Since 2018, members of UISG’s environmental campaign Sowing Hope for the Planet have been doing tremendous work towards the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals and Laudato Si’ Goals.
Catholic Sisters have been involved in campaigns on climate action and land use. They have divested from fossil fuels and invested in renewable energy systems, encouraging others to do the same; reduced their plastic consumption, and particularly their dependence on single-use plastics; promoted legislation to protect the environment; and led campaigns against harmful economic and environmental practices in the mining industry.
Sowing Hope members have worked with land-preservation groups to preserve native seeds, mitigate damages from extractivism, plant trees for reforestation, raise goats for ecosystem repair, grow community gardens, and protect public lands and indigenous land rights.
With a particular focus on water-related issues, Sowing Hope networks have promoted access to clean water, raised awareness of water pollution and scarcity, advocated for regulations to protect freshwater sources, secured wells and pipelines for communities with limited access to drinking water, and worked on projects to clean the world’s oceans.
Our mission continues. Religious women and their allies take renewed strength from the encouragement and leadership of Pope Francis, and from the openness of partners – both religious and secular – to receiving the ideas of Laudato Si’.