Land Acknowledgment & Action – California Interfaith Power & Light’s headquarters are located in Oakland, California, the unceded ancestral home of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people. They stewarded these East Bay lands and waters sustainably for nearly one thousand years before colonization. The Ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place. Learn how to make a land acknowledgement into Land Action here.
Mission:
California Interfaith Power & Light inspires and mobilizes individuals and communities of faith and conscience to take bold and just action on climate change.
Vision:
CIPL envisions a stable climate where people live in right and just relationship, interconnected with a healthy and thriving natural world.
Values:
- Because we embrace faith and spirituality, we are grounded in the interconnectedness of the sacred, the natural world, and one another.
- Because we embrace justice, we strive to act with inclusion and respect, working in solidarity with vulnerable and marginalized communities.
- Because we embrace hope, we are empowered to live into our vision for the world for present and future generations.
- Because we embrace courage, we speak with a prophetic voice to create equity and restore wholeness to all.
- Because love is central to who we are, we are committed to ending the suffering caused by climate change.
History of CIPL:
The original concept for California Interfaith Power & Light (CIPL) was developed from the model built by Episcopal Power and Light, a group that encouraged churches to purchase green energy in the late ’90s. Using this model, CIPL was established in 2000 by the Rev. Sally G. Bingham of The Regeneration Project (the home of the Episcopal Power and Light campaign) with co-founders Rev. Scott Anderson (California Council of Churches), Catherine Coleman (Northern California Inter-religious Conference), and Rev. Al Cohen (Southern California Ecumenical Council).
CIPL is a faith-based organization and maintains that every major religious tradition calls on us to be faithful stewards of Creation. We have a responsibility to protect the earth for our children and future generations. Global warming is a crisis that has severe environmental, social, moral, economic and spiritual consequences. Current patterns of climatic warming point to increases in heat-related illnesses and deaths, increased heat stress for crops, and greater energy needs for cooling. CIPL helps educate congregations on the theological basis for eco-stewardship and assists them in implementing programs to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and become more energy efficient – therefore helping to mitigate the harmful effects of global warming. Working together, individuals and communities of faith can model to the rest of the world how to be the stewards of our precious Creation.
The goal of CIPL is to activate California’s 50,000 congregations by providing them with links and referrals to local sources of energy audits, building improvements, and solar panel installation. We help congregational leaders educate their membership about environmental stewardship, conservation and the effects of global warming. We work in tandem with front-line communities to address the injustice of pollution and economic disparity in under-served communities. We present practical choices that can be made in people’s everyday lives to help reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.