FROM The Director

Memorial Day and Climate Change

This past Memorial Day weekend, my son Zach and I launched our summer-long project of building two wooden kayaks from a kit.  The layout of our home requires that we build the kayaks in the basement, and while this is itself an ideal work space it required that we carefully assess and plan ahead for how to get them out once built.  After much thoughtful discernment, we decided that there is really only one-way to get them out: to remove a basement window.  We are way overdue for more efficient windows in the basement anyway, so when the time comes, out with the old window, out with the kayaks and then in with the new window.  Thinking ahead, making the connections, adapting to circumstances: these are all valuable lessons for a 14 year old.

And as I contemplated the brave men and women who have sacrificed for our country, it brought to mind how these same lessons are heeded by those thinking about climate change impacts, including the U.S. military.  In the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review Report, the Department of Defense dedicates an entire section to making connections between climate change impacts and preparing the future.  They note: The U.S. Global Change Research Program, composed of 13 federal agencies, reported in 2009 that climate-related changes are already being observed in every region of the world.  Such conditions, the report notes, may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world.

FROM AN ARCHDIOCESE

Louisville, Kentucky

The Archdiocese of Louisville recently chronicled a variety of ways parishes, schools and agencies are more fully care for God’s Creation.  Here is a sampling:

+ Assumption High School — which has developed a “green building” at its sports complex — reported this year that its week-long “mission week” centered on care for creation.
+Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light have honored both Assumption and Trinity High Schools for their conservation and waste-reduction efforts;
+Catholic Charities has organized an electronics recycling initiative;
+ St. Joseph Children’s Home, along with many archdiocesan parishes, have undertaken energy efficiency projects;
+St. Joseph School in Bardstown, KY., also has adopted a “no-idle zone” in the carpool line to reduce emissions;
+St. Ann Church in Howardstown, KY. Participated in a highway clean-up;
+St. Ignatius Church has found a more sustainable way to print its weekly parish bulletin;
+St. Xavier High School has undergone a waste-reduction effort in its cafeteria.
+Spalding University reported a project to distribute reusable bottles on its campus
+Bellarmine University has started a student-led environmental group
+St. Catherine College is building with energy efficiency in mind and has formed a partnership with the Berry Center to offer a degree in agriculture.

Nicely done, Louisville!

RESOURCE: FOR PARISHES

Free ENERGY STAR Resource to Reduce Emissions and Save Money

In a recent article in the National Catholic Reporter, Rev. Charles Morris shares his conversation with Jerry Lawson, the national manager of the EPA's ENERGY STAR for Congregations program, and with Steve Bell, a consultant who works with the EPA's Portfolio Manager energy performance tool.  Fr. Morris’ article answers questions such as:  What is the Portfolio Manager energy performance tool? How does it work?  What are the benefits to a congregation to use the tool?  What does it track? How can houses of worship get a baseline of their energy use?  Can groupings of parishes or a diocese as a whole benefit? What costs are involved?

Fr. Morris shares his experience with the Portfolio Manager at his own parish: I have taken advantage of this easy-to-use tool both at my previous assignment at St. Elizabeth in Wyandotte, Mich., and at my current assignment at St. Christopher in Detroit. We discovered at St. Elizabeth that just putting a programmable thermostat in the church and proper maintenance of the boiler system reduced our energy use by 11 percent in less than a year and offset 29,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

FROM A PARTNER

Catholic Health Care Makes Hospitals Healthier

Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) based in Englewood, Colorado, was highlighted as one of the 11 major hospital systems in the nation to sign on to the Healthier Hospital Initiative (HHI) that aims to improve the health and safety not just of patients but of the communities and environment around them as well, according to the Denver Business Journal.

Senior vice president for advocacy for CHI Colleen Scanlon said of the nation’s second-largest faith-based health care system, All health care entities across this country are moving together to bring sustainability to their practices, programs and policies.  HHI asks partners to commit to: engaging their leadership, serving healthier foods, reducing energy use, reducing waste, using safer chemicals, and purchasing environmentally preferable products.  Congratulations to Catholic Health Initiatives.  For a full list of participating hospitals, click here.  

FROM A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

Franciscans and Consumption

In a thoughtful piece titled Franciscans as Consumers: Ethical Responsibilities,
Fr. David B. Couturier, OFM. Cap., research analyst at the Coalition-member Franciscan Action Network http://franciscanaction.org, reflects on the tension between following the ideal of simplicity espoused by St. Francis and the modern challenges of living in a consumerist culture. 

He acknowledges that Franciscans, like everyone else, are constantly making choices about what to wear and buy, what to purchase and use, what comes into our convents and friaries, and what ends up on our dinner table.  Fr. Couturier then asks, how do we think of ourselves as “consumers” and what drives our economic choices? What role does our Catholic faith and our Franciscan commitment play in the choices we make as consumers? What impact might our economic choices have on the lives of people around the world?

Fr. Couturier observes that “Living spiritually” today means understanding and respecting the ethical responsibilities we have as consumers.  He concludes that Franciscanism invites us to trust and to live as brothers and sisters in the graced world of an abundant God who is good, all good, supremely good, all the time and to everyone.