The Environmental Justice Team

At Fourth Universalist we are deeply committed to environmental sustainability, confronting systems that perpetuate and profit from environmental racism, and partnering with people who are directly affected by the climate collapse. 

As Unitarian Universalists, we live with an awareness of our climate crisis and the deep environmental injustices of our time. We are grounded in our Unitarian Universalist’s shared value of interdependence. We honor the interdependent web of all existence and acknowledge our place in it. 

Our work is led by our Environmental Justice Team, who can be reached at envirojustice@4thu.org. Environmental Justice meetings are held every third Wednesday. If you would like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you.

Our Environmental Justice Team helps cut down on clothes waste at our annual Spring Clothing Swap.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE GOALS

  • Educate: Share information with the congregation and others about environmental racism, climate change, food justice, plastic waste, and sustainability.  
  • Direct action: Organize the environmental justice community around marches, phone banking, letter writing, and other direct actions.
  • Partnerships: Collaborate with marginalized communities who are hit first and hardest by environmental crises.
  • Institutional change: Work with Fourth Universalist leadership and membership to create lasting, measurable impact on the congregation’s sustainability efforts.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE INITIATIVES 

NEW: Urgent Action Alert: Call Your NYS Legislators To Cut Single-Use Packaging!

  • Ongoing collaborations with Extinction Rebellion, Beyond Plastics, Environmental Voter Project, and The Center for Common Ground.
  • Annual Spring Clothing Swap
  • Annual participation in NYC Parks Mulchfest
  • Participating in phone banking and post card writing events with Environmental Voter Project
  • Participating in phone banking, and advocacy days in Albany with Beyond Plastics to pass the Better Bottle Bill and the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act in New York State
  • Collaboration with Fourth Universalist justice initiatives like Center for Common Ground postcard writing, marches and protests, activism, and advocacy events.
  • Collaboration with Fourth Universalist Religious Education 

Past Initiatives