Our Guide to Environmentally Friendly Choices for Events and Parties
Dear Friends,
Mazel tov on your upcoming simcha, and thank you so much for taking a few minutes to look through this guide.
Our goal is to help our congregation think about how to have a
party while keeping our precious natural world in
mind.
We like the
idea of “reduce, reuse, recycle” as a guiding principle, to inform
many of our decisions as we
welcome, feed
and entertain many
guests. In planning your special event, ask yourself, “What can we
do
differently to lessen the
environmental impact of our
celebration? How much paper are we using for invitations and
responses? Could plants or
reusable items take the place of cut
flowers? Can leftover food be given to shelters
or soup kitchens?”
If all of us make
conscious choices to reduce, reuse and recycle it
will make a big difference.
We want to be clear that this is not intended to be a
comprehensive guide to environmentally-friendly event planning.
Not
every suggestion is going to work for every event. We are hoping to
spark some ideas and inspire you to make
some decisions with the
environment in mind.
We also encourage you to
think about celebrations that you have shared with friends
and
family members. What
do you remember most? In very few cases, it may be the
amazing
ice sculpture or the glorious flower arrangements
on the tables. We find that
most often
people remember the
intangibles – the joy, the people, the love, the
togetherness, the fun…
in short, the feeling of the event rather than
the decorations or
the other things that are
disposed of the next day.
Finally, we want to acknowledge that sometimes going the more
eco-friendly route
means
going the more expensive route. Cost
certainly is a major factor in party
planning, and there
may be some
great ideas that put too much strain on your
budget. But it’s not
an all or
nothing proposition. You can find a way to
incorporate a few green ideas into your special
event and still have a positive
effect
on the environment.
Paper vs. plastic is just a starting point. This guide is one
way to start a conversation
at
Temple Shalom. Let’s see how we, as
a community, can look at our choices and
do a few
things
differently. As we celebrate the milestones of our loved ones,
let’s
think not only of
this special day in their lives, but also of
the future earth that they and
their children will
inherit.
We can make a difference, one party at a time!
Temple Shalom’s Environmental Action Group
A Quick But Important Disclaimer
Please note that throughout this guide, we list a
number of different websites, stores, vendors
and other product or
service providers, as well as a number of nonprofit organizations.
We
have compiled this information based on many
sources, but members
of the committee have
not worked with all of these people, shopped
at all of these sites, used
all of these products
or specifically researched all of theses nonprofit organizations.
A mention in this guide in no way implies an endorsement or recommendation from this committee or anyone else at TempleShalom.
Please do your own “due diligence” -- research and reference checking -- when choosing people to contract with or products to purchase for your event.
