FPC Climate Action Commitment

The members of First Parish Church of Stow and Acton acknowledge the warning from the scientific community that climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities. These emissions are causing extreme weather and pose a threat to human existence on earth in this century.  We also acknowledge that the adverse effects of climate change are often experienced by poorer peoples and communities of color in the United States and other countries even though they contribute least to its cause and are least able to cope with its effects.

Our Unitarian Universalist principles including our Seventh Principle, Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, directs us to acknowledge that humans are destroying the habitat that all living creatures, including us, need for survival and calls us to act on the personal, local, and national levels to adopt practices that will reverse carbon emission in a just and equitable way. 

Given the urgency of the crisis we face, our Congregation commits to achieving net zero carbon emission and total sustainability from all congregational activities. The state’s goal to help achieve that target is to reduce emissions statewide to net zero by 2050, and we want to lead that program by achieving it at FPC by 2035.

We are currently working across various teams to address our commitment.

Climate Task Force members are also working with others in town to raise the importance of addressing the climate crisis by ringing FPC’s bell for eleven minutes at 11AM on the 11th day of each month. Please join us.

Finally, we host a variety of other actions each year including movie and book discussions, gardening conversations and we encourage all to plant a row of vegetables for donation to area food pantries.