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Interfaith Partners to Launch Interactive Database on “Faith Action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals”

We face major sustainability challenges in the 21st Century. Fortunately, we have a unique opportunity to implement solutions at a global scale. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are a rallying point, and Faith Based Organizations are working on a host of activities across multiple SDGs, including conserving nature, scaling renewable energy, providing access to clean water, and returning land to Indigenous management.

Join the launch of Faith Action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a living, evolving, searchable database featuring faith-based organizations around the world doing work within the scope of the environmental SDGs. The webinar and database are made possible through a partnership between the Parliament of the World’s Religions, UNEP Faith for Earth, United Religions Initiative and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. Participants enjoy early access to the platform when they register for the webinar.

Featuring the Participation Of

  • David Hales served as President of the College of the Atlantic, Chair and President of Second Nature, the managing organization of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, and as Director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. He led environmental policy and sustainability programs for the US Agency for International Development. As a diplomat, he has represented the USA in numerous negotiations on climate change, urban affairs and policy, and biodiversity. He served in the Carter administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior. He was the first American to serve as Chair of the World Heritage Convention.
  • Dr. Iyad Abu Moghli is the founder and director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Faith for Earth Initiative. He has more than 35 years of experience with international organizations, the private sector, and scientific institutions. Dr. Abu Moghli’s expertise focus on strategic planning, sustainable development, natural resources management, knowledge and innovation, and interfaith collaboration. Before joining UNEP, he served for 14 years in the United Nations Development Programme.
  • William E. Swing, 7th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California (1980-2006), was born in Huntington, West Virginia. He graduated from Kenyon College and Virginia Theological Seminary, and holds six honorary degrees. Bishop Swing served as a priest in Wheeling, Weirton, and Chester, West Virginia. He also started a church at Waterford Park Race Track in Chester, pioneered homeless work in San Francisco, and played a critical role in saving St. Luke’s Hospital. He served on the Board of the American Foundation for AIDS research for 20 years and has spoken throughout the world. He was instrumental in starting a capital development bank in Oakland. He is known as an outspoken leader about the standing of gays and lesbians in the church. He led the radical expansion of the Bishop’s Ranch in Healdsburg, California. Bishop Swing is the Founder and President of the United Religions Initiative. He is married to Mary Taylor Swing and has two children and three grandchildren.
  • Mary Evelyn Tucker, co-founder and co-director of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, teaches at Yale University at the School of the Environment and the Divinity School. From 1995 to 1998 she and her husband John Grim convened over 800 scholars, indigenous and religious leaders, and environmental specialists from around the world for a series of 10 conferences on World Religions and Ecology at Harvard University. In order to make the fruits of this work available to larger audiences, she and Grim served as series editors for the 10 resulting Harvard book series on Religions of the World and Ecology which helped initiate a new field of study in religion and explored implications for other fields, such as environmental ethics and public policy. She has authored many books including Ecology and Religion, won the Inspiring Yale Teaching Award in 2015, and has been awarded 5 honorary degrees.