GREENING SYNAGOGUES RESOURCES

Greening Synagogue Statement From Traditional Congregation, St. Louis, MO

As of July 8, 1999, the Traditional Congregation Board of Directors passed a unanimous resolution declaring that Traditional Congregation would strive to be a Green Synagogue. To fulfill this mandate, the Congregation instituted the following:

• Incorporate environmental issues into the “Chesed” Social Action Committee agenda.
• Incorporate environmental concerns into the mission statement for the congregation s Jewish Heritage Center Hebrew School.
• Provide a representative to the Jewish Environmental Initiative so as to coordinate programming and participate in the spring and fall communal plantings by the JEI.
• Sponsor a yearly Tu B’Shvat celebration for the Congregation and for the residents of a local nursing home.
• Provide special Judaism and the Environment programming for the Hebrew School.
• Provide periodic environmental articles in the Synagogue monthly bulletin.
• Provide for a recycling bin on the parking lot which collects more than one ton of mixed paper every month.
• Provide recycling bins in kitchen facilities so that the Sisterhood can recycle plastic, glass and aluminum/steel cans from the weekly kiddush.
• Plant an organic “Mitzvah Garden” on the synagogue grounds with the produce given to the St. Louis Food Pantry.