God saw everything God had made, and behold, it was very good.

Genesis 1:31

About the National Interfaith Power & Light Campaign

The Interfaith Power and Light effort began in San Francisco, California in 1998 with Episcopal Power and Light and the support of Grace Cathedral as a unique coalition of Episcopal churches aggregated to purchase renewable energy. In 2001, they co-founded California Interfaith Power and Light, which helps people of faith in California to organize and promote positive environmental change around energy and global warming. Known at the national level as The Regeneration Project, work is under way to establish Interfaith Power and Light programs in every state. There are now Interfaith Power & Light affiliates in 38 states and the Washington, D.C. area, working in over 10,000 congregations.  
 
About North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light

In May of 2000, the North Carolina Council of Churches joined the Eco-Justice Working Group of the National Council of Churches and partnering organizations representing Jews, Moslems, Roman Catholics and others, to establish Climate Connection: Interfaith Eco-Justice Network. In 2005, Climate Connection became the 16th state affiliate of the national Interfaith Power & Light Campaign. In January 2007 our name was changed to North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light (NC IPL). We've held programs in almost 200 congregations in North Carolina and conduct regular outreach to more than 800 congregations and several judicatories. The mission of NC IPL is to work with faith communities in North Carolina to address the causes and consequences of global climate change, and offer practical solutions, through education, outreach and public policy advocacy.
Through developing understanding we explore the scientific, spiritual, and social dimensions of the ecological crisis. 
Through reflection we nurture reverence and wonder toward the Creation and our interconnected Earth community. 
Through action we apply these understandings and reflections in the conduct of our lives, as individuals, families and congregations.
Through advocacy we work for public policy that supports the health of the Earth's ecosystems and that serves justice and respect for all life.
 
About the North Carolina Council of Churches

From efforts on behalf of farmworkers, to encouraging the protection of God's earth, to exposing racism within the criminal justice system, the North Carolina Council of Churches is at the forefront of progressive social issues that go to the heart of whom God would have us to be. By drawing together members of 16 Christian denominations in this work, the Council also serves our other key focus, Christian unity. While the Council is itself overtly Christian, many of the committees and task groups are interfaith, including members from non-Christian faith communities. Several committees also include members of Christian denominations which are not part of the Council of Churches. Through this work, we live our motto: Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice. The North Carolina Council of Churches is comprised of 27 distinct judicatories from 18 denominations. Across the state, our members have over 6,200 congregations with about 1.5 million congregants.

Council Position on Automatic Rate Hikes - March 2011        Council Position on Global Warming - September 2007           

NC IPL Staff

Kathy Shea, NC IPL Co-Director

Dr. Katherine SheaKathy Shea is a board-certified pediatrician, board-eligible in preventive medicine, and has specialty training in environmental health sciences. She is on the adjunct faculty at both UNC and Duke and has taught courses at the UNC School of Public Health, UNC Medical School and at Duke in the Nicholas School for the Environment. Her undergraduate degree in mathematics is from Brown University, her medical degree is from the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, and she holds a Master of Public Health in environmental sciences and engineering from UNC-CH. She served three terms on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Environmental Health and currently works part-time as a staff physician at North Carolina State University’s Student Health Service. In addition to her clinical work, Kathy has worked as a consultant and professional volunteer, writer and lecturer on children’s environmental health capacity-building and policy for the past 15 years for organizations such as the World Health Organization, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Environmental Defense, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Toxic Free North Carolina. Kathy has been working with her local church, United Church of Chapel Hill, on environmental theology and earth stewardship for over 10 years.
Susannah Tuttle, NC IPL Co-Director

Dr. Katherine Shea

Susannah Tuttle joined the staff of NCIPL in August 2011. She received a Masters of Divinity degree from Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. Her work at the GTU focused on three different interrelated levels of human existence: Educational/Philosophical, Institutional/Physical-Structural, and Communal/Bioregional. Upon graduation she was hired as UNC Chapel Hill's first Sustainability Research Associate. She continues as co-founder and partner in Trace Collaborative, LLC a consulting firm specializing in the implementation of sustainability within the design and construction industry. Susannah is a founding member of HistoricGreen, a national nonprofit transforming and revitalizing communities through education and charitable activities that integrate sustainable design and heritage conservation practices. She recently served on the Board of Directors of the NC Triangle Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

 Richard Fireman, Public Policy Coordinator

Richard FiremanRichard Fireman has been a dedicated volunteer with NC IPL since 2005, when he helped organize Caring for Creation of WNC and joined our Steering Committee. He was the founder of the Green Sangha of WNC, a Buddhist social and environmental justice community. As a student of Father Thomas Berry and deep ecology, he believes that humanity is poised on the cusp of either continuing a death spiral into cultural and ecologic collapse or a transformation of human society into a life enhancing age, named the Ecozoic Age by Berry. This will entail not only a reinvention of the conventional human institutions such as business, government, education, law, and medicine, but a transformation of the human spirit. He believes that our joy, passion, determination, and creativity are fully capable to create a sustainable earth democracy, in which the rights of all beings, both human and other than human can fulfill the highest potential of their evolutionary capacity.

 

Allison Scherberger, Volunteer Coordinator

Allison Scherberger graduated from Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment  in 2011, where she received her Masters in Environmental Management (or Managing  Human use of the Environment, as she likes to phrase it). At Duke, Allison most enjoyed studying the social and spiritual aspects of conservation, as she believes that social norms, spiritual values, and moral systems critically affect  the environmental issues we face today and will face in the future. Before coming to Duke, Allison studied Ecology and Biodiversity at Sewanee: The University of the South. It was at Sewanee that Allison realized she could make a career out of her passion, caring for and being in the natural world. Allison most recently returned from a summer in Ecuador, where she explored practicing permaculture at different organic farms. Allison is thrilled with her new position at NC IPL, as she feels this opportunity brings together so many of her personal and environmental goals and beliefs.

Carl W. Sigel, Chair, Steering Committee

Carl W. Sigel spent his professional life in the pharmaceutical industry.  Now retired, he is deeply committed to nonprofit organizations that focus on community service, youth education & development, and social justice. At the Church of the Nativity, for the last seven years, he has been Co-director of the Faith & Science Dialogue, a group that explores the nexus between religion and science. With a lifetime interest in sustaining the Creation, he is a member of several environmental groups and a volunteer for North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light.
Complete list of NC IPL Steering Committee Members

If you’re interested in any of our program offerings and services, please contact us at info@ncipl.org.

North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light
c/o NC Council of Churches
27 Horne Street
Raleigh, NC  27607
Phone: (919) 828-6501
Fax: (919) 828-9697