Can A Building Be Born Again to Help Save the Earth?

FCNL office after being renovated as a "green building." Photo compliments of Friends Journal.

Soon after Jill and I started our new life as a married couple in 2001, we went on a Quaker tour of the East Coast, visiting Friends Center and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) office in Philadelphia, Fallsington (a quaint Quaker village near the upper Delaware River), a Quaker center for study and contemplation called Pendle Hill, and finally the office of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) in Washington, DC There we were warmly welcomed and proudly shown around by their chief lobbyist and my old friend Jim Cason.

Jim told us about how FCNL had occupied these offices at 245 Second Street NE since 1959, when FCNL purchased and refurbished a Civil War‐era row house and former grocery store down the block from the Senate Hart Building. Forty years later, in 1999, FNCL began a renovation that could also be described a rebirth.

FCNL not only seeks to end war, it also seeks “an earth restored” by advocating for environmental legislation.

We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.

We seek a society with equity and justice for all.

We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled.

We seek an earth restored.

--Mission statement of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)

This is a profoundly spiritual mission, grounded in our Quaker belief that there is that of God in everyone, including all living beings. Guided by Spirit, FCNL made its office a model of green building—a “Place Just Right” (to use a phrase from the old Shaker hymn).  In fact, FNCL became the first LEED‐certified green building on Capitol Hill. [LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system.]

Jim proudly told us about its environmentally friendly features: a sedum‐covered green roof that absorbs rainwater and heat (and can be seen from atop the nearby Hart Senate building); bamboo floors, a material far easier to replenish than traditional hardwood; and energy‐efficient windows that, unlike those of most office buildings, can be opened to let in fresh air. The building is heated and cooled by a geothermal system that helps stabilize the building temperature throughout the seasons and reduces the need for fossil fuels.

Jill and I were blown away by how FNCL put its faith into practice. We felt this was truly a spiritual as well as architectural transformation. We were especially impressed by the symbolism of “light scoops”:

[FCNL’s] rooftop “light scoop” both conserves energy by bringing daylight into the core of the building and serves as a visual representation of the Inner Light. Walking into the building, FCNL staff and visitors are reminded of the importance of looking for the Light within all.” [Beth Hendricks, Friends Journal, Aug 1, 2016.]

Jill and I came back to Pasadena profoundly inspired by what we had seen and decided to follow FCNL’s example. We installed a “light scoop” in our living room (not far from where we have our “prayer chair” and meditate). We installed a “cool roof” on our home that conserves energy. We installed solar panels and a gray water system. We replaced our turf with decomposed granite and drought-resistant plants.

As we embarked on this adventure in green living, our home felt as if it were “born again,” to use a phrase from the Gospel of John (3:3).

Being “born again” is a joyful experience, like having a baby, and we wanted to share our renewed home with friends and neighbors. We gave tours for hundreds of people who have gone away inspired by what we have accomplished: we have reduced our electrical use by over 80% and our water use by over 50% and we are living more abundantly than ever.  We have over two dozen fruit trees and a vegetable garden that yield hundreds of pounds of fruit and vegetables each year. Every season of the year yields us a rich harvest of food as well as flowers that adorn our home.

Can a building be reborn? I believe it can, because Spirit is present everywhere and in everything. As we find new and fun ways to be eco-friendly, our reborn home feels more in harmony with the earth and with our neighbors. But we feel that this is just a beginning. We’d like to see our whole city reborn as a green city, and our nation reborn as a green nation, as an example to the rest of the world. That’s what FCNL means by an “earth restored.” Restoring the earth takes work, and it takes advocacy.

In addition to making our home eco-friendly, we support groups that advocate for environmental justice like FCNL, the Citizens Climate Lobby and the Sierra Club. We also support the environmental cause through our affordable housing advocacy work. It is a little known fact that affordable housing is some of the most eco-friendly housing in the US because of funding requirements. For example, Teague Terrace in Eagle Rock—a special needs permanent supportive housing development where I took groups as part of a Homeless to Housed Bus Tour—is LEED-certified, with passive and active solar power on the roof. Kaupuni Village, an affordable housing complex in Hawaii, is “net-zero”—it produces as much energy as it consumes!

On our property, we have addressed both the housing as well as the environmental crisis by inviting a formerly homeless man live in our back house. Over the years he has become a very dear friend as well as a much appreciated handyman. When things get broken, he fixes them. He also takes care of our animals and plants. He makes us laugh with his puns,  challenges us with his radical political views, and takes part in our weekly Bible study. We can’t imagine living without him!

Friend Vahe shared with me a passage from the prophet Isaiah describing how our lives become like a “watered garden” when we open our hearts and our homes to those in need:

If you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday. The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58: 10-11)

This passage speaks to our condition. Our home has become not simply a place to live or an investment. It is a place of hope, a “watered garden,” a “small plot of heaven” (to use a phrase from the Quaker sociologist Elise Boulding). For us, this is what Jesus meant when he told Nicodemus about being “born anew”: to live faithfully, with gratitude to our Creator,  and to catch of a glimpse of the Divine, right in one’s own home and back yard!