Noach 5771

Parashat Noach can be read as a story of the first environmental hero: a man who took upon himself extraordinary measures to save life and preserve the remnants of civilization after a cataclysmic Flood. I have taken to studying the Noah story with children in our Religious School through the lens of environmental protectionism, and I am always impressed at our students' awareness of the dangers of climate change and our shared human responsibility in responding to it, a challenge that may indeed prove the preeminent moral issue of their lifetimes.

In that spirit of environmental sensitivity, I am offering this week a copy of remarks that will be shared with the "Let's Get Sustainable" blog recently initiated by the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism (www.rac.org), the Social Action arm of the Reform Movement. WRT was the first congregation asked to present a blog entry about our synagogue's green efforts, and I thought that it would be worthwhile to share those comments with you here, first. I am confident that members of WRT and non-members alike will learn much from the information contained in the following piece, and your comments and questions are, as always, most welcome.

Happy studying,

Rabbi Jonathan Blake

Here is the full text of the article (which may be abridged in its final published form):

It’s an honor for my synagogue, Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York, to have been asked to offer the first congregational profile in Reform Judaism’s “Let’s Get Sustainable” green blogging initiative!

Westchester Reform Temple (WRT) is a 1,200-household congregation in Scarsdale, New York, a “bedroom community” near New York City. At its present membership WRT is the largest Jewish congregation in Westchester County. When I came to work as a rabbi at WRT in July 2003, I began in a building last significantly upgraded in the 1960’s, and configured at that time to serve a congregation half our size. It was clear that we had outgrown our space: our Religious School was overflowing (over 800 students grades K-12 are enrolled) and was uncomfortably sharing space with our Early Childhood Center; our Sanctuary could not accommodate more than a couple hundred worshippers at an average Shabbat service without setting up temporary chairs; and the look, feel, and functionality of our physical plant had long since become due for a comprehensive rethinking.

As we--synagogue professionals, thoughtful lay leaders, architects and designers all acting as partners and collaborators--engaged in years of envisioning and imagining our future space, we made a determination early in the process to create a space that was not only functional, beautiful, and inspiring, but also embedded with Jewish meaning and consonant with the highest principles of Reform Judaism.

Among these principles we count sustainability and responsibility to God’s world. Concurrent with our capital campaign, we organized a Green Task Force that immediately went to work on some “low-hanging fruit,” developing a long-overdue recycling program years before we would break ground with new construction.

The biggest part of the greening of WRT, however, has taken place in the context of new construction, and thus we are presently on track as a candidate to become the largest synagogue in North America to achieve LEED certification, and only the second synagogue to do so.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is the preeminent benchmark for sustainable construction and requires systematic attention to using sustainable materials, designs, and methods throughout the construction process. We are proud of our visionary synagogue leaders--in particular WRT’s Board of Trustees--who early on, after much thoughtful discussion and debate, made our goal to achieve LEED status a core commitment of our campaign, requiring a significant investment of money, time, effort, and a significant sacrifice of convenience.

Green considerations in our building include, but are not limited to the following seven elements.

1. Local and Certified Materials

Building materials are from a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forest, using environmentally responsible forest management wood-based materials.

Materials were also purchased from within a 500-mile radius of WRT, reducing carbon emissions while supporting local employment.

2. Water Conservation

By selecting faucets with aerating delivery systems and automatic shutoff sensors, mounting low flow toilets and installing efficient shower heads, this project has reduced potable water use by 37.5% from a calculated baseline.

3. Air Quality

All the adhesives and caulking in the Sanctuary and Social Hall, from the flooring membranes to the glues used on the pews, are low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) with minimal off-gassing. The paints in the new sections of the building, including the Beit Midrash, are also low VOC, and the carpets are Green Label or Green Label Plus, the Carpet and Rug Institute's standard criteria for low emissions.

To reduce the addition of everyday VOCs throughout the building, the majority of office equipment, such as copiers and printers, has been moved to one location and our maintenance team uses green cleaning products. WRT is also committed to a 100% smoke-free environment for its employees, congregants, friends, and neighbors.

WRT also installed walk-off grills at the entrances to the building help to eliminate outside pollutants from coming into the building.

4. Reuse & Recycling

The carpets you walk on in the sanctuary, social hall and Religious School use recycled textile fibers and plastics, often found in soda bottles.

Outside the building, our concrete includes fly ash - a byproduct of coal manufacturing. The fly ash strengthens the concrete and reduces the amount of this by-product that often ends up in land-fills.

WRT used a green disposal plan during construction to reduce our impact on the local environment.

5. Heating and Cooling

WRT's sustainable design is resulting in energy savings near 5.5% below the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) baseline each year.

The new roof was designed to reflect the sun's heat away from our building and the new spaces have a high performance building envelope, including cavity walls, increased insulation and insulated glass panels. The result is more efficient heating and cooling for the building.

The team installed a new, high efficiency HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) system for the entire complex. In addition, the sanctuary uses an under-floor air distribution system creating a tempered comfort zone while not needing to heat or cool the entire volume. Since the air is distributed low in the space, the air speed is reduced, therefore reducing energy usage.

6. Alternative Energy

The new spaces were designed to create physical connections and views between indoor and outdoor areas, and since 75% of these spaces use of windows and glass to introduce daylight, the result is the reduced need for artificial light sources.

Light is also a power source at WRT. The eternal flame, above the Ark in the sanctuary, uses solar or photovoltaic (PV) cells to harness the ever present energy of the sun. In so doing we symbolically present a powerful Jewish and ecologically conscious message: so long as we care for the environment outside the temple, the light inside the temple will continue to shine.

That’s right: 100% of WRT's energy use is alternative! By purchasing energy from wind and solar farms, we are preventing 283,854 pounds (129 metric tons) of carbon dioxide emissions from being emitted into the atmosphere, the equivalent of 289,647 miles not driven by an average passenger car.

7. An Environmentally Conscious Campus

When the new site plan was developed, no additional parking requirements were created, thus protecting the existing habitat and having minimal impact on the existing eight-acre wooded site. The design also encourages alternate means of transportation to the campus by providing congregants and local users with bicycle racks and a shower in the building.

Concerned about storm-water management, the new system was designed to detain, treat, and filter watershed on site before out-falling to the Village streams and brooks. This limits pollution and sediments that contribute to flooding and erosion.

In the evening, visitors notice that our site lighting uses faceted light poles that focus light in the direction needed and emit no light above 90-degrees. These elements mean that WRT is "Dark Sky Compliant." Not only are we using less energy, but we can see the stars and have reduced the effects of unnatural lighting on nocturnal animals.

Green values continue to inform our undertakings even as construction draws to a close. This year we built an environmentally conscious Sukkah, replicating the award-winning design developed in 2009 by architecture students at Wesleyan University.

More than ten years after our initial dreams of the project began to take shape, we are presently putting the finishing touches on the Beit Midrash--the Center for Lifelong Jewish Learning--that sits at the heart of our new WRT campus. The Beit Midrash (built 2009-2010) was created in the second phase of our construction within the footprint of our old sanctuary; a beautiful new Sanctuary and Social Hall constituted the main components of the first phase of the construction (built 2007-2009).

Having engaged the services of New York-based Rogers Marvel Architects (for what would become their first synagogue project), we arranged the construction in two phases so as not to disrupt any functionality of the synagogue, which, in any given week, accommodates hundreds if not thousands of people and dozens of services, classes, and programs of every type.

Already our redesigned facility has been distinguished by an Award of Merit from the New York City American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Best in Class Award, Houses of Worship, from the 2010 Brick In Architecture Awards Competition.

Anyone who is interested in creating a sustainable synagogue for the 21st century is warmly invited to visit Westchester Reform Temple, and I or my colleagues would be happy to help you experience our congregation’s green campus firsthand.

Many blessings,

Rabbi Jonathan Blake

On behalf of the clergy, professional staff, and volunteer leadership of

Westchester Reform Temple

Scarsdale, New York