Welcome to Unitarian Universalist Society East
Sunday Services at 9:00 and 11:00
Sustainable Living & Climate Action
UUSE is committed to ongoing efforts to save our planet through green action. We are a certified Green Sanctuary.
Green Sanctuary News
October 2026
The Sustainable Living Committee invites you to participate in several upcoming events:
Sunday, Sept 27th at 1:00 pm, join us in room 3 and again on Oct. 4 in the children’s chapel, in writing postcards to encourage occasional voters concerned about the environment to VOTE in the upcoming elections. Everything will be provided thanks to Carole Tenny and Third Act’s CT Defending Democracy Team. Get the poster here.
The Chapter 2 version of the Climate Future Film Festival will be shown at UUSE on Sunday, October 18 at 2:00 PM. This new collection of 12 short films from around the world explores the interior response to climate change - visceral, personal, artistic, and emotional. Whether or not you have seen the original, chapter 1 set of films, shown here in Sept. 2025, you will be moved by these powerful short films to renewed action to fight the causes of and mitigate the harms done by climate change. Come early to share info and conversation before the films begin. The films run for two hours, including a short intermission.
An ironic result of the rising prices of oil due to the war with Iran is explained in this interesting article in the free newsletter Yale Climate Connections at https://yaleclimateconnections.org/newsletters/ “We’ve got an Accidental Carbon Tax” You may recall that we had a chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby at UUSE for several years 10 or 12 years ago started by our Sustainable Living Committee, and we held programs and received a unanimous vote at a congregational meeting to support a bill to place a rising price on carbon. The proceeds would be returned to the people based on income, supporting lower-income people and incentivizing everyone to move towards clean energy. Well, we never got that bill passed, though we did help get the major Inflation Reduction and Infrastructure Acts passed during the Biden administration. Now we have a war-forced carbon tax, but it provides no help for lower-income people. It will certainly incentivize some movement towards clean energy, but it is also causing increased drilling for oil and gas and burning coal around the world.
Perhaps you can get help for rising fuel costs by getting a heat pump or mini-splits to help heat and cool your home. I am grateful for my mini-splits and my plug-in hybrid car, which rarely needs gas for around-town traveling. You may find some energy-conservation ideas at https://www.energizect.com/.
Some good news from Manchester is that along with three recently fully renovated schools, our brand-new library is also a net-zero energy building.
~ Janet Heller
Don’t forget, the Sustainable Living Committee sells Equal Exchange products on the 2nd Sunday of the month. Help support small farmers who grow sustainable products!
Go Solar!
The Sustainable Living Committee is thrilled to report that UUSE has contracted with Connecticut solar provider, Savkat, to resume our popular solar program! Savkat has agreed to donate $25 to UUSE for every appointment and $1,000 for every signed solar contract. The program begins immediately, and is available to all UUSE members, family, and friends. Just tell them you were referred by UUSE!
We will be hosting several informational sessions with our Savkat representative on Sunday mornings during coffee hour to answer any questions congregants may have. If you're interested in learning more about getting solar installed, you can make an appointment at this time.
Already know you want to reduce your carbon footprint by installing solar? You can contact our Savkat representative, Jordan Bernstein, right away! His contact info is below.
Thank you for caring about our planet!
Jordan BernsteinLead Manager
203.441.7961
Schedule a Meeting
Green Actions You Can Take
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Join our ecological landscaping team
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Help with recycling and composting
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Help sell "Fair Trade" coffee, tea, and chocolate after Sunday services
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Help with the annual organic veggie garden
About the Green Sanctuary program
UUSE has been a certified Green Sanctuary congregation since the spring of 2006. The Green Sanctuary program was developed and begun by the UU Ministry for Earth for UU congregations. The program at UUSE was led by the Sustainable Living Committee with approval and involvement of the policy board, staff, various committees and the full congregation. Goals and projects were developed in four different areas: worship, religious education, sustainable living and social/environmental justice. Our Action Plan for 2005 included 15 different projects, heavily focused on our response to global warming. It included implementing recommendations from an energy audit, starting our children’s organic vegetable garden program, starting recycling and composting programs, working with other state and local organizations on common goals, and much more. The congregation-wide support and success of the program led us to seek out the greenest way we could afford to implement our planned building and expansion project.
Between 2007 and the spring of 2010 we were deep into the planning, fundraising for and implementation of our building project. The Growth of the Green Sanctuary Program allowed it to become a project of the UUA. And by 2011 we were encouraged to apply for Re- accreditation. Our application for Re-accreditation included various projects in the areas of worship and celebration, religious education, sustainable living, and active environmental justice efforts, such as helping to pass CT’s first environmental justice law, working with local groups to start school and other community gardens and to help low-income residents benefit from CT’s Home Energy Solutions program. We documented all the work done in the UUSE building project including energy conservation work, the geo-thermal system and eventual solar panel system, and Energy Star certification with a 98% score in 2013, as well as various ecological landscaping projects. On February 17, 2013 we received the notice we were awarded Green Sanctuary Recertification. We were encouraged to continue our efforts to become a net zero facility and continue with our outreach and advocacy work.