| A non-profit corporation composed
of members of diverse religious communities in
New Jersey, Partners for Environmental Quality
(PEQ) works to foster ecological stewardship and
sustainability within religious congregations,
judicatory bodies and other religion-based organizations.
Currently, PEQ members represent fifteen different
religious traditions and denominations, including
Buddhism,
Christianity, Islam, Jainism, and Judaism. Since
1992, PEQ has collaborated with state, national,
and international environmental organizations to
sponsor conferences, programs, training seminars,
advocacy campaigns, publications, and projects
on a wide range of environmental and public health
issues. PEQ educational programs provide opportunities
for reflecting on the spiritual dimensions of environmental
protection as well as information about environmental
health, sustainability, and environmental justice.
The Reverend Fletcher Harper, executive director
of PEQ, preaches and teaches in various settings
on topics related to environmental stewardship.
Through its sustainability consulting services,
PEQ helps congregations become better stewards
of their land and resources while also cutting
expenditures through energy and resource conservation
and environmentally-conscious purchasing programs.
Through a new initiative called “Lighting
the Way,” PEQ is helping to install solar
panels on twenty-five houses of worship. Since
1999, PEQ has promoted the use of renewable energy
to
New
Jersey’s religious community and has successfully
urged many denominational leaders to adopt the
New Jersey Covenant of Sustainability—a
New Jersey version of the Kyoto Accord. |
| Inter-religious (Jewish
and Christian) |
United States of America
(New Jersey) |
| 1992–Present |
Partners for Environmental Quality
(PEQ) was founded by Jewish and Christian leaders
in
New Jersey after the 1992 United Nations Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro as a state-wide inter-religious
coalition on the environment. In 1994, PEQ worked
with the New Jersey Commission on Environmental
Education to develop a plan for environmental
education in New Jersey in schools and in non-formal
educational settings, and joined an inter-religious
environmental advocacy mission to the nation’s
capital. Since the mid-1990s, PEQ has undertaken
a variety of initiatives concerning climate change,
energy use, air quality, and environmental health
and justice. It helped facilitate focus groups
in religious congregations on sustainability
and energy consumption as part of New Jersey
Future’s Sustainable State project, whose
culminating 1999 report on the quality of life
in New Jersey established eleven goals for attaining
a more sustainable society. In addition to planning
a statewide or regional interfaith summit on
environmental justice, health, and stewardship
in 2004–2005, PEQ is currently exploring the
possibility of developing energy conservation
consulting
service for houses of worship.
|
| “To inspire and equip faith-based
institutions and people of faith to become leaders
in the development of an environmentally just and
sustainable society.” |
Coalition on Affordable Housing and
the Environment
Green Mountain Energy Company
Community Energy
New Jersey Commission on Environmental
Education
New Jersey Future
New Jersey Global
Climate Change Work Group
New Jersey Minority
Health Asthma Network
New Jersey Environmental
Justice Alliance
High-performance Building Design
Working Group
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
Clean Energy Council
New Jersey Deptartment of
Environmental Protection Site Remediation Advisory
Group |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
Partners for Environmental Quality,
Inc.
204 West State Street
Trenton, NJ 08608
Ph: 609.394.1090
Fax: 609.394.2199
Email:
Rev. Fletcher Harper, President
Natalie Shapiro,
Director of Programs
Eric Anderson,
Action Coordinator |
