Date: Passed: Thursday, August 12, 2021, 12:00 am EDT

Since our original Green Sanctuary accreditation in 2004, BRUU has embarked on a sustained journey of reducing our environmental footprint. In the past six years, our focus has been on energy efficiency and climate change, with an emphasis on minimizing (and for the past two years, neutralizing) our carbon footprint. We have also pursued adaptation and climate justice goals. Our general approach has been to demonstrate approaches at the congregational level, and then to challenge our members and friends to pursue the same goals at home.

Our activities have included the following:

Mitigation

• Funded a professional energy audit for our building, which produced a detailed action plan and list of priorities.
• Have worked through the priorities, implementing a series of energy efficiency projects on lights, motion-activated switches, appliances, and other equipment.
• Implemented projects requiring capital expenditures including improvements in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) – in fact, we will have to replace a 25+-year old HVAC system in the next year, and insulating the building envelope.
• Bought an infrared camera to detect areas with poor insulation in the building envelope. We’ve also encouraged members to borrow the IR camera to assess and seal leaks in their homes/ apartments.
• Sought proposals from solar companies to install photo-voltaic (PV) panels on our roof. Economics were very unfavorable (greater than 20-year payback period) due to (a) our utility’s electric rate structure, (b) need to replace roof within a few years (which would require uninstalling and reinstalling panels), and (c) lack of federal tax break.
• Met with our municipal electric utility to seek changes to rate structure so that BRUU (and other places of worship) aren’t disincentivized to install solar. The utility’s rate study is pending.
• Highlighted experience of a Green Team member who installed PV panels and geothermal heat pump at his home, and how others can take advantage of net metering (at the residential level) to become energy-independent and carbon-neutral.
• Purchased carbon offsets to neutralize BRUU’s carbon footprint.
• Encouraged members of the congregation to also purchase individual carbon offsets; seven have done so to date.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Maintain our courtyard garden, certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Wildlife Habitat, which is one of the only green spaces in Old Town Manassas. This serves two adaptation functions: (1) it helps reduce the urban heat island effect and (2) it provides pervious surface within an urban watershed that is highly impervious, thus buffering some of the hydrologic extremes associated with climate change. It also provides habitat for a limited number of native plant and wildlife species.
• Sponsor classes and meetings of the Merrimac Farm Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalists. Two BRUU members teach the class on Climate Change Impacts in Virginia, and class materials include information on adaptation measures at the state and local scale. One BRUU member teaches classes on botany, geography and geomorphology. VMN provides volunteer opportunities in citizen science, education and outreach, and stewardship; BRUU’s Green Team sponsors VMN’s use of our facility and resources, which strengthens this community.

Climate Justice

• Maintain a Food Pantry that regularly feeds over 100 families a month (about 100 families and 500 individuals through our emergency food pantry, and about 60 families and 300 individuals through the USDA food pantry; many families are helped by both programs). Many of the supported families are low-income and minority families at risk of environmental and climate justice-related stressors. Prince William County has a large immigrant population, and many of these families have fled from such stressors.
• Sell Equal Exchange Fair Trade coffee, tea and chocolate, even during the COVID shut-down, by making home deliveries. Our fair-trade efforts help struggling agricultural communities in Latin America. Proceeds have been used to fund carbon offsets, as well as support for local and UU environmental groups (see below).
• Contribute regularly to the UUSJ Advocacy Corp, lobbying Congress on social justice issues through the “Write Here, Write Now” campaign, including climate change and environmental justice concerns.

• Financially support local environmental groups, including UUSJ, Interfaith Power and Light (IPL), Prince William Conservation Alliance, and Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL).
• We co-sponsored a showing of the film “The Eagle and the Condor,” a film about the need for north-south collaboration on climate and environmental justice.
• Recent advocacy efforts include working with local residents to block development of an asphalt plant near a neighborhood with a high percentage of minority residents. The anticipated emissions from that plant would have impacted children going to a nearby elementary school, as well as residents.

Cross-Cutting Actions (i.e., actions that support more than one of the above categories)

• Conduct regular “Write Here! Write Now!” campaigns to advocate for climate action (mitigation, adaptation, justice).
• Conduct annual Earth Day services and other periodic worship services stressing related environmental topics. For example, this year’s service discussed BRUU’s efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, and how (after years of mitigation measures) we neutralized our footprint with offsets. We’ve encouraged members to calculate and neutralize their own footprints. In terms of resilience, we’ve had services to raise awareness about climate impacts and what measures communities and people can take to improve resilience.
• We successfully lobbied our board to pass a resolution on climate change.
• BRUU members spoke at county supervisors’ meetings on a county-wide resolution to set climate, clean energy, and resilience goals. The resolution passed.

Our priorities moving forward include a carbon footprint challenge; a backyard habitat challenge; support for the Greater Prince William Trails Coalition in its efforts to improve transportation access, equity, and wildlife corridors; and being a charter member of the Prince William Hub of Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, which fights for climate solutions and justice.

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VA
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