An interfaith and community forum to discuss how environmental issues disproportionately
affect people living in poverty and steps that can be taken to address these issues.

Saturday, April 21
The Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Mark
231 East 100 South, Salt Lake City, 84111
Registration opens at 9:00 AM – Program from 9:45 AM to Noon

The program is free and open to the public.
Please RSVP at www.episcopal-ut.org.
For more information, call 801-322-4131.

Moderated by Kim Lawton
Managing Editor and Correspondent for the highly acclaimed
national PBS television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

Keynote by The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church

Welcome by The Very Rev. Scott B. Hayashi
Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Utah

Panelists include:
Bonnie Anderson, President of the Episcopal Church House of Deputies, and author of Spirituality and the Earth; Exploring Connections; Dr. George Handley*, Professor of Humanities at Brigham Young University, and contributor to LDS Perspectives on Environmental Stewardship; Majora Carter, President, Majora Carter Group; Cecilia Calvo, Environmental Justice Program Coordinator, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Dr. Gerry Hardison, Chief Medical Officer, Maseno Mission Hospital, Kenya, and Episcopal Church missionary; and Jaslyn Dobrahner, Coordinator, Children’s Environmental Health & Environmental Justice Project, EPA.

*UIPL Board Chair

Gardening, Movies & a Cool Potluck for Earth Day

Spring has sprung and Earth Day is right around the corner! To help you celebrate the season and protect the Earth, we’re excited to announce that we have created a special Sow a Cool Harvest gardening kit for congregations. It’s available to order now in time for Earth Day activities. Don’t have the space or time for a garden? There are other tips you can use, like how to green your pantry or host a local farmers’ market.

C A L L  F O R  P A P E R S
“Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainability: A Call to Stewardship”
Brigham Young University – Provo, UT
Date: November 8-10, 2012

This symposium is devoted to exploring the interdisciplinary dimensions of environmental stewardship in literature and the arts, law, philosophy, science, and religion. We seek papers that critique, develop, and enhance conceptions of stewardship that are grounded in current scientific and cultural understanding of environmental problems. We encourage explorations such problems as climate change, species extinction, human/animal relationships, food production, land and water use, air quality, and other environmental and resource problems of national and international consequence. We especially welcome presentations that also develop the underlying moral, ethical, cultural, or theological dimensions of such problems. In other words, we seek papers that will provide guidelines for solutions and the justifications and methods for motivating conservation, restoration, and the goal of long-term sustainability. Moreover, we expect papers that reflect various religious, philosophical, and cultural perspectives. Confirmed keynote speakers include Margaret Palmer (Director of the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and University of Maryland), Jonathan Foley (Institute on the Environment at the University of the Minnesota), and J. Baird Callicott (University of North Texas and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy). This symposium will address questions about stewardship, conservation, restoration, and sustainability.

Please send proposals for individual papers or for panels to George_Handley@byu.edu by
June 1, 2012. Proposals for papers should be no more than 200 words and should include a
CV. Proposals for panels should include a description of the panel’s objectives and a paper
proposal and a CV for each participant. This symposium is hosted by the Environmental Ethics Initiative at Brigham Young University and sponsored by generous funds from The Nature Conservancy and from BYU’s David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and the Colleges of Life Sciences and of Humanities.

Our founding director, Rev. Canon Diana Johnson, retired in the spring of 2011 after a busy two years launching Utah Interfaith Power & Light as a fully independent organization.

We are delighted to welcome Susan Soleil as the new director of Utah Interfaith Power & Light.  Susan comes to us after a distinguished career in Utah’s non-profits, and we are excited to entrust her with our future at this time of immense opportunity.

UIPL: Tell us a little about how you came to care about the mission of Utah IPL.

I have been a tree-hugging, nature loving, environmentalist for most of my life. I am the oldest of six children, and we grew up on three acres in Sandy, Utah.  Over the years, we had horses, cows, pigs, geese and goats on that acreage.   Long before Lucille, the mother of a dozen piglets, ended up on my siblings’ breakfast and dinner plates, I had already chosen to be a vegetarian.  We roamed the fields around our house, climbed trees, and marveled at the nightly display of stars when we slept outside with cousins (back then, light pollution had not yet made its way to Sandy).  I remember family camping and hiking trips that strengthened my love of and bond with the natural places and open spaces.

By following an odd and lovely path, I have worked in the not-for-profit sector for over 20 years.  Being the Executive Director of Utah Interfaith Power & Light will allow me to combine my non-profit leadership skills with my deep and abiding love of the Earth and my desire to reduce the human impact on climate change.

I believe we humans are at a crossroads in our time here on Earth.  What we do and the choices we make over the next 10 to 20 years will determine what we leave for our kids and grandkids.  Will it be a land as beautiful, rich and diverse as the Earth we enjoy today or will we choose to do nothing and leave a colossal (and probably irreparable) mess for the coming generations?  This question motivated me to take the challenging job of directing the work of Utah IPL.

UIPL: What are the most important skills and experiences you bring to UIPL?

First and foremost, I bring passion for and commitment to the mission.   Professionally, I bring lots of skills in directing nonprofits: program development and evaluation; fundraising and grant writing; staff and volunteer coordination; grassroots organizing; board and committee expertise; business and fiscal management, and strategic planning.  I have learned important skills in every nonprofit at which I have had the pleasure to work.  At Utahns Against Hunger I learned the power of a cohesive team.  “The two Steves” and I accomplished more in seven years than any of us could have thought possible (including passing a school breakfast bill in the Utah Legislature). As the Executive Director of the Utah Hemophilia Foundation, I learned the value of community and the strength of committees.  I witnessed the impact that a small group of people can have on the legislative process and saw lives change for the better.  I learned a ton about board development and program evaluation while at the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools.  And I honed my fundraising skills at the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company.   I now bring all of these skills and insights to further the mission and broaden the impact of Utah IPL.

Utah Interfaith Power & Light is a fledgling nonprofit.  It has a terrific and committed board of directors and a membership of nearly 30 faith communities that have signed on as partners.  I guess I see it as a new garden with amazing potential.  The outgoing Executive Director built the garden boxes and made great headway with improving the soil, installing the drip system, and planting seeds.  I see myself as the next gardener.  With the help of the board, our partners, loads of volunteers, and the national organization (The Regeneration Project), I will plant, water, weed, tend, and direct the growth of the UIPL garden.  I hope it flourishes, grows and runs wild in ways that we can barely imagine right now.

UIPL: What are your goals as director of Utah IPL?

Currently, I have four main goals:

1) Establish a solid funding base for the organization

2) Help the board identify some measurable objectives and outcomes for the next 12 months

3) Increase the number of faith communities that want to partner with UIPL

4) Develop solid action plans for our partners to follow that have will have a meaningful impact on climate change

UIPL: How does your own faith tradition inform your concern for the future of the earth and its web of life?

I was raised in the LDS faith.  I appreciate the LDS lessons I learned regarding the sacredness of all life and an enduring respect and reverence for Earth.  As an adult, I moved onto to explore other faith traditions and appreciate the consistent messages they all espouse for the careful stewardship of this planet and the responsibility we share for the life it contains.

While I am deeply concerned about the future of Earth, I am not paralyzed.  My greatest faith is in the human spirit and our ability to create, innovate, and progress.  This is what makes it possible for me to get up every morning and work for change—change in thought, change in behavior, change in legislation, and ultimately change for our planet.  I believe that faith communities in Utah, and around the country, are uniquely poised to have a substantial impact at all of these levels if they will engage in this life-threatening (literally) issue.

I am eager to work with those congregations that have already pledged a partnership with UIPL and I hope to deepen that relationship as we work together to heal this most marvelous creation and gift called Earth.  Also, I want to extend an invitation to anyone else (regardless of religious affiliation) who is ready to join with us.  Please become a member of Utah IPL by clicking HERE or contact me at director@utahipl.org.

Sign Up to receive our electronic newsletter and advocacy alerts.

Commit as an individual to the mission of Utah Interfaith Power & Light.

Organize a Green Team. Utah IPL has experienced green team organizers who are willing to meet with you and other congregation members to help you start a green team in your congregation. Contact us to set up an appointment.

Become a Member Congregation. Member congregations commit to one or more actions each year and receive recognition on our website.

• Educate congregants about climate change from your faith perspective
• Celebrate creation in worship
• Conduct a lighting or energy audit
• Make energy efficiency improvements
• Purchase wind power
• Install solar panels
• Advocate for public policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a just manner

Provide financial assistance to support the work of Utah Interfaith Power and Light.

Utah IPL member Christ United Methodist Church

received a Blue Sky grant from Rocky Mountain Power for a 20 Kwatt photovoltaic array after raising $50,000 in matching funds.  Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon helped dedicate the array in September 2010.

Mayor Peter Corroon and Rev. Dr. Marti Zimmerman, Sr. Minister, Christ United Methodist Church

Utah Interfaith Power & Light members and friends seek to be faithful stewards of Creation by addressing global climate change through the promotion of energy conservation and efficiency and a shift toward renewable energy.  Member congregations act collectively and individually to protect the earth’s ecosystems, safeguard public health, and ensure sufficient, sustainable energy for all.

Interfaith Power & Light is an initiative of The Regeneration Project, founded by the Rev. Sally Bingham in 1998.  The movement works to deepen the connection between ecology and faith by mobilizing a national network of congregations seeking to make climate change a moral issue rather than simply a political issue.  Chapters in thirty-eight states now respond to this major challenge of our time by teaching stewardship, implementing energy efficiency, practicing conservation, and investing in renewable energy.

Utah Interfaith Power & Light