To: Ms. Kathlene Jesch, Coordinator Seventh Principle Project Please find enclosed the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Tallahassee's (UUCT) application for candidacy as a Green Sanctuary Church. Our church has held a Green Sanctuary workshop to present the program and describe the commitment our church would need to make to achieve this goal. That workshop also provided insight from another local conservation group in the form of a well-developed thought provoking presentation. This guest group described their approach as a place-based responsible consumption process which included a pledge by each of their members to reduce fossil-fuel usage in order to reduce CO2 production by 30% over the next three years. This collaborative workshop resulted in a valuable exchange of ideas and reinforcement of the idea that many groups are embarking on a journey to tread lightly on our planet. Collaboration with other groups will provide valuable support and together our combined efforts and ideas will mingle synergistically to take on greater meaning. As per the procedures to establish new standing committees as defined in our church by-laws, the UUCT Board has formed a standing Green Sanctuary Committee for which a chairperson (Ed Oaksford) has been appointed. Ed has agreed to lead our congregation through the one-year candidacy period as our congregation sets out to meet the challenge of becoming a Green Sanctuary Church. The church has held a congregational vote to affirm their commitment to the Green Sanctuary process in the year ahead. The vote showed overwhelming support (Include vote results) for this activity and it is with great excitement that we proceed toward this worthwhile goal. Below is a list of the first three action items completed as required in the candidacy application process:
A receipt and list of recommendations from the City Energy Audit is enclosed as documentation of our completion of one action item in the Energy Conservation and Environmental Practices Action Area, the motion and congregational vote results for the motion committing our members to a policy of using non-disposable table ware for church functions is included as verification of our efforts to complete one action item of the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Action Area, and the first issue of our monthly newsletter containing our first "Green Corner" column is included to provide evidence of our efforts to meet one action item in the Church Communication Action Area. The UUCT congregation and our Green Sanctuary Committee are committed to work toward meeting the challenges of the remaining action items throughout the course of this next year. We look forward to your continued support and to our congregational meeting next year where it is hoped that we will have met the requirements of the program and submit a favorable congregational vote to proceed toward accreditation
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