Environment Environmental Responsibility

With our members, CHA is working to raise the issue of environmental stewardship as a mission–based clinical and public policy imperative. We act as responsible stewards of God’s creation as we respond as a ministry to building healthier communities. This 20-page booklet, “Connecting Health Care With Public and Environmental Health,” contains an article by Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, science director of the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN). Dr. Schettler has worked extensively with community groups and non-governmental organizations throughout the U.S. and internationally, addressing many aspects of human health and the environment. He has served on advisory committees of the U.S. EPA and National Academy of Sciences. The booklet is part of CHA’s ongoing commitment to provide resources to Catholic health care as we collectively work to protect the environment, minimize environmental hazards and reduce our contribution to the problem of climate change. As a ministry, we care for those who are harmed by the environment, strive for internal practices to ensure environmental safety and advocate public policies and private actions that bring solutions. Find all of CHA’s environmental resources at www.chausa.org/Environment.

Environmental sustainability is increasingly seen as a core value in Catholic health care organizations. It responds to the biblical command to care for creation, the public health imperatives to prevent disease and improve community health, and the mission call to defend and promote human life and dignity, care for the poor and vulnerable and steward the earth's resources.This guide, written for persons both fomally charged with helping their organizations "go green" as well as those who simply have a desire to do so, combines the experience of sustainability pioneers in Catholic health care and the knowledge of Practice Greenhealth.

Pope Benedict XVI and the U.S. Catholic Bishops accept the scientific consensus that climate change is upon us and urge prudent action now to more faithfully care for Creation and to avoid more severe consequences in the future, and they warn that its adverse impacts will fall heaviest on the poor at home and abroad.

This document was developed for CHA members to use at staff in-service programs, new employee orientation, trustee educational sessions, or other ways. It explains why and how Catholic health care must be concerned with environmental stewardship.

This two-page document shares helpful information about getting started with environmental responsibility initiatives including creating a "green team."

 On July 7, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI released his much-anticipated third encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” (Charity in Truth), in which the Holy Father furthers the work of Pope Paul VIi in considering “integral human development,” or holistic development of the entire human person.Among the elements which together constitute integral human development, Pope Benedict examines the natural environment and our relationship with it.  He confirms that “[t]he environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations, and towards humanity as a whole.

The mission imperative of environmental responsibility. This document provides a good overview for associates and staff working on this issue, and includes resources that describe the relationship between Mission and environmental sustainability.

Catholic health care views our work as a ministry to the community. Its mission is to heal the sick, serve the poor and vulnerable, and lead by example. We follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who not only healed the sick, but who also challenged and transformed the social norms of society through his life and actions. Through our strength as more than 2,000 Catholic health care sponsors, systems, facilities, and related organizations, we have the power and responsibility to transform health care to make it more environmentally responsible and safe.