The National Catholic Reporter recently published an article under their Colleges and Universities section, entitled ‘Stewards of the Natural World.’ Featured in this article is Santa Clara University in California. Santa Clara is attempting to promote sustainability at their university by having programs like “Living Green in the Neighborhood.” But as the article mentions, Santa Clara hopes to start a discussion amongst Catholic universities in which the idea of sustainability is linked to the Catholic mission.
Santa Clara has developed an Office of Sustainability, which allows one office to be solely dedicated to the issue. This office provides a way for the students to understand the “three aspects of sustainability – environmental, social and economic… [and] the link between sustainability and Catholic social teaching.”
This, however, is no easy task. Therefore, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change is looking to create a ‘toolkit’ for Catholic institutions to make the process easier. Hopefully, it will give guidelines and information that will not only make the university more ‘green,’ but will also connect Catholic universities to their Catholic identity in a new, key way. A uniform process will also make dialogue between universities easier. This toolkit takes its five pillars from the St Francis Pledge; pray, learn, assess, act and advocate.
It is important for Catholic universities to not be left behind in this movement. Especially now since The Princeton Review has added a green colleges guide to their repertoire of information on colleges and universities. This makes sustainability issues another angle of competition between colleges and universities. Therefore, it would probably be a good idea if the Catholic institutions took this toolkit opportunity and led the way into a sustainable campus future.
Check out the full article here
-Dan
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