Policy on Sustainable Operations

As a part of its mission to make authentic Zen practice available to its members and to the larger community, the Rochester Zen Center recognizes the importance of doing so in an environmentally responsible way. As twenty-first-century practitioners, we recognize that traditional Zen teachings, such as not-wasting, not-harming, and leaving no traces, have taken on a new global urgency in our time, and the Center commits to working toward operating sustainably as an expression of its core mission.

In furtherance of this policy, the Trustees of the Center have established a Facilities and Sustainable Operations Committee charged with making recommendations regarding ways in which the Center’s buildings and motor vehicles can be operated in a more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable manner. Based on recommendations from the committee, which began meeting in 2010, the Center to date has switched to the purchase of “green” electricity, completed an energy audit through New York State, switched to LED lighting where possible and installed motion detectors, and switched to energy-efficient refrigerators and freezers.