Green Team

The Mission of the Green Team Task Force (Green Team for short) is to promote sustainable practices within our synagogue community.  Our intent is to use the best scientifically verified information and practices, take into account the needs of the Beth Israel Congregation, and to be informed by our rich Jewish history and tradition.

Our activities focus on:

• Improving the energy efficiency of the synagogue buildings,
• Optimizing recycling and composting efforts in the synagogue, and
• Developing and maintaining an organic garden, the goal of which is to donate fresh produce to a local food bank.

Green Team Membership and Meetings
Our current membership includes Michael Simon and Harvey Michaels (co-chairs), Levana Aronson, Sarah Adler, Caryn Goldberg, Margaret Israel, Babette Levy, Rachel Levy, Vita Strumba, Shelly Webber, Diane Lehman, SallyGeorge Wright, Martha Young, Martha Kransdorf, Chris Merrill, Eileen Nadler, Ed Nadler, Rebecca Kanner, Leonore Gerstein, and Rita Gelman.  We meet monthly, generally on the 3rd Sunday of the month from 10:30-11:30 after minyan. The meetings are either in person at the 2010 building, hybrid, or just on zoom, to be determined by the weather.  The link will be provided in the synagogue's weekly newsletter. Please contact Michael Simon or Harvey Michaels (co-chairs) for further information about participating in Green Team meetings and activities.  We welcome all BIC members who have time to contribute as well as ideas about how to promote a more sustainable future for our congregation.

A Green Community
Our approach on the Green Team is multifaceted. With support from Adamah Detroit (formerly Hazon), we are contributing to holistic city- and county-wide climate action goals articulated through the Ann Arbor A2Zero Initiative & Ann Arbor 2030 District/Houses of Worship subgroup, and through the Resilient Washtenaw Climate Action Plan. As we take action on the issues described below, we encourage members to join our efforts moving forward.

Adamah
We are a member of Adamah (formerly Hazon) and work closely with the regional hub of this organization, Adamah Detroit. “Adamah Detroit provides unique and critical resources, coaching, support, partnership, and programming to over 40 local Jewish organizations working to integrate environmental values into Jewish life and cultivating the next generation of Jewish environmental leaders.” BIC has agreed to take action on 2-3 projects focused on greening initiatives or sustainability in each 12-month period. Sustainability grants from Adamah have helped fund an energy audit and five action items including motion sensors for the bathrooms and some LED bulb replacements. In 2024-2025, with additional funding from Adamah, we completed  the LED project replacing every bulb in the 2000 and 2010 Washtenaw buildings. We are one of the founding members of Adamah’s Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition (JCLC), a network of Jewish community organizations that recognize the existential threat and moral urgency of climate change and commit to take action. Membership gives us access to grants that have the potential to fund at least some of our energy conservation measures. 

 The International Energy Agency estimates that energy efficiency will power 40% of net zero climate goals. We also know that it is imperative to strive towards 100% clean energy as soon as possible, which is why BIC  has contracted  with Inclination Engineering to develop a whole-system decarbonization and energy efficiency plan for our facilities. This “Schematic Design” provides the road map for needed energy efficiency changes moving forward.  In 2025, a board-approved plan launched with a Mission Mishkan campaign to support its goals, including replacing insulation, roofing, roof top heating units, an additional geothermal heating unit, kitchen improvements, and new solar power units, along with other needed building improvements.  While changes to our buildings alone are not enough, we feel that we are helping to seed the cultural change needed for behavioral, economic, and technological transformation of our community. One outcome is that energy efficiency upgrades become more accessible to our neighbors, supporting community-wide climate action goals.

In summary, as we continue to transform the systems that have enabled climate change, together with our neighbors, we will see the fruits of our labor in a safer, more resilient community, and, along the way, we will see cost savings from our more energy efficient infrastructure. 

Ann Arbor 2030 District 
In 2021, BIC joined the Ann Arbor 2030 District and an affiliated subgroup of Ann Arbor Houses of Worship (HoW). The goal of these organizations is to improve energy efficiency and environmentally friendly practices across commercial buildings and HoW. The District contributed $2,500 toward an ASHRAE Level II energy audit that was performed in 2022. They also contributed $3,000 for the schematic design development mentioned above.  (See “Energy Audit and Follow Up” below.) 

Ann Arbor Jewish Community for Climate Change (A2J Climate Circle)
In 2023 we joined with other Ann Arbor Jewish Community organizations to create an infrastructure to provide leadership and to help direct Jewish community efforts to respond to the crisis of climate change.  Under the auspices of the Jewish Community Relations Committee (JCRC) a mission statement was created and sent out to all Washtenaw Jewish community organizations for their sponsorship on the last day of Hanukkah 2024.  Michael Simon is representing the BIC Green Team on this effort.  Our participation includes access to monthly climate activities within the Jewish community, published in the Washtenaw Jewish News.  We also hold  community pot luck dinners at the respective congregations.      

Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ)
Under the auspices of the ICPJ, the BIC Green Team has joined several other houses of worship with the goal of coalescing religious organizations into a group that promotes efforts to ameliorate the impact of climate change.  At this time we have agreed to meet quarterly and to provide information on useful projects that work in each congregation as well as to provide access to educational resources for all groups involved.   Michael Simon is helping to coordinate this group and SallyGeorge is the BIC contact person.

Teen Green Team

In April 2023, Green Team Members Rabbi Sara Adler and Michael Simon, together with Meg Bernstein, met with the BIRS teen class (under the supervision of teacher Mira Sussman) to create a “Psalm for the Earth”. This “psalm writing workshop” was led by Rabbi Adler and consisted of the following general areas of discussion with the goal of creating a psalm utilizing the words and feelings of the teens. 

• What is troubling the teens about the current status of climate change and environmental degradation?
• How are they feeling about it?
• What would the ideal solution look like?

The ideas coalesced into a “Psalm for the Earth”. The Psalm was read in its entirety to the congregation at the BIRS led Shabbat service in May 2023, and in subsequent Shabbat services, and was published in the summer BIC Ha-Shaliach.   The Psalm has also been circulated outside of the synagogue, it was published in the WJNB,  and is currently on the Detroit Adamah Facebook page.   

As the discussion with the teens about a “Jewish” approach to the environment continues, we hope to create our own “Teen Green Team” (see above for Adamah’s efforts to develop a BIC based organization in Ann Arbor).  This effort could incorporate many ideas and projects including grant writing for projects in the school, directed ideas for Bar and Bat Mitzvah children on how to make their celebration more environmentally friendly and to incorporate the ideas and energy of the teens into the work of the BIC Green Team. 

Annual Eco Shabbat

We facilitate Shabbat services on an annual basis utilizing a “Jewish ecological” theme. These services are generally held on the Shabbat closest to May 1.  There are also annual services held at the County Farm Park shelter, which is close to our community garden, to facilitate congregational awareness of the community garden.