GREENING SYNAGOGUES RESOURCES

1. BUILDINGS

“Unless God builds the house, its workers toil in vain” – Psalm 127:1. And if indeed ‘God has no hands but ours,’ then it’s up to us to build the Godliest houses of worship we can! As filmmaker and Jewish environmental activist Judith Helfand says: “don’t just build a synagogue; build a just synagogue.”

By every measure – their numbers, how big they are, how much time we spend in them – synagogue buildings are central in the life of our Jewish community. From an environmental perspective, perhaps the most helpful and important thing we can do is to green the synagogue building itself. Ideas and resources for doing just that follow. Though our focus is on shuls, most of this material applies just as easily to other Jewish communal structures (JCC’s, Hillels, schools, camps, Federation and agency buildings, etc.), and much of it applies to our homes and offices as well. There are so many reasons why we should green our facilities:

If it was only the right thing to do for Creation – dayenu (that would be enough for us!)
If it was only the right thing to do for other people, now and in the future – dayenu
If it was only going to help our institutions save on their energy bills – dayenu
If it was only simple to do – dayenu
If it would only help stop global warming – dayenu
If it was only to leave a positive legacy – dayenu
If it was only how we lived out our Jewish values – dayenu

Numerous synagogues – across movements, regions, demographics, and sizes – have already made a meaningful difference for the Earth through their buildings. To learn about what’s been done in congregations like yours, and how the experiences of these other communities can help inform your own choices, click here to view a document presentation on green buildings that includes a case study of one New Jersey synagogue which paid off its initial environmental investment in less than two years, saving money as well the Earth every moment thereafter.

Below you will find numerous resources to help your congregation to build green. Make good use of them! And please let us know what you’ve done, and how COEJL can help further.

General Resources:
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Conducting an Institutional Environmental Audit
A Jewish Foundation for Ecological Building

Energy Savings:
Why Energy is a Jewish Issue
EPA’s & COEJL’s best ideas
Energy Audit
EPA Energy Star Congregations Program
Green Power
The Difference We Can Make

Construction, Renovation, Building Materials:
Talking Points, Strategies, Texts and Values (Or How To Convince Folks)
   One Pager on Best Design Practices
Green Architecture Resources
Existing Green Structures
   Bethesda MD
   Evanston IL
Wood
PVC / vinyl, and its alternatives
   Vinyl and Judaic Texts
   Blue Vinyl movie flyer
Kitchen
HVAC (heat-vent-air-conditioning) system
Passive Solar Energy

Click here to see what synagogues like yours have already done, and to learn from their stories.

Click here to offer feedback: tell us what you were looking for, if you found what you needed, and what you’ve done with the information – this helps us make the site more useful for others, and helps our partners and supporters know how helpful these resources are. Please help us by letting us know!