The First Pres Cool Campaign

Welcome! The families of First Presbyterian Church are participating in a grass-roots effort to fight global climate change, using the Cool Campaign offered by Ellen M. Wilkinson and Acterra, a local environmental organization. Our theme is Put Your Best Footprint Forward!

Who is behind the Cool Campaign? The Cool Team is your First Pres Cool Planet Working Group. We want to find out whether, if we work together and take it a step at a time, we can start to slow global climate change by changing our lifestyle habits. The program is simple. Read on to learn what to do.

What’s New? Come celebrate the end of the campaign with a special worship service at 11am and a Locavore lunch at 12:15 pm on Sunday, April 26. Click here for the new menu and for recipes from our kickoff lunch last October.

According to the results of our monthly surveys, our actions so far have saved about 80 tons of C02 emissions. Good work!! It’s never too late to respond to any of the surveys, or to change your previous responses. We will look again at all the surveys at the end of the Campaign in April. The monthly surveys are emailed to campaign participants.

How To Get Started

Step 1. Turn in a card of commitment at Worship on October 5th, or any time after that. Cards can be turned in to the office or to any Cool Team member.

The First Pres Cool Campaign Commitment Statement is:

I make the commitment to take action, over the next 6 months, to reduce my carbon footprint.
I will respond each month to a short survey about what I did.
My actions will help to reduce the threat of global warming.

Step 2. Join the First Pres Cool Campaign Yahoo Group by
a. turning in a commitment card and letting us sign you up automatically OR
b. signing up at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/fprespaCoolPlanet/ OR
c. sending an email to: fprespaCoolPlanet-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

As part of this group, you will receive occasional emails from your Cool Team and others who have made the First Pres Cool Campaign Commitment. You can share experiences and information with others in the group by sending an email to fprespaCoolPlanet@yahoogroups.com.

Step 3. Pick your challenges for this month and work to adopt them every chance you get.
There will be a new theme each month from October 2008 – April 2009. For example, click here to see March’s challenges, "Transportation".

Step 4. Take the survey at the end of the month. It takes only a few minutes and not only reinforces your efforts to adopt the challenges, it’ll give everyone a snapshot of how the community is doing! You will receive email about how to access the survey.

Tools and Information You’ll Need

Meet your Cool Team – They’ll guide you through the program via the fprespaCoolPlanet yahoogroup, the 1st Pres Press, and our website: www.fprespa.org/coolplanet. Feel free to contact any of us with any questions about the campaign.

Monthly Challenges - Can you make a few changes to your energy use habits each month?

Monthly Surveys - Find out how your community has done with the Monthly Challenges.

Other Cool Resources - Details about the Cool Campaign, global warming, rebates & discounts, and more.

Measure Your Carbon Footprint - Use this to measure your family’s carbon footprint before and after you’ve completed the program.

For more information on the history of the Cool Campaign, click here