All congregations are invited to use this program whether or not they are interested in Green Sanctuary accreditation or reaccreditation. If accreditation or reaccreditation is desired, the congregation must document its assessment, action plans, and impacts of significantly increased participation for campaigns to meet the following three intersectional goals.

Mitigation

MITIGATION is action to reduce the causes of global warming. Mitigation is essential for climate justice and a livable future with fewer disastrous climate impacts. Mitigation to accomplish a livable and just world needs to reduce global net carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and to near zero by mid-century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Robust mitigation will reduce the risks of severe climate impacts and make possible a transition to a sustainable future for all.

To meet this goal, after determining the baseline carbon footprint at the beginning of the Green Sanctuary process, the congregation must describe and implement a combination of strategies aiming toward or exceeding the IPCC targets of a 45% reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. Congregations should determine the actions that will have the greatest impact - which will likely include a combination of the congregation, the wider community, state and/or the world. Engagement in meaningful and ongoing civic action advocating mitigation is required. Read some examples of mitigation activities (Word, 3 pages).

Adaptation and Resilience

Adaptation is the process of (a) reducing vulnerabilities to the harmful effects of climate change (b) making the most of potentially beneficial opportunities associated with positive responses to the crisis. Resilience is the capacity to maintain function in the face of external stresses created by the climate-change crisis.

• Congregational Adaptation/Resilience

To meet this goal, building upon the assessment of the congregation’s knowledge and commitment, the congregation must plan and implement an accumulation of actions and experiences that transform the culture of the congregation, creating a foundation for long-term response to climate crisis.

• Adaptation: similar to the aforementioned work in the community, congregations should address their own adaptation to increasingly severe climate conditions and weather events as applicable.

• Resilience: The plan should provide climate-focused educational and spiritual content to worship services, religious education and congregational life. The intended impact is twofold: greater awareness of the climate-change realities we are facing and will continue to face, and the spiritual grounding in Unitarian Universalist values that is needed to inspire and sustain congregants to engage in the long haul of climate justice work.

In addition to their congregational plan, Green Sanctuary candidates must choose one or both of the following systems as part of their Adaptation/Resilience campaign:

• Natural Systems Adaptation/Resilience:

Congregations identify a local or regional ecosystem endangered or impacted by existing and intensifying climate change. After assessing the current status, the congregation initiates actions or collaborates with existing groups that seek to increase the ecosystem’s capacity to withstand climate change, and documents results.

• Human Systems Adaptation/Resilience:

Congregations identify a local or regional human community endangered or impacted by existing and intensifying climate change. After assessing the current status, the congregation initiates actions or collaborates with existing groups that seek to increase this community’s capacity to withstand climate change. Examples of this would be addressing disaster preparedness and response and recovery. If this work is done in collaboration with a front-line community, this could also count toward the justice goal, see below. Congregations are encouraged to select actions that will enable them to submit measurable results in their application for accreditation.

Justice

Working in partnership with communities who experience and confront the reality that the greatest impacts of the climate crisis are disproportionately imposed on those (a) historically oppressed and least responsible for the crisis (b) with the fewest resources with which to face the crisis while already under environmental stresses, and (c) future generations. These communities are sometimes referred to as front-line, vulnerable or marginalized.

To meet this goal, congregations will deepen or expand an existing collaborative relationship or form a new partnership with a front-line community or front-line led organization that is battling the effects of climate change and the economic and political systems that sustain climate injustice. In their application congregations describe the process of building and strengthening that relationship and identify the primary focus of the group. Because the focus of this work must address the priority of the collaborating group, the project might be described as part of the campaigns that address mitigation or adaptation/resilience. Congregations will provide a statement of intended long-term impacts resulting from the partnership (including impact on the congregation) and they will describe the practical steps for action identified in collaboration with their partners. When the plan has been implemented, congregations document actions taken and resulting actual impacts. If it is not imposing on their time and/or capacity, partners from front-line groups and communities could be invited to provide feedback and assessments, if they wish.

In this stage, you’ll (1) create a Green Sanctuary team and charter, and (2) educate and engage your congregation around the Green Sanctuary process.

Also, when the team is ready, create a congregational account on Create Climate Justice.

There you will fill out and submit “Congregational Profile”. Once submitted, your team will receive all important communications and will be invited to become part of a supported cohort of congregations doing similar work. Download the profile template.

Developing a Green Team and Charter

Sometimes the Green Sanctuary Team forms first, then educates the Board and the congregation; other times an exploratory group brings the program to the Board, and the Board charters a Green Team. In addition, for congregations in which the minister is responsible for programs to enact Vision and Mission, it may be the minister or ministerial team that will determine the process. The team’s formation should reflect how your congregation does its best work.

The team could be an Executive Team that coordinates the work of many sub-groups; a committee composed of the chair of every other committee; or a team of two or three Board-approved people charged with coordinating congregational activities and the application process. The size of the Green Sanctuary team will depend on the process or governance that works best in your congregation.

The purpose of this team is to manage the entire process. The Green Sanctuary team could be called a committee, ministry, or whatever term is customary in your congregation. The team can invite the possibility that climate change work be suffused with a UU sense of possibility, love and celebration of life, and understanding and strategy deeply rooted in the intersection of race, class and climate. In other words, the team can bring a UU Faithful Response to the urgency of this climate crisis.

• Roles: The entire congregation is responsible for completing the Green Sanctuary projects. The team leads the effort by conducting assessments (or charging committees with specific aspects of assessment). With help from the congregation and minister(s), the team oversees each campaign addressing the three goals of mitigation, adaptation and resilience, and justice. The team assists with providing resources and logistical support, communicating with other leaders and staff, and preparing required documentation. The team’s key role is to act as climate and climate justice cheerleaders, encouraging participation.
• Selecting Team Members: It’s not enough for the Board to assume the team will consist solely of the people who suggested earning Green Sanctuary accreditation. Although most or all of them may want to participate, additional team members may be needed. It is also true that many people who care about this issue will not be able to be on a committee so that it will be important to make tasks clear and invite broad participation.
• Varied Expertise: Identify a variety of talent and expertise from within the congregation to perform various tasks: communication, worship and celebration, sustainability expertise, social justice expertise, etc. When it’s time to define the three campaigns (focused respectively on mitigation, adaptation and resilience, and justice) and the component projects, seek input from the whole congregation or committees, and recruit additional expertise.
• The Charter: Usually, the authority granted by the Board to the Green Sanctuary team comes in the form of a charter stating the team’s purpose and some rules of operation (for example: “...organizing and facilitating the Green Sanctuary process.”). For some congregations a charter is less important than a public Proclamation or signing onto one of the many powerful campaigns such as Green New Deal.

Educating the Congregation

Present to the Board: Typically, the initial organizers make a presentation to the congregation’s Board of Trustees (or other governing body) explaining what the Green Sanctuary program is, and its benefit to the congregation. If the board members agree the idea has merit, they authorize the group to start a Green Sanctuary program.

If your congregation operates under Policy Governance, the direction for this work will come in partnership with the Executive staff team (Minister, Justice Minister, Religious Education [RE] Director, etc.). Find suggestions about this here.

Introduce Green Sanctuary to the Congregation

At this point, it is likely that only a small number of people are aware the Green Sanctuary program started. However, the process cannot be successful or meaningful without the participation of the entire congregation.

• Objectives: In the beginning, the team’s objectives are to raise awareness of the climate crisis and the capacity of the program to help congregational response. It will be critical to work with the Justice and Faith Formation teams to build understanding of the intersectional core of this work. Also important is generating a sense of possibility for a collective impact to build a sustainable and just world. Teams are more likely to succeed when they create a tone of support and enthusiasm for the congregation, and work to inspire commitment and active participation.
• Methods: Every congregation has their own style of engaging congregants in important issues or programs. It can be particularly helpful if the team brainstorms with the congregation after sharing some of the information they have gathered.
• Worship: Many choose to introduce Green Sanctuary during a Sunday worship service, since that is the best opportunity to reach the majority of congregants. Ideas on how to introduce Green Sanctuary during worship are listed here.
• Coffee hour: Staffing a Green Sanctuary table at coffee hour is another way to get the word out, and facilitate participation in assessments and action plan activities.
• Communications: Throughout the process, make use of all effective communications: announcements, newsletters, the congregation’s website, committee presentations, and so on.

The purpose of conducting an opportunity assessment is to enable the congregation to identify and describe opportunities and challenges to achieving the greatest impacts with respect to:

• Mitigating the climate-change crisis.
• Adapting and building resilience to impacts of the crisis.
• Securing justice by collaborating with marginalized communities most impacted by but least responsible for the crisis.

The assessment gathers descriptions and data which guide development of an action plan to achieve those impacts and engage in that collaborative work. It also establishes baselines, which make it possible to measure and describe the impacts and results of the congregation’s Green Sanctuary efforts.

Each section of the Opportunity Assessment has two parts: Gathering Information and Discussion. The former poses questions about your congregation’s current environmental practices and context. The Discussion questions give you a chance to do some initial analysis of the data you have collected and some reflection about possible ways forward. Think of them as a guideline more than a prescription - you may encounter issues not listed here, or find you need more specificity in some areas. The objective is to think as broadly as possible, eventually targeting specific issues as you learn. Not every item will be relevant to your congregation; be selective, spending time and resources where it matters most. Remember, too, that the purpose of the assessment is to document where you are right now so you can plan how to move forward. Focus on what your congregation is actually doing, not what you’ve talked about, or think you “should” do. Don’t worry about whether your current practices are “good enough.” No matter where you are starting from, the Green Sanctuary program will give your congregation the opportunity to grow.

Once you have completed your information-gathering and your analysis, the Opportunity Assessment is submitted to the Green Sanctuary Review Team for feedback. We strongly suggest that you make use of the Opportunity Assessment Guidelines before you submit your Assessment and include it with your Assessment. They will help you determine if you have collected enough data to create campaigns with significant impact, which is the goal of Green Sanctuary accreditation.

The next step will be to use the feedback from the Review Team to create an Action Plan, where you will design three campaigns (one each for mitigation, adaptation/resilience, and justice) that make sense for your congregation’s circumstances and passions. These campaigns- a combination of education activities, projects, and civic action- will be the heart of your work towards congregational transformation and Green Sanctuary accreditation.

• Download the assessment
• Download the assessment guidelines

The goal of this Action Plan is to chart your intended strategies in each of the three campaigns (Mitigation, Adaptation/Resilience, and Justice). Once you submit your plan, the review team will offer feedback and suggestions using the Action Plan Guidelines (Impactful, Needs Improvement, Missing). The GS 2030 program does not require a specific number of component projects within each campaign. It is up to the congregation to create campaigns that achieve the intended impacts on the road to congregational transformation and climate sustainability and justice.

MITIGATION is action to reduce the causes of the global warming trend of climate change. Mitigation is essential for climate justice. Robust mitigation will reduce the risks of severe ,climate impacts and make possible a transition to a sustainable and just future for all. Mitigation action needs to reduce global net carbon emissions by around 45% by 2030 and to near zero by mid-century, according to scientific analysis in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.

Mitigation Campaign

Please state in brief the findings in your opportunity assessment on which this campaign is based. If it makes more sense to list the opportunity assessments connected to each component project, feel free to do that.

• If there is an overarching campaign strategy that clearly connects each project, please describe it.
• Reflect on whether and how this campaign contributes to congregational transformation.

For each component project within your campaign list

1. Campaign and Project Title
2. Intended Impacts (and if helpful, include opportunity assessment findings this responds to)
3. Description.
   1. Outline steps and also
   2.  Indicate when steps engage civic action/activism, collaboration with historically marginalized communities, and/or long term organizing partnerships
   3. Indicate if this project overlaps with your Justice Campaign
   4. If applicable, explain how you intend to educate/inform the congregation about this activity
   5. How Impacts will be measured/assessed

   ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE - Adaptation is the process of (a) reducing vulnerabilities to the harmful effects of climate change (b) making the most of potentially beneficial opportunities associated with positive responses to the crisis. Resilience is the capacity to maintain function in the face of external stresses created by the climate-change crisis.

   Adaptation/Resilience Campaign

   • Please state in brief the findings in your opportunity assessment on which this campaign is based. If it makes more sense to you to list the opportunity assessments connected to each component project, please feel free to do that.
   • If there is an overarching campaign strategy that clearly connects each project, please describe it.
   • Make sure that in addition to your congregational adaptation/resilience your congregation includes work to enhance adaptation/resilience of either human or natural system(s) or both.
   • Reflect on whether and how this campaign contributes to congregational transformation.

   For each component project within your campaign:

   1. Campaign and Project Title
   2. Intended Impacts (and if helpful, include opportunity assessment findings this responds to)
   3. Description.
      1. Outline steps and also
      2.  Indicate when steps engage civic action/activism, collaboration with historically marginalized communities, and/or long term organizing partnerships (See Opportunity Assessment Goal: Justice for background)
      3. Indicate if this project overlaps with your Justice Campaign
      4. If applicable, explain how you intend to educate/inform the congregation about this activity
   4. How Impacts will be measured/assessed

   JUSTICE: Working in partnership with communities who experience and confront the reality that the greatest impacts of the climate crisis are disproportionately imposed on those (a) historically oppressed and least responsible for the crisis (b) with the fewest resources with which to face the crisis while already under environmental stresses, and (c) future generations. These communities are sometimes referred to as front-line, vulnerable or marginalized.

   Justice Campaign

   Please state in brief the findings in your opportunity assessment on which this campaign is based. If it makes more sense to you to list the opportunity assessments connected to each component project, please feel free to do that.

   • If there is an overarching campaign strategy that clearly connects each project, please describe it.
   • Reflect on whether and how this campaign contributes to congregational transformation.

   For each component project within your campaign:

   1. Campaign and Project Title
   2. Intended Impacts (and if helpful, include opportunity assessment findings this responds to)
   3. Description.
      1. Outline steps and also
      2.  Indicate when steps engage civic action/activism, collaboration with historically marginalized communities, and/or long term organizing partnerships (See Opportunity Assessment, Goal: Justice for background)
      3. Indicate if this project overlaps with your Mitigation or Adaptation/Resilience campaign
      4. If applicable, explain how you intend to educate/inform the congregation about this activity
   4. How Impacts will be measured/assessed
   • Download the Action Plan Template which is an editable version of this page
   • Download the Guidelines for the Action Plan