First Parish in Concord

Green Sanctuary Group

First Parish > Green Sanctuary

Join Us in Following the Low Carbon Diet 

Green Sanctuary is adopting the Low Carbon Diet program outlined in David Gershon’s book Low Carbon Diet:  A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds.  This initiative is also being promoted by the Concord Climate Network, which hopes to have as many as 1,000 Concord families reducing their carbon footprint.  Many faith organizations have taken on the challenge; and now our Green Sanctuary Committee is calling on members of First Parish to join them. 

How does it work? A group of households comes together to give each other encouragement and support.  First each household calculates its own carbon footprint, and then, working together, they look at ways to reduce that footprint as much as possible.  This may sound like a difficult task, but Gershon has identified many easy and painless ways for us to be more conscious of our impact on the environment. 

For instance, in a 2-car household, we can try to use the vehicle that gets better mileage for all family outings.  Since up to a third of fuel can be used in idling, plan your trips to minimize sitting in traffic.  Lighten your car’s load as much as possible.  Use cruise control.  If you are stopped for a minute or two, turn off the ignition, which is more efficient than idling.  For each new habit a household adopts, Gershon awards them points to help reduce their carbon footprint. 

This is an activity for the entire family, helping us to raise our own awareness while teaching our children to be more responsible than their elders have been in the past.  A household may not choose to adopt all of the carbon reducing measures, but every household can considerably reduce its impact.  By working with friends and neighbors, we may even come up with some new ideas to help the planet! 

A Sunday afternoon LCD group is now being formed, and is expected to be launched by mid-May. The group leader is Peter Nobile. If you are interested, contact Peter at Peter.Nobile@gmail.com.  You can also contact Bob Andrews at Bob.andrews3@verizon.net to learn about other groups you might join. 

For more information concerning the Low Carbon Diet, check out the Empowerment Institute website at www.empowermentinstitute.net.