About Us
Green Sanctuary Program
Update: Concord UU achieved Green Sanctuary certification in January, 2009.
Green Sanctuaries is a national Unitarian Universalist program with the goal of developing "a new mythology for a sustainable culture." Our church is participating in this program and became a certified Green Sanctuary in January 2009.
As part of the certification process we completed a comprehensive environmental audit of the church and engaged in many environmental activities from worship to ecojustice. We are
- connecting our youth with nature
- leading earth-oriented worship services
- reducing the church's energy consumption and waste generation
- leading eco-adult education classes
- encouraging local food production
- marching for climate action and
- generally having fun while "respecting the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part" (the 7th UU principle).
We are also working with other faith-based groups and in the broader Merrimack bioregion to make the world more sustainable. The green-oriented introspection and action throughout the church community helps invigorate the soul, and we would enjoy your participation.
We may not be painting the church green, but when the church office was renovated we did use environmentally preferable zero-VOC paints. And during the growing season there is plenty of green outside, with a new vegetable garden replacing some of the monoculture grass as well as a kitchen herb garden near the side entrance. Our woods behind the church delights in every season. After the Sunday worship service pick up a reusable mug with fair trade coffee or tea and ask us about Green Sanctuaries.
More information about the national Green Sanctuary program is at uuministryforearth.org