This webinar will focus on how Houses of Worship can use landscaping and gardening to improve the environment and public health in and around their place of worship. Beneficial landscaping, community vegetable gardening and pollinator gardening can provide cultural, social, and environmental benefits to the faith community and help make the regional landscape more sustainable and resilient to climate change. The use of these practices also can help restore and enhance the local ecology, reduce water use and soil erosion, help mitigate flooding and reduce urban heat island impacts. This webinar will cover how these approaches and techniques can be used to meet the tenets of faith-based practice within the context of the broader community goals. A series of presenters will introduce the concepts of sustainable landscaping and provide examples of how these concepts have been implemented by the faith community. A 30-minute question and answer session will follow the presentation.
Presenters:
· Robert Goo, Office of Water, US EPA
· Rob Gladfelter, Refugia Design, Narberth, PA
· Karen Webster, Healthy Seminarians-Healthy Church, Murrysville, PA
· Jacque Salomon, Seeds to Inspire, Phoenix, AZ
· Reverend Zach Hopple, Pastor, Christ United Methodist Church, Lansdale, PA (Welcome & Introductions)
· Danny Gogal and Ericka Farrell, Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, U.S. EPA (Facilitators)