The challenge laid before us was to plan to the most environmentally friendly, sustainable life-cycle event possible, given the relatively constrained budget and plethora of choices. While this was part of a simulation on “Sustainable Simchas” given as part of the sustainability programming at the Pearlstone Center, it reflected the real life concerns of several of the participants. One of them in particular was planning a Bar Mitzvah in November, and was at her wit’s end trying to make her affair greener, or even better, more reflective of her social justice values.
The Pearlstone Center itself is a well-known Jewish environmental education and retreat center near Baltimore that has a very strong sustainability component. One of the first things I noticed in the lobby was a 2011 plaque from the state of Maryland’s “Green Traveler” program. It identified Pearlstone as the first hotel affiliate in Baltimore County as a Green Travel Maryland partner. Also hanging in the display case was a note saying that the blue Pearlstone shirts were made from organic cotton. A geothermal pump and energy efficient lighting help with the HVAC and lighting requirements.
It was wonderful to be part of the Family Farm Camp 2014 community of parents looking to incorporate environmental values into how they raise their children. One very creative part of the event was how the Pearlstone staff expanded the discussion of composting beyond the obligatory compost bins and reminders to minimize food trash. The special song after Friday’s lunch was about decomposition that was accompanied by a kid-friendly explanation of the concept, and a question: Why do we compost?” My son answered that we compost to “make stuff for worms”, which is close to the truth.
Beyond the Family Farm Camp, an equally interesting part of Pearlstone’s work re: sustainability is its coordinating role for the Baltimore Jewish Federation’s (known as the Associated) Sustainability Initiative, which is now housed in Pearlstone as the Community Sustainability Department. I found this interesting because this aimed at the entire Jewish community in Baltimore, not just one of the main movements (Reform, etc). A few of the program’s components are continuous efforts to make the Pearlstone facility more green in its operations as a model to be replicated across the region, aligning Pearlstone (and other Jewish schools in the Baltimore area) with Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education standards, marketing the Associated’s Green Loan Fund as a financing source for Baltimore Jewish organizations to help with installing energy efficient lighting, and perhaps most importantly, expanding the community of people who are passionate about sustainability (and Judaism).
A small example of this community is the “Sustainable Simchas” program I attended. The people in that program were balancing specific tradeoffs to make their events more green. (Finding out about the Baltimore Green and Just Celebrations Guide as part of that program as a source of Jewish environmental perspective was a great bonus.) Going beyond that particular program and thinking of the Family Farm Camp as a whole, my family and I were able to experience a community of people as interested in (Jewish) environmentalism as we were–and that community has definitely grown significantly over the past few years.
SustainableWritings 