The implementation of this plan began officially in Winter Quarter 2024 - in January, the Executive Sponsors met and the onboarding meeting for new implementation team members occurred in February.

Co-sponsors the Division of Mission & Ministry and the Center for Sustainability are proud to release the official "Sustainable SCU: Leading Through Laudato Si'" strategic action plan.  Read the full plan here.

In October 2023, Pope Francis released a new integral ecology exhortation Laudate Deum which built upon the groundbreaking environmental encyclical Laudato Si’ published in 2015. The Center for Sustainability released a response, highlighting the ways in which SCU will use the Pope's words as a catalyst to ignite a greater urgency in our efforts.   

We have much to celebrate! Join us at tUrn week on Wednesday, October 11 at 2:15 on the O'Connor Patio next to Music/Dance to hear what we've collectively developed to date. Learn about our plans for operationalizing Leading Through Laudato Si', starting this Fall. RSVP

The Division of Mission and Ministry and the Center for Sustainability thank you for your participation with our year-long planning process Sustainable SCU: Leading Through Laudato Si'. We’ve spent the year exploring goals and strategies for SCU to build a more humane, just, and sustainable world through 2030, inspired by the Pope's encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home. Please read the full letter here.

Subject-matter experts continued our collective planning over the summer as they refined our working groups' goals and strategies to develop sub-strategies with cost projections, timelines, and key stakeholders.

All participants attended a summit at the beginning of spring quarter 2023, after each Working Group had met 3 times. This 3-hour gathering allowed Working Groups to share their updates and collaborate to refine strategies.

The focus group was an open group of SCU community members who received updates on the Working Groups' progress and shared feedback on the general direction of their ideas. Anyone was welcome to join one or all of the focus group sessions throughout the year. 

Working Groups came together four times throughout the year, for 90 minutes each meeting. These meetings built off of each other, starting with a baseline review of ideas, then moving to goal and strategy development before outlining final plans.

Share your ideas and priorities for the new Sustainability Action Plan by attending an ideation session on Tuesday, October 18, Thursday, October 20, or Friday, November 4 at 1pm. These sessions are virtual and open to all members of the SCU community. Please RSVP to attend.

All Working Group members were invited to attend a kickoff meeting to officially begin the planning process. This meeting provided a basic introduction to the Leading Through Laudato Si' initiative and allowed for Q&A about the year ahead.

We invited members of the SCU community to complete the application form by Friday, October 14 to join one of the five Working Groups that contribute their ideas to the development of our new Action Plan. 

We will be hosted two ideation meet-up sessions during tUrn week 2022 where members of the SCU community could drop by and share their initial ideas and priorities for the new Sustainability Action Plan. For details, visit the tUrn Project. (Additional Zoom opportunities were be available during week 5.)

During weeks 3-8 of Fall Quarter 2022, staff from the Center for Sustainability met with and presented to campus organizations, student groups, classes, and other interested organizations to seek participation in our Working Groups, heard ideas, and encouraged further conversations about our planning process.