The South Church Green Team began in 2013 when the church voted to install solar panels and heat pumps to work toward the goal of becoming a zero energy building. As such, we are one of four buildings in Amherst to be included in the town’s zero energy building tour.
Over the following five years, South Church earned all three levels of the MA UCC Green Church awards, a distinction held by only 5 other congregations. In 2018, South Church spearheaded an interfaith gathering to read former MA UCC President and climate activist Jim Antal’s new book, Climate Church Climate World. First Congregational Church and Grace Episcopal Church members joined us as we met four Monday evenings in the fall. At the last meeting, it was decided that we wanted to keep the momentum going and honor Jim Antal’s hope of taking a faith-based action to alleviate climate disruption. We agreed that working to get MA to pass a Carbon Fee and Rebate bill would be a worthy bi-partisan effort and in January, 2019, we visited a number of churches in western MA to share the interfaith message.
Our effort, combined with the Sierra Club and several other state groups, resulted in over 94 state representatives co-signing Jen Benson’s Carbon Fee and Rebate Bill # 1726.
We continue to encourage members of the congregation to work toward a more sustainable future by acting individually or joining with others. We would like to learn more about what individual members are doing, whether as part of their employment or as volunteers with various climate related groups.
