Download Religions: An Untapped Resource

Inspiring Progress
Getting Religions
Involved in
Product Stewardship
Gary Gardner
Worldwatch Institute
May 30, 2007
The Plan for Today
I. Religions: An Untapped
Resource
II. Religions as Movers of Change
III. Religious Assets
IV. Making the Pitch
Religions: An Untapped Resource
Growing secularism, but…
• 40 percent of Americans attend
religious services at least monthly
• Great influence on corporations
through shareholder activism
• Help shape worldviews in the U.S.
Religions As Agents of Change
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Abolition Movement
Civil Rights Movement
End of Apartheid
Debt Reduction
Climate Change
Religious Assets
Moral authority of leaders
• Political weight of numbers
• Inspirational power of scripture
• Emotive power of ritual
• Infrastructural assets of
religions
•
Religions Becoming Active
Evangelical Initiatives
• ESA—”The Noah’s Ark
of our day”
• What Would Jesus Drive?
• Climate Change
Campaign
• Use of religious language
“Environmentalist Monks”
• Religious
authorities
respected
• Creative conservation
strategy
• Use of ritual
Shipboard Seminars
• Under leadership of HAH
Patriarch Bartholomew
• Gatherings of
policymakers, journalists,
religious leaders, scientists
• Six held on major
waterways since 1994
• Captive audience that
learns together
• Tapping moral authority
Interfaith Power and Light
Moderation in Consumption
• “All things in moderation”–
Terence
• “The Middle Way”—Buddhism
and Baha’i Faith
• Many faiths have similar
teachings
Teachings On Consumption
• Baha’i Faith “In all matters,
moderation is desirable. If a thing
is carried to excess, it will prove a
source of evil.”
Teachings On Consumption
• Buddhism “Whoever in this world
overcomes his selfish cravings, his
sorrow falls away from him, like
drops of water from a lotus
flower.”
Teachings On Consumption
• Judaism “Give me neither poverty
nor riches.”
• Christianity “No one can be the slave
of two masters…You cannot be the
slave both of God and money.”
Teachings On Consumption
• Confucianism “Excess and
deficiency are equally at fault.”
• Daoism “He who knows he has
enough is rich.”
Teachings On Consumption
• Hinduism “That person who lives
completely free from desires, without
longing…attains peace.”
• Islam “Eat and drink, but waste not
by excess: He loves not the
excessive.”
V. Making the Pitch
• Religion: Not a “rented constituency”
• Sustainability: About policies and
technologies, yes, but values, too
• Religions shape values and worldviews
• So seek partners, as DOE does with
Energy Star
For More Information
www.worldwatch.org