Bridging the Gap

Green Cathedral
The Angelus, April 2008

If you are motivated to “green up” parts of your life but don’t know where to go for tips, here is a good place to start: Bridging the Gap.

Bridging the Gap began in 1991 as a volunteer group to operate recycling centers, and has grown into a professional organization. Its mission is to make the Kansas City area sustainable by “helping citizens, businesses and government understand the impact of our decisions and behavior on our present and future community and world.”

A useful resource for Kansas Citians is their website: www.bridgingthegap.org. On the site you can find lots of information to help you live a more sustainable lifestyle. You can find the locations of recycling centers and what they do and don’t accept. You can also learn about several volunteer opportunities and various other programs that Bridging the Gap sponsors. These include efforts to encourage buying local produce (Buy Fresh, Buy Local Kansas City), plant trees (Heartland Tree Alliance) and reduce the litter in Kansas City (Keep Kansas City Beautiful).

Perhaps the most useful section of their website has tips on things you can do at home, ranging from disposing of things you can’t put in the trash to building a backyard wildlife habitat. There is also a page where you can sign up for their quarterly newsletter and other e-mailings.

More E-sources

Don’t forget that you don’t have to go far from the Cathedral for environmental news. From the home page of the Cathedral website (www.ghtc-kc.org), you can sign up for several newsletters, including Caring for God's Creation, which brings you occasional e-mails about environmental topics. The information in them comes from MARC, the Mid-America Regional Council and includes advice that you can use to live greener.