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Our Temple Administrator - Denise Di Mare Tu b’Shevat— the “New Year of the Trees”, a harbinger of spring, the Jewish arbor day, a day to commemorate loved ones and planting trees in Israel...and a great time for us to talk about how we at THB are trying to be greener and more environmentally friendly. Thanks to congregant Tim Faulkner, we have expanded our environmental awareness and are incorporating small, everyday steps to lessen negative environmental impact. Tim, who with his wife Erica coordinates First Fridays, is also going to coordinate our Green Team. He has brought a new level of understanding to how we use and re-use things here at THB and thanks to him we have compostable cups and plates for our First Friday pizza dinner - and by the time you read this, a THB compost bin as well! If you have been to a pizza dinner recently, you have seen that Tim has set up different bins for recycling and composting, as well as for trash. Our goal is to reduce the trash we generate and increase what we can recycle and compost. And while it may not seem like much, consider that at every First Friday we use at least 50 plates...and we have 9 First Fridays a year...after a while, that’s a lot of plates that are kept out of landfills! We are also trying to reduce the amount of paper that we use and to that end, we are using our website and e-blasts to communicate electronically, rather than the mail. No, we are not eliminating our mailings– but we are trying to be more selective and conscious about how much we do. Electronic communication may not be for everyone, but it significantly cuts down on the amount of paper we use. Every mailing generates at least 250 sheets of paper– and when we send more than one flyer in a mailing, we can easily use over 1,000 sheets of paper! So please bear with us as we continue to explore how we can reduce the paper we generate and please make sure you are checking the website, receiving our e-blasts or linked to us on facebook– while we want to be more environmentally sensitive we don’t want to disconnect! Another change involves the chemicals we use– or choose not to use! With Tim’s and our custodians John and Chris’ help we are investigating greener, more environmentally gentle and fragrance free cleaning products. While we want the Temple to be a clean, sanitary space, we also want our air, water and surfaces to be healthy for everyone who comes to Temple . All these are small steps, but ones that will help us to take good care of the Temple and hopefully, the earth, so we can pass along a safe and healthy world to those who come after us. Please join with Tim to work on our THB Green Team!
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