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Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC

Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC

The World Council of Churches (WCC) was addressing ecological concerns, including climate change, “way before it was fashionable,” WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said at a recent presentation on theGreen Village, the new development concept for the property on which the Ecumenical Centre now stands.

The Green Village will include a renovated Ecumenical Centre; new office space for commercial and civil society organizations, including the WCC, its sister organizations and tenants; and residential space. 

Tveit explained that the WCC has addressed ecological concerns since the 1970s, and had been working on climate change as early as the 1980s.

The general secretary said that the WCC has engaged with and supported many of the environmental protocols, which bear the names of the cities where negotiations were held, such as Montreal and Kyoto.  The Green Village buildings are named after the cities of those protocols.

“Not only through theological reflection and education, advocacy for ecologically just agreements and policies, but also in our daily operations as institutions, we must bear witness to our principles, particularly when there is the opportunity to plan for the future,” said Tveit.

“The WCC promotes living in accordance with the covenant with God and creation; supporting just and sustainable consumption, life-giving agriculture, and encouraging economies that promote life.”

One Planet Living

The WCC and Implenia, a Swiss construction and construction services company, held a presentation on 20 June to explain the “One Planet Living” designation, developed by the World Wide Fund for Nature and Implenia. Those planning the Green Village aspire to have the development be the first in Geneva to earn this designation for high sustainability standards. The designation holds not only for the ecological quality of the construction, but for the ongoing monitoring of sustainability measures over time. 

Tveit said that it was an honour to work with the project developers who have ably interpreted the WCC’s vision for the site, which was drawn “from our faith-rooted conviction to care for God’s wondrous creation.”

Tveit noted that the importance of sustainability principles, the landscaping concept, the idea of buildings grouped like a “village,” a place for meetings and dialogue, had been noted by WCC as objectives back in 2012.

Catherine Martinson, a member of the executive board of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Switzerland, noted that, collectively, we use more resources that we can replenish.

“Nature is disappearing under our feet,” said Martinson. “Our destiny is linked to nature. We are not allowing nature to regenerate.”

 

Learn more about the Green Village

General Secretary's presentation on the Green Village (One Planet Living Event 20 June, 2019)