According to a Tucson Sentinel article, Tucson Churches Join Movement linking Religion, Sustainability, various faith communities in the Tuscon region are switching to renewable energy.
You can see them from the busy street: tall, wide beams towering over a parking lot, propping up a massive diagonal plane slanted toward the sun. About 100 feet away stands a 73-year-old, three-story stucco monastery.
Below the structures, Sister Ramona Varela watches as the last square solar panel is placed on the canopy. In a few weeks, she and her fellow nuns will bless the newest addition to the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration’s home: renewable energy...
The monastery, 800 N. Country Club Rd., has two Toyota Prius hybrid cars and two water wells, one below ground and one above to catch rain. Inside, the light bulbs have been replaced with energy efficient versions. On the third floor, the sisters use a solar-heated water pump for their washing machines. That water is recycled as gray water for their gardens.
A bit more on the flip.
The article doesn't just mention a specific community. Harry Krysik, a local architect, works as a consultant for the Pima County Interfaith Council to encourage renewables and green practices in various faith communities in the region.
Unfortunately, just three paragraphs into the article, the reporter reinforced the idea that normative religion equals conservative religion with the sentence, "sustainability and spirituality aren’t typically thought of together," ignoring the fact that a book with the title Sustainability: Economics, Ecology, and Justice was penned by the Methodist theologian John Cobb. It seems that even when reporters are giving liberal religion its due, they can't help themselves in reinforcing the invisibility of the religious left.
What happens on the ground in practical efforts is what is most important, of course. But given the extent to which the right wing media has pushed climate change denialism on the ideological front, it's important to note that contemporary theologians have been aware of the environmental crisis for some time. I reviewed Rosemary Radford Ruether's Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing, which was published in 1992.
Other voices include Sallie McFague, author of The Body of God: An Ecological Theology and A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming.
From a Buddhist Perspective, see Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism.
And for a handy website, see Eco Justice Ministries.