About Sustainable SCU: Leading Through Laudato Si'
During the 2022-2023 school year, the Center for Sustainability and Division of Mission and Ministry engaged in a year-long process to develop a sustainability action plan that takes SCU through 2030. This initiative brought stakeholders from across campus together to define shared goals, draft a strategy for meeting them, and implement them over time.
The strategic action plan was officially unveiled in 2024.
The new Action Plan is built on our strong foundation of existing programs and goals outlined in SCU's original Sustainability Strategic Plan in 2019. To learn more about how we got here, read our history of achievements and journey to carbon neutrality.
Visit our timeline to see what steps we've taken, and where we have yet to go.
Leading Through Laudato Si' is an initiative formed out of partnerships across campus and draws from Pope Francis' 7-Year Journey Toward Integral Ecology from the Laudato Si' Action Platform. Learn more about each of these organizations:
FAQs
In 2015, Pope Francis released his momentous encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, as a call to the world to focus on caring for the natural environment and all people, as well as broader questions about the relationship between God, humans, and the Earth.
Today, SCU is joining over 130 founding universities worldwide that have committed to Pope Francis’ 7-Year Journey Towards Integral Ecology. These universities, including SCU, have committed to creating seven-year action plans to deepen their community’s integral ecology in the areas of academics and research, operations, campus life, and outreach.
The intended outcome of our year-long planning process was to develop a sustainability action plan that takes us through 2030, rooted in Laudato Si’. Creating a 2030 sustainability action plan using Laudato Si’ as a lens will build upon SCU’s existing sustainability leadership and strengths, while enabling our University to amplify our work and connect to the worldwide Laudato Si' Journey. This planning process will also support and inform the University’s strategic planning process.
For SCU, participating in the Laudato Si’ Action Platform is an opportunity to:
- Unite globally with other campuses on a common goal
- Support & align with university strategic planning
- Build upon our award-winning sustainability leadership to deepen strategic goals & operational practices.
- Improve our rankings & leadership status
- Excite our community about our intersectional work, integrating Jesuit, Catholic faith with sustainability and social justice
For participants, it’s an opportunity to:
- Contribute to an inclusive, wide-ranging planning process that prioritizes sustainability on our campus for years to come. Even better - the time commitment will be approximately 15 hours, carefully distributed over the academic year.
- Earn recognition from administration and have a voice in shaping SCU's future sustainability and justice efforts
- Gain experience participating in and contributing to a strategic planning process. (Students are encouraged to list these skills on their resumes!)
The strategic action plan is a collaboration between the Center for Sustainability and Division of Mission and Ministry.
The 2022-2023 planning process involved stakeholders from across the SCU community: graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, alumni, administration, and other community members. Individuals were encouraged to apply to participate in a Working Group to share their input and contribute to the development of the new plan.
The implementation of this plan involves invited stakeholders:
Executive Sponsors for the Implementation Teams serve in an advisory capacity and guide implementation of Leading Through Laudato Si’ Goals and Strategies along with programmatic oversight from lead members of the Implementation Teams. The Executive Sponsors are Directors, Vice Presidents, and Deans from across SCU.
The Implementation Team Members are faculty, staff, and administrators chosen for their areas of expertise to steward specific strategies related to their work.
We have compiled a document with general types of questions that have been coming up during Working Group meetings. This will be updated throughout the planning process.
