“Green is the new black,” Paul Goldsmith told an interfaith crowd of over 100 people on Sept. 14 at Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park. Goldsmith is an architect with the Harley Ellis Devereax’s Greenworks Studio group and co-founder of the U.S. Green Building Council—Detroit Regional Chapter. He spoke at “Bricks and Mortar: Dollars and Sense,” co-sponsored by the Michigan Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, the Temple Emanu-El Social Action Committee, and several faith-based and energy conservation organizations.

The program provided practical information on how to build greener buildings or make existing ones more energy efficient and environmentally responsible to reduce negative effects on land, air, water and climate.

Rabbi Joseph Klein of Temple Emanu-El set the tone. He welcomed the audience and reminded them, “We are commanded to be caretakers of Creation.”

Mr. Goldsmith’s talk was briefly interrupted by a phone call. It was mother. Mother Earth. She asked him to remind the audience that a huge amount of the world’s fresh water comes from the Great Lakes, and we should do more to protect them. He urged the audience to consider the “drug addicted green carpets” that adorn the front of most suburban homes, citing stormwater runoff of pesticides and fertilizers that pollute local rivers and streams.

According to Goldsmith, the most important three Rs today are not reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, but Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. He noted that 40% of material buried in landfills is construction waste, but technologies and policies exist that can begin to slow the effects. For example, the City of Chicago has mandated that by 2007 all new construction projects must reduce their waste by 50%. “There are currently more than 5,000 buildings of various types underway using green building principles,” he said.

One of the finest local examples of sustainable renovation is the IHM Sisters’ Monroe Campus. “The Sisters believe sustainability is a moral mandate for the 21st Century and an outgrowth of our desire for peace built on justice,” Danielle Conroyd said. Conroyd, Project Director for the IHM Sisters Monroe Campus Long Range Master Plan (MCLRMP), guided the sisters through the renovation of 376,000 square feet of dining, living and outdoor space.

Some of the conservation achievements of the renovation include a geo-thermal heating and cooling system, and diverting 73% of potential landfill to other uses such as restoring and reinstalling some 800 wood windows and retrofitting more than 100 period light fixtures for compact fluorescent bulbs. Even though they added over 300 toilets, they reduced fresh water usage by half through low flow fixtures and gray water reclamation.

“The poor suffer disproportionately from environmental devastation,” she reminded the crowd. “The most important transformation is internal: how we think.”

John Sarver spoke about grants and tax credits for individuals, businesses and nonprofits using green practices. Sarver is supervisor of Consumer Education Programs with the Energy Office in the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. More information is available on www.michigan.gov/energy office.

“Temple Emanu-El’s Social Action Committee has declared global warming to be its number one issue now and forever,” said Bea Sacks of Huntington Woods. She is co-chair of the committee and helped organize the event.

Exhibitors showcased energy efficient lighting, heating and programming related to caring for the environment.

Sponsors of “Bricks and Mortar: Dollars and Sense” were the Michigan Coalition On the Environment and Jewish Life (MI-COEJL), Temple Emanu-El Social Action Committee, Michigan Board of Rabbis, Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign/Voices for Earth Justice, Michigan Interfaith Power and Light, U.S. Green Building Council–Detroit Regional Chapter, Detroit Chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and the Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network.

For more information on this program, contact MI-COEJL at mi-coejl@jfmd.org or visit the following web sites: www.energystar.gov, www.miipl.org, www.usgbc.org.