August 1, 2012, the Fast will be a global nonviolent protest against wanton disregard for the natural world, and a spiritual affirmation that we are all part of that world, responsible for its careful tending. The Fast is being organized by a group of concerned citizens in Brookings, SD (USA), who are deeply troubled by tar sands mining and the construction of related pipelines. It has been inspired by the recent public fasting of indigenous people in the U.S. and Canada in protest of the same, and will be undertaken in kinship with them. Tar sands exploitation is only one manifestation of ...

“Esh, Esh Medura” (Fire, Fire, Bonfire)

by Einat Kramer, Director – Teva Ivri One of the most “Israeli” phenomena that I know is the bonfires of Lag B’Omer. Immediately after Pesach, even before the clean spring scent fades in the heat of the summer, the streets of our country are filled with children looking for firewood. They are everywhere; in forests, building sites, and among the garbage cans, they collect wood (or anything resembling wood), hauling it off in “borrowed” supermarket carts to their secret hiding place and guarding it fiercely until the holiday. Shortly after Independence Day, the energy of the firewood ...

Reduce Workplace Waste

Whether you own your own business or work for someone else, it is a good practice to be mindful of your energy use and use of office supplies during your work day. There are many simple practices that will allow you to use less energy and produce less waste. This pays off by helping the environment and lowering costs as well. Shut down your computer. According to a recent study by the Harvard Green Campus Initiative, computersare responsible for about 40% of the energy consumed by office equipment in the United States. One desktop computer left in full power mode for a year can result in 1,500 pounds of CO2 being released into the ...

Lag B’Omer Program: Fire or Solar Panel visit?

What would you do? What lessons are you teaching/ role modeling? 1. The magic of a bonfire in a fire pit? and carbon emissions or 2. Visit a solar panel energy factory? and carbon emissions from the bus getting you there? Please share your thoughts! Pam

Community open to New Ideas (CJN September 2011)

This "Sustainable Jew" column appeared in the Canadian Jewish News, September 8, 2011 How does a community come together to look at new ideas and decide which ones to make a small investment in and see if they will succeed? The GTA Jewish community brought forward 78 proposals to the UJA Federation’s SixPoints Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund. Sixty individuals pooled their financial resources and business planning skills to fund and support new and innovative programs, consistent with Jewish values. Each proposal team was asked to record a short video and write up their project describing the hypothetical community ...

Schools Measure Footprints (CJN April 2011)

This "Sustainable Jew" column originally appeared in the Canadian Jewish News, April 14, 2011 Ontario EcoSchools is an environmental education program for kindergarten to Grade 12. Developed and run by school boards,the program allows students to acquire ecological literacy and learn about practices that will make them environmentally responsible citizens. In addition, Ontario EcoSchools helps to improve operations within school buildings in order to reduce environmental impacts. (http://bit.ly/tsj1104-01) Several Toronto Jewish day schools participate in the program including the Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School, the ...

Energy Conservation in Israel (CJN March 2011)

This "Sustainable Jew" column originally appeared in the Canadian Jewish News March 17, 2011 I was recently in Israel to represent the company I am currently on contract with, and to speak at a renewable energy conference in Eilat, co sponsored by the UJA Federation of Toronto. As part of a delegation, put together by Canada's National Research Council, I wanted to understand the current Israeli state of mind with respect to energy conservation and advances in renewable energy. At the same time I was tasked to determine if there was an opportunity to expand my client's energy consumption benchmarking software to Israel. ...

Reducing Toronto’s Environmental Footprint (CJN Janaury 2011)

This article originally appeared in the Canadian Jewish News on January 20, 2011 In 1975, Mark Mietkowitz and I were co-councilors at Camp Massad, near Torrence Ontario and a year apart at the Community Hebrew Academy in Toronto. I could not have imagined that 36 years later we would be columnists in the Canadian Jewish News. Mark’s recent columns touched on various aspects of water in Israel, and the innovations that Israeli entrepreneurs and scientists have brought to take what would seem to be a disadvantage in a desert climate and turn it into a world beating export industry. Perhaps it was a way to welcome me to the ...

Feb 6: COEJL’s declaration signing ceremony

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) invites you to the official signing ceremony of the “Jewish Environmental and Energy Imperative” declaration, part of its Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign. Two days before the Jewish celebration of Tu B’shvat, the New Year for trees, leaders of the Jewish community will set the community-wide goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 14% by 2014. Who: On behalf of a broad spectrum of national Jewish leaders, Rabbi Steve Gutow, president and CEO, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and co-chair, COEJL; Rabbi David Saperstein, director and counsel, Religi...

No Free Lunch- Not Even a Data Snack

Exactly thirty years ago, a small quiz appeared in Co-Evolution Quarterly, with the hip sounding, slang trumps grammar name of “Where You At”. Check out these quiz questions: “How many days until the full moon? Can you name five resident and five migratory bird species in your area? Can you name the soil series you are standing upon? Can you trace your water from source to tap? Where does your garbage go?” This quiz captured a sea change in modern environmentalism; the sea change that declares that single issues and single actions are never enough, the sea change that inspires many of us to live our lives with fuller ...

Growing Forests In The Desert

By Abigail Klein Leichman for Israel21C Photo Courtesy of Tel Aviv University http://www.tau.ac.il/index-eng.html Leave it to Israeli scientists to figure out a way of growing trees in the barren sands of the Arava Desert. The trees aren't just meant to look pretty. This pollution-reducing forest planted over the summer is soaking up harmful excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releasing beneficial oxygen. Another "green" bonus is that the trees are nurtured with recycled sewage water and saltwater. The project is a research collaboration between Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Science ...

Bikes, Trees and Gardens: Greening Israel Since 2001

NEW YORK (Dec. 16, 2011) — Saving wilderness, fighting fracking, protecting Israel’s 99 percent from the world's 1 percent — what a decade it’s been! This month marks the end of the 10th anniversary of the Green Zionist Alliance. Back before Israel’s Tent Cities and Occupy Wall Street, the Green Zionist Alliance began 2011 by becoming part of a successful effort to change the equation of what percentage of natural-resource profits goes to companies and what percentage goes to the Israeli public, who collectively own the resources. Fighting against some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, ...

Filthy Banking

(reposted from Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's blog: http://blog.bjen.org/) You would hardly know that in Durban, many of 194 party members of the United Nations Framework for Climate Change are meeting for the 17th COP (Conference of the Parties) to continue to explore how to save the planet from itself. This is the group that brought us the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 which sought to limit the amount of greenhouse gases the world emits. The UNFCCC has posted videos of key presentations and links to various reports. And more are coming. In concert with this annual event, four environmentally-concerned organizations have issued their own ...

Greening Hanukkah

Hanukkah is a time where we celebrate the renewal of the eternal flame and rededication of the Temple. It is a great time to rededicate ourselves to the goal of preserving God’s creation, conserving energy and helping the environment. Here are a few things you can do leading up to, and during, the holiday to rededicate yourself to making the world more eco-friendly. Leading up to the holiday: · Buy gifts with a low carbon footprint—local stores that sell vintage, locally made or locally grown products are a great place to find these. · Consider offering the gift of time or one that ...