By Elana Frank for The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development
On June 17th, four Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) staff and interns attended the Knesset Environmental Day put on in the Israeli Parliament (Knesset). We were invited by the office of the Minister of Environmental Protection, MK (Member of Knesset) Amir Peretz, and attended a session with the Israeli Union of Environmental NGOs, the Knesset`s Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, and the minister. Minister Peretz spoke of wanting to advance social justice and environmental justice with the plan of investing NIS 183 million ($52 million) towards waste management in Arab, Druze, and Bedouin communities. He also presented other plans such as harnessing the methane emitted by garbage to be used for energy, and to ban the free distribution of plastic bags; people will soon have to pay 60 agorot (17 cents) for every plastic bag they use, 50 agorot out of the 60 agorot will go to support environmental organizations.
Later in the day, we went to a Green Globes reception and event put on by the organization Life and Environment, the umbrella group for Israeli environmental organizations. The hosts presented Green Globes awards to environmental organizations or environmental activists. This year eleven awards were given out, including to the Arab-Jewish Civilian Forum in the Bet Kerem valley, Jerusalem City Center Green Not Concrete Program, Haifa Bay’s Metronit bus rapid transit system, the Green building School, Clalit Health Services, Professor Adi Wolfson, The Jerusalem Municipality’s urban nature program, and one to the Knesset for their Green Knesset initiative. Every year they also give out a Black Globe to an organization or person for doing actions that have harmed the environment, and this year it was given to the WZO (World Zionist Organization) for building 20 new communities in the Negev and Galilee regions within the green line of Israel before fixing pre-existing communities that needed help.
Green Knesset is a multi-year project will make the Knesset more sustainable by saving the amount of energy and water used in the building. The Green Knesset project has thirteen initiatives including building solar panels for energy, switching to more efficient air conditioning systems and toilets, installing sensors in rooms so that the lights will turn off, and using the heat from air conditioning systems to warm the water used in the building. The Knesset will invest about NIS 7 million ($2 million) towards this project, and they expect to see a NIS 1.5 million ($430,000) a year return from this project after five years. The Knesset has already started working on this initiative; Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein mentioned that two weeks ago the Knesset already completed the tender for the installation of a solar array that will be larger than any other parliament in the world.
The ICSD team very grateful for the opportunity to attend this event, and we cannot wait to see these ideas being implemented to create a greener Israel. To read about how the event related to World Environment Day go here: https://www.knesset.gov.il/spokesman/eng/PR_eng.asp?PRID=11309. To read the Knesset press releases on the event go here: https://www.knesset.gov.il/spokesman/eng/PR_eng.asp?PRID=11307.
