The Climate Action Team is an active group made up of members from our temple's Building & Grounds Committee, Social Action Committee, and the congregation at large. We come together around our deep concern about, and determination to address, the imminent danger of climate change.
Climate change is a moral issue that the Beth El Temple Center community can and should act on, in accordance with the temple’s mission to repair the world (tikkun olam). Our goal is to inspire the congregation and wider community to promote clean energy and sustainability.
Did you miss our Food Justice program? Watch it right here.
Some of our accomplishments and ongoing projects:
- Explored Environmental Justice: Presentation with Julia Blatt, Executive Director of the Massachusetts River Alliance and Sara Arman from GreenRoots in Chelsea discussing how our actions affect the health of the Mystic River
- Collaborated with BEFTY on Climate Conversations: Intergenerational conversations about climate change
- Assured reuse of the curtain divider for the Zonis auditorium during its renovation
- Food Justice: linking issues of locally grown food, food donation, and the connection between food and the climate crisis. Additional resources can be found here.
- Encourage conservation and sustainability in our building and practices
- Work with clergy and the Board of Trustees to develop, commit to, and achieve an ever more ambitious and publicly visible reduction of the temple's carbon emissions, in keeping with the We Are Still In campaign and the 2016 Paris Agreement
- Educate temple members about climate change and action opportunities
- Benchmarked and continue to monitor the temple's energy usage
- Facilitate the scheduling of, and response to, temple energy audits
- Improved the temple's recycling program
- Promote the use of china dishes, durable plastic tumblers, metal flatware, and composting at temple events
- Set up a temple fundraising program to encourage member households to sign up for curbside compost pick-up with Black Earth Compost. (Click here to learn more and sign up!)
- Established the Compost Brigade to assist event participants in composting
- Explore the feasibility of solarizing the temple roof
- Co-sponsored electric vehicle informational / test-driving events with Belmont Drives Electric
- Facilitated the temple's signing on to the We Are Still In campaign
YOU Can Get Involved!
- Attend one or more of our monthly 3rd Tuesday meetings (check the BETC Bulletin or BETC-discuss email group for announcements)
- Assist in one or more of our current projects
- Join the Compost Brigade
- Stay alert about recycling when you're at the temple. Here are the Town of Belmont's Recycling Guidelines.
- Take action at an individual level
If you are interested in being a part of this important work,
please contact
To discover more ideas for getting involved, check out the following list of community, state, and national organizations:
Citizens Climate Lobby - https://citizensclimatelobby.org
Climate XChange - https://climate-xchange.org
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life - http://www.coejl.org
Concord Climate Action Network - www.concordcan.org
Food and Water Watch - www.foodandwaterwatch.org
Fossil Free - https://gofossilfree.org
Green Faith - www.greenfaith.org
Hazon - https://hazon.org
Interfaith Power & Light - http://www.interfaithpowerandlight.org
Jewish Climate Action Network - www.jewishclimate.org
Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition - http://lexgwac.org
Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light - http://www.mipandl.org
Mothers Out Front - www.mothersoutfront.org
Massachusetts Sierra Club - http://www.sierraclub.org/massachusetts
Sustainable Arlington - www.sustainablearlington.org
Sustainable Belmont - www.sustainablebelmont.net
Union of Concerned Scientists - www.ucsusa.org
350 - https://350.org
350 Mass for a Better Future - http://www.betterfutureproject.org
