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Enviromental activities, programs, and initiatives at St. Joans include:
St Joan of Arc's Journey to Zero Waste We are embarking on a journey to reduce the waste we generate here at St Joan’s. We began this effort at last year’s Cabaret, where we collected almost 1000 pounds of bottles, cans, paper, compostables, and yes, some trash. All of the trash fit into 2 trash bags weighing 50 pounds, for a recovery rate of 95%, while serving over 1000 people during the two nights of the event. Reducing waste, or discards, by composting keeps it out of the landfill and recycles the products back to the earth as soil. By doing this we avoid the negative effects of either burning the discards for fuel or land filling. Burning compostable materials is not an efficient source of fuel as food scraps can contain large amounts of water. Land filling can result in anaerobic digestion releasing methane, approximately 20 times more potent of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Even when methane is "captured", it is an inefficient process and much of the methane is still released to the atmosphere.
Our goal is to move toward zero waste, so please “Think before you Trash”. With the addition of organics recycling (food waste & food-soiled or non-recyclable paper), we have four receptacles for our discards. The receptacles are labeled: aluminum cans, glass, & plastic bottles; newspaper, office paper, & cardboard; organics (food, non-recyclable paper, & utensils & cups made from corn); and trash (think before you trash). Photovoltaic Cells on the Roof Solar Panels – In keeping with St Joan’s philosophy to reduce our use of fossil fuels, 16 solar panels were installed by Innovative Power Systems at the beginning of 2007 on the north-south roof above the long hallway. We are producing 10KW (kilowatts) of electricity and reducing our overall demand for electricity by about 5%. “Green” Parish Center
Green Power Campaign
Generated enough demand for more than half a new wind turbine to be built. Minnesota Energy Challenge (summer 2007)
Take the Minnesota Energy Challenge at www.mnenergychallenge.org Scientists say we are near the tipping point on being able to prevent irreversible harm to our planet. People want to know, "What can I do to help?" Energy conservation is the most cost-effective action individuals can take to reduce global warming, and the time to act is now! The Minnesota Energy Challenge walks you through easy steps you can take that not only reduce your CO2 emissions, but also save you money. We encourage St. Joan's parishioners to sign up for the challenge to lead a more energy efficient lifestyle. Follow instructions under the Take the Challenge. When choosing a team, go to Congregations, then select St. Joan of Arc (this helps us track our goal). As of August 21, 2008, St. Joan of Arc is the leading congregation with 447 homes participating, 2.8 million pounds of CO2 reduced, and $263,636 in cost savings. The average home is saving 15%. Helpful information on how to save more is on the website. Fair Trade We at St. Joan’s are familiar with the mantra ‘We welcome you wherever you are on your journey’. These sentiments can also be applied to the idea of living with more social and Janet Brown and Ann Mongoven, longtime parishioners of St. Joan’s and fellow parents and home-schoolers, were first impressed with the possibilities of promoting Fair Trade principles when their kids were involved in a youth group at St. Joan's that focused on sweatshops around the world. Called the Sweat Free SJA Youth group, it was initiated by youth who had been on an SJA delegation to St. Joan’s sister parish in Guatemala, Tierra Nueva Dos (TN2). Ecospirituality and Windpower Maybe Chicken Little had it right. The sky is falling: and the rivers are drying up or they’re flooding, and ice caps are melting; animal species are disappearing because food sources are moving too far away. For the first time in centuries people may be emigrating –not immigrating, we know about that. But emigrating; being forced from the lands they know because food and water sources are moving, changing, becoming harder to find. Will Steger, explorer, has seen the melting of the ice caps first hand. He talks about the experience and shows photos to anyone who will listen and see. Al Gore made a documentary and it has become an award contender, where he, with the aid of graphs and history, lays it all out. Some people are saying it: we have a decreasing window of opportunity to act or the damage may be irreparable and irreversible. Our planet earth is in trouble, deep trouble.
Produced movie: “Stewards of the Earth”
SJA Environmental Justice Youth Group
Earth Sunday
Restoring the land, renewing communities... Arbor Day and Longfellow/Shasta Events
CSAs Currently St. Joan's is not a drop site for CSA's because of limited
space. When we take over our school building next summer, we hope to again
be a drop site for one or more CSA's.
St. Joan's is currently a drop site for Whole Farms Coop, which
drops off a wide range of local foods year round on the 4th Wednesday of the
month. For more information and to get involved. Upcoming Events and Meetings
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Over 200 St Joans households signed up for ‘green’ power
environmental responsibility, which is the focus of the upcoming Sustainable Fair Trade Market [Details] to be held at St. Joan’s on Sunday, November 25. In fact, say its organizers, we are all learning what it means to live our day-to-day lives in ways that are considerate of the earth and in line with our values of social justice. We are doing so one small step at a time and often think we could be doing so much more. But it is those small steps, they say, that lead to big changes in our own lives, our communities and in the world at large.
Many of us, True Believers though we may be, are standing around wringing our hands, saying to each other, “Ain’t it awful, Mabel!!” But not the members of the Ecospirituality Committee. This group, small but mighty, are pressing on. They’ve picked an area out of the many concerns involved in the larger issue of global warming where they can DO something. Alternative fuel is their battle cry– specifically Wind Power. 
