The GREENFCLYO Program

Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.
-Genesis 1:28 (The Message) 

The NFCLYO continuously looks at ways that we can be better stewards of God's creation and the gifts God has blessed us with.  In 2009, we rolled out some ways we have found to do this.  As time goes on - to the best of our ability - we hope to make some more tweaks to our ministry programs, some obvious, others not so much.  We hope this will allow for the same quality ministry while doing that ministry in more eco-friendly and sustainable ways.

Here's the changes we made:

Bottles out, cups in: We used to go through hundreds of water bottles at our events.  While we have recycled them, just by using them we were promoting the continued production of petroleum-based plastic water bottles.  That, and they make little economic sense.  In response, we no longer use water bottles, instead opting for corn-based plastic cups and reusable water coolers.  Corn-based cups (while not for hot liquid use - but we do have sustainable-material cups for that too) are made from a renewable resource (corn), don't use petroleum-based plastic, and are compostable.  This means no more oil consumption, and best of all these new corn cups completely bio-degrade in just 45 days...saving landfill space too!

Corn plasticware too:  We also use corn-based plastic forks, spoons and knives as well, with the same 45-day bio-degrade-ability.

Sugarcane-based plates and bowls: Similar to water bottles, the bowls we have been using also were petroleum-based plastic.  And even though we were using paper plates, they were produced using bleach and non-recycled paper.  Enter sugarcane-based plates and bowls...they are produced from the discarded parts of sugarcane plants in sugar refining.  Again...no more oil consumption, renewable resource use (especially of a former waste product!), and bio-degradable in 45 days.

Better recycled, chemical-free paper: We looked at the paper we have been using (every kind of paper: copy paper, napkins and paper towels) and found that the recycled content was a lot lower than we expected.  So we strive to use paper with a recycled content as high as we can find.  Another point here...the  paper we were using was produced with chemicals such as bleach and chlorine...whitening agents that are pollutants.  So we are also striving to find paper without those chemicals used in their production.

Less paper use: What if rather than seeking better paper, we used less of it?  We're going to be taking this on in the next year mainly by beginning to phase out the NFCLYO Happenings newsletter mailing.  We'll be moving to more online communication, and less paper consumption on things that are already online and seem redundant.

Wiser energy use: This area looked at how we are using energy in our ministry...from electricity use to gasoline use.  Here we are striving to be better by encouraging carpools to meetings and events, trying to reduce our power use by turning off lights, and just using plain common sense with using electronics by turning off what we aren't using.

More ideas are always welcome!
If you have any ideas or ways we can continue this process of GREENFCLYO, please email us!

Questions?  Comments?  Email the web servant.

© 2011 Niagara Frontier Conference Lutheran Youth Organization
A ministry supported by Lutheran Charities of WNY & the St. John's Lutheran Home for Children