This page outlines our main initiatives; click under each for more info, or see the topics when you pull down the menu under Our Issues in the top menu.

Air & Water

When people suffer asthma from air-borne contaminants or become ill from toxins in their drinking water, they readily understand the cause. We are all, sad to say, also breathing and ingesting tiny plastic particles, with unknown health consequences.

Wildfires, which in recent years have caused air quality to plunge, are just the most evident source of air-borne contaminants. It is much harder to notice, measure, and deal. with the smaller everyday threats, but we are fortunate to have public officials and non-profits who are hard at work. They need our help! Read more about Air & Water here.

Climate & Energy

We aim to help counteract the current climate crisis, reduce fossil fuel usage, and encourage the use of renewable energy, such as the local solar project pictured to the right, of which you can view the video here, Even actions by other names help: reducing plastics and fertilizers reduces fossil fuels in manufacturing; organic gardening returns carbon to the soil; and a Transition consciousness guides people to more sustainable lives. Read more about Climate & Energy here.

Community

The International Transition network and Transition thinking have guided the Green Team toward building community and cultivating mutual support. We are committed to Environmental Justice, the principle that all people in society regardless or where or how they live, deserve the benefits of a clean environment. For more on Environmental Justice, see CCEA here.

Our most prominent community event is the yearly Porchfest, a music and activities festival attended by thousands. Our Transition goals really include all of our other activities, because all that people do for the environment, they do not just for themselves but for other people and following generations. Read more about Transition here.

Dark Skies

Over the last century, the increased, excessive and widespread use of artificial light at night has not only impaired our view of the universe but has adversely affected the Earth’s climate through unneeded energy consumption, disrupted numerous plants and animals that rely on Earth’s regular rhythm of night and day, and threatened human health and safety. Furthermore, most Americans have lost an important part of our human heritage: to look up and see a spectacular starry night sky. The Green Team’s Dark Skies Initiative exhibits information at events and works with public officials to mitigate the problem. Read more about Dark Skies here.

Living Landscapes

People are eager to reconnect with the world of plants. We have offered space for people to grow their own healthy food in community gardens, sponsored organic garden tours, and made a series of videos featuring different nearby gardeners.

Chestnut St. Garage planting, 4/30/24

We have planted perennial gardens in several publicly visible locations, helped people to convert lawns to meadows or gardens and to improve the environmental and architectural quality of alleyscapes, and maintained rain gardens in public spaces. We encourage the planting of trees, which improve urban quality of life, reduce heat and energy consumption, and absorb chemical pollutants out of the soil and air. See more about Living Landscapes here.

Pesticides & Herbicides

Chemical toxins are a disaster. The names have changed since Rachel Carson blew the whistle on DDT in 1962, but their toxicity and damage to environmental and human health haven’t changed. People who grew up on farms or in homes with unwise application of pesticides suffer continuing health issues in adult life. Taxpayers and homeowners fund spraying to kill mosquitoes, when the chief result is to knock ou slower-reproducing species, such as pollinator insects, fish, and amphibians. Herbicides to kill unwanted plants, thus wiping out biodiversity and creating monocultures that increase disease and pest species. We need to cut loose from such chemicals! Read more about Pesticides & Herbicides here.

Plastics

Everyone has heard about landfills overflowing with excessive waste, plastics that appear recyclable but aren’t, turtles choking on plastic bags, whales autopsied with hundreds of pounds of plastic in their guts, and people with microfibers in our bodies (studies have shown that each of us ingests the equivalent of one credit card of plastic per day!). Are plastics, along with chemicals, responsible in part for the US lag in health outcomes? Science can analyze and help solve the problem; art can dramatize and publicize it. Read more about Plastics here.

What Else Have We Been Doing?

In cooperation with West Chester University’s Office of Sustainability, WCGT has for several years sponsored events in the Fall Film and Forum series aimed at informing and engaging the public about how to live sustainably.

WCGT also participates in Earth Day activities each year, including rallies, marches, talks, and chalking sidewalks.

We have spread the word via yearly yard sign designs. Some of the most memorable signs are the baby in the gas mask (2016) and most recently an image from Transition symbolizing our diversity and growing together.  

Due to their mission and public involvement, Green Team leaders were honored in 2021 by West Chester Mayor Jordan Norley, in recognition of service to the community. 

Final thought: Environmental rights are not just what we want; they are enshrined in the Pennsylvania Constitution (art. 1 sect. 27):

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”