How many people of faith does it take to change the environment? As many as are willing to believe they can make a difference. In this day and age members of different faiths are working together to foster sustainability and address global warming.

One of several posters created during an envisioning exercise at the conference.  Consider the "Better Together: Fostering Interfaith Collaboration for Sustainability" conference held recently in Eliot, Maine. Hosted by the Green Acre Baha'i School, the event attracted 25 people from nine faiths as part of a regional weekend dialogue on climate change and sustainability.

"We all discovered allies and plenty of common ground, and felt a sense of joint ownership," says keynote speaker Peter Adriance, a Baha'i and co-chair of the Faith Sector Team for the U.S. Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The U.N.-sponsored decade runs from 2005 to 2014.

"The role of faith communities in contributing to the well being of the planet has increased in the last few years," Mr. Adriance says. "We have a growing consciousness of our role in the stewardship of the environment. Each of us, through the inspiration of our own religious teachings, is finding ways to work together across faith lines."

Although the focus was on the Piscataqua Sustainability Initiative in Maine and neighboring New Hampshire, the needs are the same throughout the world: How can we work together to change consumption patterns and energy use, provide for human needs and adapt to the damage that's been done?

The "Better Together" conference grew out of a Baha'i conference on sustainability held last year that examined what people can do in their our own communities and how what they do affects the well being of those in other places and those of future generations.

Excessive consumption in industrialized countries creates injustices in other parts of the world, Mr. Adriance says, and that is of particular concern to Baha'is, who believe that all of humanity was created by one God and is part of one human race.

"As Abdu'l-Baha said," notes Mr. Adriance, "‘The injury of one shall be considered the injury of all; the comfort of each, the comfort of all; the honor of one, the honor of all.'"