Program Details

Share your progress with FACS! Let us know how your faith community is progressing and how we can help. If you are undertaking a new project, upgrade, or event, send us details and pictures so that your action can be featured in our newsletter and serve as an inspiration to others.

Share your actions directly with your own network on social media! Feel free to download our Tree of Life Program Guide for more information and additional resources, such as our social media toolkit. Tag FACS in your social posts so that we can share them and extend your network.

Taking Action: How to Grow Your Tree

It Starts with a Seed

Sprouting Seed: Join the Network

Your seed is sprouted as soon as you join our Faith Community Network.
Once you submit the TOL Survey, you can schedule a time to meet with a FACS representative and discuss your community’s goals!

Build a Framework

A solid trunk and stable branches are the foundation for future growth:

Trunk: Form a Green Team

Find out who is interested in sustainability in your faith community and form a Green Team. This is the group that will spearhead the Tree of Life program. Connect with an existing group(s) when appropriate.

Branch: Create a Strategic Plan

Conduct an environmental assessment or energy audit to better understand where to start taking action. Learn more about energy audits in the Program Guide under Resources.
- - Step-By-Step Sustainability Planning Workbook
  - Sample Sustainability Action Plan
If your community has made the Net Zero Commitment, start by benchmarking your Carbon footprint so you can send us your annual CO2 emissions in metric tons. This will allow you to set a realistic goal for reduction. Carbon calculators can be found in the Net Zero Handbook.

Branch: Survey your Green Team

Survey your Green Team members to see where energy exists for events, interests, and environmental education. Find resources here.

Get Into Action with Leaves

Leaves don’t just provide shade and windbreaks that reduce your energy costs; they soak up sunlight and convert it into energy to feed your tree! Start filling in your foliage with these eco-actions:

Leaf: Start a Project

- - If you are in the Net Zero Track, use your energy audit to determine next-step energy projects
  - Read about the work faith communities in Fairfax are doing – develop a recycling program, go solar, or plant native plants.
  - Other potential projects include compost programs, water retention or landscape upgrades, and vegetable or pollinator gardens.

Leaf: Invite FACS to your faith community

- - Energy Justice Workshop – A one-hour hands-on workshop for faith communities that will teach participants about where energy comes from and how to confidently undertake energy upgrades in their homes.
  - Advocacy Training – An adaptable session for people of faith looking to enact good in the world through public engagement. This training will cover environmental advocacy priorities, practical tips for faith-based community organizing, and information about local initiatives.
  - Faith and Climate Talk – A one hour talk about the link of faith, the environment and vulnerable populations affected by climate change. This talk is offered for all faiths and can be adapted for any community.
  - And many more! Workshops and talks can be adapted to suit your faith tradition and sustainability goals.

Leaf: Bring Climate into the Service

- - Ask your worship leader to lead a prayer about Climate Change.
  - Have “green tips” in your weekly bulletin or monthly newsletter.
  - Ask to have a sermon centered around climate.
  - Read a passage about earth/creation care.
  - Have a FACS representative give a talk.

Leaf: Bring Climate & Sustainability into Religious Education Classes

- - Activities for Children’s religious education classes.
  - More ideas here.
  - Sustainable Eating, Healthy Foods, and Community Gardens lesson.
  - Learn about the basics of environmental issues to make your own lesson.

Leaf: Attend a FACS event

- - Signature annual events include an Advocacy Meeting in January, our Showcase & Awards in June, and the VA Climate Forum in September.
  - Keep track of upcoming events that may interest your community.

Leaf: Follow FACS on Social Media

- - You can share your impact by posting projects and tagging FACS! You will inspire other communities with your actions, and vice versa.
  - Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn YouTube

Leaf: Sign Up for our Monthly Newsletter

- - Read our past monthly newsletters for success stories and ideas.
  - Share our newsletter with members of your team.

Leaf: Watch a Video or Webinar

Expand Your Reach with Flowers

Flowers aren’t just beautiful; they support animals, pollinate other trees, and before you know it, they bear fruit! Earning flowers takes you beyond individual growth and magnifies your impact as part of a larger ecosystem.

Flower: Make the Net Zero Commitment

FACS has called upon communities of faith to join in a commitment to bringing their campuses to carbon-neutrality in advance of the UN Conference on Climate Change goal of 2050. We will work with you directly—providing resources, toolkits, and seminars—to set realistic goals for emissions reduction and energy cost savings.

- - Make the Commitment today!

Flower: Become a designated Green Sanctuary (or equivalent)

Many faith traditions already have programs in place to support their commitment to care for the earth, stewardship and respect. These programs can walk you through a certification process for your buildings, grounds, and individuals.

- - Become designated by your faith as a Green Sanctuary:
    - Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, Unitarian Universalist
  - Sacred Grounds Certified Wildlife Habitat program.
  - World Green Building Council certifications.

Flower: Play the Carbon Footprint Game (or equivalent)

Instead of calculating your carbon footprint on a spreadsheet, this fun game involves children and adults from the whole faith community. A big cardboard footprint is transformed as participants cover it with stickers of actions they have taken to reduce their carbon footprint.

- - Play the Carbon Footprint Game with your faith community. Learn and commit to changing your lifestyle to be more environmentally friendly.
  - Watch our webinar on how to play.

Flower: Donate to help FACS continue our work

Our power is in our volunteers and participating faith communities, but nothing happens without resources. When your faith community makes a donation or takes up a collection for FACS, our work and your Tree each flower.

- - Donate to Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions.

Flower: Join an Advocacy Team

FACS is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that supports specific policies needed to move Fairfax County to a net zero emissions community. Our extremely effective advocacy model is based on personal relationships at the local level. We visit and communicate with our representatives from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and our School Board Representatives. Our team-based model helps you enjoy this important part of citizenship.

- - Learn about Fairfax to Zero and FACS advocacy goals.
  - Fairfax to Zero Social Media Toolkit.
  - Join an Advocacy Team.

Flower: Attend a Board of Supervisors Meeting or Meet with Public Official

Citizens are invited to voice their views on pending matters once every six months during the public comment period of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors meetings. As part of our Advocacy Team, you will be informed of upcoming issues and FACS talking points.

- - Contact us to be a faithful voice at a Board of Supervisors meeting.
    - Faith & Climate Communications and Engagement tips
    - Why Advocacy article from Evangelical Lutheran Church
    - Faith Leader Environmental Advocacy video

Growth Stages: Recognize Your Impact!

Each of your actions will contribute to the growth stage of your Tree, from seed to sapling and finally to a Tree of Life. If you are ready, complete a survey covering actions your community may already have taken. This will determine the current stage of your Tree. When you send us updates on your progress, your Tree grows. It is our goal that every faith community will reach the Tree of Life stage as they engage with FACS and advance their commitment to caring for the earth. Here are the different stages of recognition and growth:

Choose A Track: Target Your Impact!

If your Green Team so chooses, you can designate an area of special focus by selecting a Track. While all actions taken contribute towards growing your Tree, some will also count towards your chosen Track, and you will receive additional support in this area. Upon reaching the Tree of Life stage, participants who have also completed a Track will be recognized for their targeted impact and are encouraged to plant a native fruit tree on their campus in partnership with FACS. Your community, having devoted time and energy to the Tree of Life program, will be able to watch—and taste—as your actions bear fruit.

TRACKS:	Net Zero	Climate Justice	Zero Waste	Earth Steward
Branch off into a Track	Energy Audit + Strategic Plan	Energy Audit + Strategic Plan	Team Survey + Sustainability Plan	Team Survey + Sustainability Plan
Minimum Two Leaves In-Track	Host Faith & Climate Talk or Energy Justice Workshop Watch Solar Webinar Plan Energy/Climate Sermon or Class Energy Projects or Upgrades	Host Energy Justice Workshop or Advocacy Training Plan Climate Justice Sermon or Class Attend Advocacy Event or Climate Action Forum	Watch Zero Waste Webinar Host Advocacy Training Recycling Project Compost Project	Plan Caring for Creation sermon or class Teach Sustainable Eating, Healthy Foods, and Community Gardens Course or other Food, Wildlife, or Conservation Class Habitat, Stormwater, or Garden Project
Minimum One Flower In-Track	Take Net Zero Pledge	Join an Advocacy Team Take Net Zero Pledge	Take Zero Waste Pledge	Join an Advocacy Team Designated Green Sanctuary, LEED, or other sustainability certification