The College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University have signed the St. Francis Pledge for improved climate changes.

Judy Purman, the director of sustainability at CSB, said she received more than 30 emails from the college community and others who wanted to know if the college had considered the pledge.

Purman said signing the pledge was a result of the emails she received and the sustainability council endorsing the signing of the pledge and presenting it to the president of the college, MaryAnn Baenninger. After the president reviewed the recommendation and all were in agreement with it, all decided it would be incorporated into the college’s sustainability plan.

“This will help us further integrate our sustainability efforts in our Catholic mission,” Purman said.

According to Baenninger, the pledge fits the college’s Benedictine mission.

“As a Benedictine institution, we are committed to the values of stewardship and respect for person,” Baenninger said. “The St. Francis Pledge is consistent with the sustainable practices we already enact and value at (the) College of St. Benedict and consonant with our Benedictine mission and heritage.”

St. John’s University has also signed the St. Francis Pledge. Nick Moe, who is the sustainability fellow at SJU, said the university is striving to become carbon-neutral by 2035.

“It is a natural thing for us to support,” Moe said. “The pledge matches up with our Benedictine value of stewardship.”

The pledge is an important piece of the Catholic Climate Covenant. The covenant is a group of 30 Catholic organizational partners who are committed to care for creation and the poor. By joining the covenant, institutions, organizations, individuals, families and parishes are committing to act on each of the five elements of the pledge.

The five elements include a promise and commitment to agree to pray, to learn about and educate others on climate change, to assess their environmental impact, to act to reduce various ways they contribute to climate change and to advocate for Catholic principles and priorities in climate-change discussions and decisions – especially as they impact those who are poor and vulnerable.

SJU is committed to minimizing greenhouse-gas emissions and to finding alternatives to emissions that cannot be eliminated in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. A climate-action plan released in 2009 outlines how SJU plans to become carbon-neutral by changing fuels and investing in alternative energy and carbon offsets and by conserving energy and investing in efficiency and conservation.

According to members of the covenant, as people use more energy and produce more waste, we are leaving a bigger carbon footprint. Scientists predict this will mean more climate change and those climate changes will hit the poor the hardest – with more floods, droughts, hunger and joblessness.

While many people disagree on what are the best ways to save animal and plant species and the growing demand for fossil-fuel energy, the coalition and the pledge focus on the religious and moral perspective of creation and the poor that are most impacted by the climate change.

Purman earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Beloit College, Wis., and her master’s degree in horticultural science from the University of Maryland. She has more than 20 years of experience in the solid-waste industry with strategic planning, environmental stewardship and compliance, program development, implementation and training. In her position at CSB, she coordinates, develops and implements sustainable campus-wide practices.

Moe received his bachelor’s degree from SJU, his master’s degree in engineering from Stanford University and then returned to SJU to study at the School of Theology. Moe works mainly on energy efficiency and conservation measures with SJU’s physical plant. He has been a monastic associate with St. John’s Abbey since 2011.

Current activities planned for the two college campuses to encourage awareness and participation include the CSB campus participating in a Lenten Carbon Fast.

Students, faculty and staff can view a calendar that offers ideas of ways they can give up things to help reduce waste and become more aware of how their actions of consumption impacts the poor and the sustainability of the earth.

The SJU campus is participating in energy-conservation competitions where cash prizes are being given to those that can conserve the most energy.

“It is a way to educate many people about their role in climate change,” Moe said.

Moe said he was heartened to see the Catholic church take a strong position on this issue.

“The materials the Catholic Climate Covenant have issued also help us to better understand how our faith is interconnected with the issue and how we can share those understandings with our students, who will be empowered to advocate for solutions to climate change once they leave St. John’s,” Moe said.