Local environmental groups band together
By Carol Britton Meyer/ cmeyer@cnc.com
Thursday, September 21, 2006

Four local groups who support energy efficiency and share concerns about the environment have joined together to form "Citizens for a Green Future."

    Representative of the Hingham League of Women Voters, the Hingham area branch of the American Association of University Women, Old Ship Church, and the Responsible Energy Alternatives Coalition of Hingham have thrown their support behind the formation of a town-wide Energy Committee. ( See related story.)

    Buttons bearing the name of the group were passed out to the Selectmen and audience this week.

    "We applaud this effort," said LWV member Mary Jean "M.J." Shultz. In May, the League adopted the goal of "making Hingham a sustainable community" and indicated its support for measures that will help to accomplish that goal, including the "adoption of optimized energy performance standards and guidelines and energy conservation and renewable energy strategies" in both the public and private sectors.

    Every effort to reach this goal counts," Shultz said. "Even small steps do make a difference, and it’s important to take them."

    Pat Granahan spoke on behalf of the AAUW and R.E.A.C.H., encouraging energy conservation and solar power. The AAUW believes that global interdependence "requires national and international policies that promote peace, justice, human rights, sustainable development, and mutual security for all people" and advocates public discussion to ensure "enlightened decisions on these issues."

    Formed in 1978, R.E.A.C.H. is comprised of Hingham residents who are concerned about the energy future of Hingham and believes that every citizen has a role to play in this planning process. R.E.A.C.H. promotes the use of "safe renewable energy and energy efficiency, over which citizens have control."

    Old Ship Church minister Kenneth Read-Brown represented the church’s Green Sanctuary Committee. "This is just great," he said of the Selectmen’s decision to form a townwide Energy Committee. "It’s important to have an energy plan for a number of reasons."

    This year, the church passed a resolution at its annual meeting that encourages the Board of Trustees and other committees to "be as environmentally sustainable in our practices as is reasonably feasible, particularly in relation to the crisis of global climate change." This could include purchasing "green" [environmentally friendly] electricity, recycling, investigating alternative sources of energy, encouraging members and friends to be more environmentally sustainable in their personal lives, carpooling and biking or walking to church, and "strengthening our congregational advocacy for environmentally sustainable practices in our communities and nation and world."

    
Hingham Journal, September 21, 2006