May 20, 2026
May 2026 By Sharon Smaller and Chris Wynn
In April, we celebrated our Mother Earth during Earth Week. We hope you found a meaningful activity or read something that caused you to pause and appreciate all that Mother Nature has to offer us and why it’s important to love her back. If you feel you missed out during Earth Week and would like to continue to help our planet, we have a couple of events and some ideas for you.
On Monday, June 1 at 7:00 pm we will be holding a zoom book club discussion with members of various Evanston-based houses of worship. We are reading The Problem With Plastic by Judith Enck. Ms. Enck is the founder and president of Beyond Plastics, a national nonprofit based at Bennington College in Vermont that is dedicated to ending plastic. Even if you don’t have time to finish the book, please feel free to join the discussion. Here’s the Zoom link for the Problem With Plastic book discussion. The book is carried at some of the local libraries or you can order your book on the website: Beyond Plastics – Working To End Single-Use Plastic Pollution. This is a fantastic website filled with lots of resources and information.
After the book talk, we will email a list of simple things you can do to eliminate some of the worst plastics from your day-to-day life.
Then on Thursday, June 4, 7:00-8:00 pm, Beth Emet’s Dayenu Circle will be hosting a hybrid (in person and zoom) presentation on solar energy with T. Manning of Climate Action Evanston. The primary focus of his presentation will be solar without panels, which is also known as community solar. Not only is T. Manning knowledgeable about solar energy and how to make your home more energy efficient, he is a lively and enthusiastic speaker who is committed to helping nontechnical people understand how they can reduce their carbon footprint by switching from fossil fuels to solar.
Here are some quick tips we would like to share with you:
● Signing up for solar without panels is easy to do. If you can, please bring a recent ComEd bill to the presentation.
● Switching to solar without panels will not cost you more on your electric bills, but in fact will save you a bit of money on your electricity.
● Reducing carbon emissions by helping to generate solar energy vs energy derived from fossil fuels is one of the best actions you can take to help the planet.
● ComEd will still send you your bill and provide customer service-only the supplier of energy will change.
And here are a couple more things to know:
● You don’t have to attach solar panels to your house or property. There is absolutely no equipment involved.
● Also, did you know that Beth Emet has saved thousands of dollars in 2025 by signing up with solar without panels? Chris also subscribes to a provider of solar without panels and has saved a few hundred dollars over the last few years. But the primary reason for making the switch is to take advantage of renewable energy to reduce your carbon footprint.
Sooo…what are you waiting for? It’s easy, saves money, and helps the planet.
We hope you can make it to both or either of these upcoming informative events!
