Ideas for update to BUC climate action plan

The BUC Church Council will be reviewing our Climate Action Plan, so in early May the Climate Action Group asked the congregation to respond with their ideas.
When you were asked for ideas on what new things would you like to see our church doing to enhance the way we collectively care for God’s creation, you responded:
  • Better education at all levels
  • Advocate to government to keep adding carrots and sticks for industry (especially mining) to clean up.
  • Try to repair church property instead of replacing
  • Get more solar panels
  • Get a battery
  • Replace gas heaters with electric
  • Encourage knitting group to make more “Climate Scarves”.
  • Have moments of meditation where we can listen to the Earth
  • Split system in Hall for heating/cooling (and church)
  • Children led projects in which they rope in adults
  • Lobby for more reliable (timing) for public transport (trams, buses, trains) so that members can come to worship on public transport. Unhappy public transport customers are more likely to use a private car.
  • Car-pooling for Sunday worship (pastoral care?) This could be a potential tertiary student project to set up an online system.There are many side benefits (social, connection, accessibility)
  • Develop practices to enable members to learn about and engage with the natural world in the places they live and work. Develop a practice of “loving Country” through a deeper understanding of the inter-relationship of the creatures, geology, geography, and history of where we are.
  • Begin a conversation around how indigenous wisdom can help the way we do civilisation. Especially how we understand Country as our teacher, how all things are inter-dependent, and how attention must be given to care of the whole rather than just following our own individual aspirations so that all might thrive.
  • Knit scarves for Climate Change and give to our local politicians.
  • Develop a relationship with a congregation where energy transition is having an impact. For example Traralgon in the Latrobe Valley (Rev Heather den Houting)
  • Develop relationships with a Pacific Islander congregation which is striving to protect their country of origin from the effects of global warming.
  • Encourage more advocacy actions with ARRCC
  • Instal a battery and more solar panels
  • YUCY clean-up day at a beach or a park
  • Start a “freecycle” group
  • Help address the feeling of helplessness about how to change government policy.
  • Change BUC Banking System to either Bendigo Bank or Bank of Australia – to stop supporting banks which fund fossil fuels
  • Focussed pressure on one or more big companies and Government policy.

And when you were asked in what ways could our church help each of our members care more deeply for God’s creation in their daily personal lives and in their own households, you responded:

  • Could BUC provide an advice team to help households plan the replacement of gas appliances and other energy savings and emissions reductions?
  • Encourage members to consume less, consume more thoughtfully, and consider borrowing, sharing, reusing, and recycling. Develop a Reduce, Borrow, Reuse, Repair, Recycle approach. For example: Maintain and repair products, like clothing, tires and appliances, so that they won’t have to be thrown out and replaced as frequently. Borrow, rent or share items that are used infrequently, like party decorations, tools or furniture. Reuse what you can’t reduce, repair what you can’t reuse, and recycle what you can’t repair.
  • Conduct “Living the Change Workshops” in the areas of Transport, Food, Energy use at home, Investments and Super, Waste and Plastics