The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) seeks to scale its work by engaging in the following channels of action:
- Launch the Interfaith Greening Jerusalem Houses of Worship Project, in collaboration with World Resources Institute. This Project will engage a church, a mosque and a synagogue in Jerusalem on a two-year greening process. With the help of environmental consultants, the Project will assess the ecological footprint of participating houses of worship, and help these institutions create and implement a plan to improve their environmental impact and their teaching and preaching on religion and ecology.
- Fund a feasibility study for the Mozambique project of our Faith Inspired Renewable Energy Project in Africa. This project involves an Anglican diocese of Niassa province, Mozambique, together with the renewable energy company Gigawatt Global, to deploy a commercial solar field on church lands. We would also expand collaboration with Catholic institutions to collaborate on solar fields on their lands.
- Launch the Growing Together Women’s Interfaith Ecology Project, which will empower women educators from East and West Jerusalem schools to create vertical classroom and school gardens. Joint workshops will build a platform for promoting sustainable nutrition and renewable energy options within and beyond their classrooms. The project will also improve collaboration and partnerships among Muslim, Jewish, and Christian women, both Israeli and Palestinian.
- Expand our work in Thought Leadership and social media engagement. We would expand engagement on our religion and ecology blog, YouTube channel, and Facebook and Twitter posts. Doing so would lead to greater impact in raising awareness and promoting behavioral and policy change.
- Engage in resource development for a Faith Earth Center in Jerusalem. The Center would be a destination for residents of, and visitors to, Jerusalem, and a venue for Christian, Jewish and Muslim school trips. This Center would also be a leader in sustainable practices such as recycling and vertical garden workshops. It would offer faith-based ecological workshops for seminary students.
- Organize an Interfaith Climate and Renewables Conference in Jerusalem, in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame’s Tantur Jerusalem campus and the Swedish Theological Institute. Religious leaders would urge faith communities to mitigate climate change and promote renewable energy use. Presentations by scientists will describe the current impacts and imminent dangers of climate change to the region.
Rabbi Yonatan Neril, Founder and Executive Director, ICSD.
For more details on any of these projects, please contact us.