Green Team
Council Members
Gail Kendall
Erica Mokrani
Luis Fernandez
Sarah Crovello
John Van Hagen
John Newman
Fr. Mike Kwiecien, OCarm
In his 2015 Encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis recognized global climate change as "one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day." Scientists agree that the impacts of global climate change are typically felt “first and worst” among the poor and those least able to adapt, increasing social injustice worldwide. St Teresa Parish's Green Team works to reduce emissions through renewable energy and energy efficiency and to report our results annually since 2015. In each of our weekly bulletins, the Green Team provides tips on environmentally-friendly actions we all can take. St Teresa of Avila's parish traditionally observes Earth Day each year on "Good Shepherd" Sunday (3 weeks after Easter).
Thanks to the hard work and efforts of our Green Team, St Teresa of Avila is an Energy Star Certified Building. ENERGY STAR is the government-backed program for certifying energy-efficient buildings. St Teresa of Avila is also a certified Cool Congregation. The Certified Cool Congregations have jointly prevented over 1,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere every year. This is the equivalent of not burning one million pounds of coal every year.
Interested in helping our Parish climate action initiatives? Green Team Meetings are on the first Tuesday of every month at 5:30pm.
