Synagogues of all shades are fast becoming better environmental citizens

It is not often in the United Kingdom Jewish community that anything brings Liberal, Reform, Masorti and Orthodox rabbis and communities together under one roof. Just such an event happened at Kew Gardens recently when EcoJudaism held its EcoSynagogue Environmental Awards. Twenty synagogues across the denominations were recognised for what they had achieved in becoming better environmental citizens. Rabbis from all of the denominations spoke to give Jewish context to the efforts that the synagogues have expended. Spokespeople from across the regular divides shared their congratulations on the work done so far.

Each of the communities has convened an environment action team using the EcoSynagogue environmental audit to objectively measure their progress towards being sustainable in many areas.

These include synagogue management; the role of prayer and teaching in encouraging change towards sustainability; how synagogues use their land, buildings and consumables and their community and global engagement on environmental issues.

The aim is for the UK Jewish community to head towards carbon zero speedily in our days whilst still thriving and engaging its members.

In practical terms, some of the changes made by congregations seem small. Yet they add up to a consciousness of the need to do our best to preserve the environment and synagogues, aiming to be exemplars of good environmental practice, inspiring and informing their members for what they do in their homes and at work.

Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation has been part of a tree rewilding project and local area conservation projects. Members have been campaigning for unsustainable palm oil to be removed from kosher products. Nottingham Liberal Synagogue has changed its catering rules to use primarily local, organic, animalfriendly and Fairtrade supplies and is composting any vegetable food waste.

Kol Nefesh Masorti, a community without its own building, organises regular green lunches and green walks and no longer has single use crockery and cutlery. Hull Reform Synagogue has been redirecting its long-term funds to investments which are certified as environmentally and socially responsible.

Ruislip United Synagogue has replaced its ceiling so that insulation could be added and changed all its windows to double glazing. My own Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue has installed sensors to control the use of lights when rooms are entered and exited and placed prominent recycling bins in all rooms.

St Albans Masorti Synagogue has changed its electricity supplier to one which exclusively draws from renewables. Birmingham Central United Synagogue no longer buys single-use plastics and has replaced all lights with LEDs.

West London Synagogue gets a report from its recycling contractor regularly to be able to monitor what has happened to the recycling collected from the building.

Many communities carry out a number of these actions and all EcoSynagogue members are aiming to share good practice nationwide and community-wide so that every year they perform better as environmental citizens.

The driving force behind the environmental movement is embedded in Jewish values. And synagogues aim to pass on the values of their teaching from generation to generation.

It is well-known that environmental degradation and climate change will rob our next generations of their future if we do not improve and vastly and rapidly reduce carbon footprint. Though the Jewish community is small in the UK (and worldwide), it has often been effective in driving change in the world, socially and politically. Climate change is an obvious issue on which we should now be working.

Because all Jews live on the same planet, it is also obvious that we must work together to make change, hence EcoJudaism has none of the borders that often seem to divide us.

As well as being an intra-faith campaign, it is an interfaith piece of work. Churches, mosques, temples and gurdwaras of our surrounding faiths have their own campaigns which often dovetail with the Jewish campaign and from which EcoJudaism learns. Ultimately, the aim of EcoJudaism is to contribute to the necessary repair of the world, tikkun olam, for the future.