Ecology and sustainability

The working groups recognized four fundamental axioms:

• Creation is a gift from God that is being wounded by human actions;
• We have a common responsibility for the welfare of the entire world;
• We have an ethical obligation to learn with the poor, who are most affected by environmental degradation;
• We must respond to the needs of the present without compromising the lives of future generations.

Through teaching, research, advocacy, and action, the groups hope the International Jesuit Higher Education network will:

• Encourage development of curricula that address sustainability issues and teach a certain level of environmental literacy;
• Increase research on such things as the relationships among ecology, environmental justice, poverty, migration, deforestation, and the loss of biodiversity;
• and Create a collaborative action project and an assessment tool to measure each institution’s progress in sustainability.