These are some of the ways in which the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas will more fully live Laudato Si’ in 2024. To see the second year action plan click here.
Responding to the Cry of the Earth
- The climate sustainability director will:
- Collect utility usage data for smaller residences (i.e., apartments and houses) located throughout the United States.
- Expand community solar subscriptions to many of our houses and apartments for which such programs are available.
- Continue the electric vehicle (EV) pilot project at Merion, PA, with the purchase of an additional vehicle and the installation of additional EV chargers. One other location will be selected to house an EV. Official guidance regarding the use, maintenance, and charging of EVs, along with concerns regarding metal mining, will be developed and implemented.
- Finalize guidance regarding the use of various sustainable and compostable alternatives to single-use plastic products. A pilot location will be selected to test the overall process for implementing various parts of the guidance and determining what is needed (in addition to the installation of water-filling stations) in order to make the elimination of certain plastic products practical. Complete the pilot solar project on the Belmont, NC, campus by the end of 2024.
- Mercy Focus on Haiti aims to support the construction of 10 cisterns per month in the Gros Marne region, for the collection of rain water, using locally available materials. Cistern beneficiaries will receive training in the fundamentals of vegetable gardening, tree planting and reforestation, supporting both food production and the opportunity to sell surplus at market.
Responding to the Cry of the Poor
- The Justice Team will deepen education and advocacy about the harms of extractivism to communities and the environment through:
- Mapping of extractivism near locations where the Institute has a significant presence;
- Educating the wider Mercy community about the experiences of communities most harmed by extractivism;
- Sharing more widely the statement on extractivism distributed among Chapter participants;
- Expanding our knowledge of extractivism to include practices such as agribusiness extracting nutrients from the land and the tourism industry dredging ports for cruise ships; and
- Solidarity and accompaniment of communities most harmed by extractivism
- Sisters will continue participating in ecclesial networks (ie, in Meso-America and the regions of El Gran Chaco y el Acuífero Guaraní in South America) and will educate the rest of the congregation about how the Church is accompanying communities in these critical eco-systems.
- The Justice Team will participate in the “we are going to change the history of the climate and the planet!” campaign with the peoples of the Amazon in advance of international climate talks (COP30) in Belem, Brazil, in 2025.
- Mercy Volunteer Corps has placed a volunteer yet again at Sanctuary Farm in Philadelphia and will offer short-term volunteer experiences at Mercy Ecological Center in Vermont.
- Mercy Investment Services will expand and deepen the integration of environmental, social and governance investment strategies by:
- Actively allocating capital to address diversity gaps amongst decision-makers and financial access within the Inclusive Opportunities Fund;
- Expanding the emerging managers program supporting firms owned or products managed by people with diverse or underrepresented backgrounds;
- Deepening Mercy Partnership Fund’s continued dedication to racial and gender equity as well as those that emphasize international opportunities; and
- Using our shareholder voice to explicitly call on companies to mitigate their impacts on people of color and to increase equity for disadvantaged communities.
- Mercy Focus on Haiti will complete the fourth cohort of its poverty eradication program for women, and raise funds and set the stage for the fifth cohort. Participants from the first cohort will be able to create Village Savings and Loan Associations, which was offered to later cohorts as safe places to save money and access small loans. The first cohort participants also will be offered a tablet-based training program to develop the basics of finance and business skills. Mercy Focus on Haiti will arrange for a physician member from the U.S. to make virtual visits with residents and walk-throughs of Bon Maison Samaritain, a house for persons who are elderly and infirm or mentally ill. Deteriorating conditions in Haiti have prevented in-person visits from the U.S.
Ecological Economics
- Mercy Investment Services will:
- Participate in learning opportunities to deepen our understanding of Catholic investing through documents such as Mensuram Bonam and Laudate Deum;
- Increase funding of mission-based environmental, social and governance investment managers and thematic managers in the equity fund;
- Originate additional commitments to impact managers in the Environmental Solutions Fund, which invests in renewable energy, energy and water efficiency, materials recycling, green buildings and sustainable agriculture;
- Commit additional investments to projects whose primary thematic area is environmental sustainability, impacts from the extractive sector or migration, or that address a just transition to a low‐carbon future in the Mercy Partnership Fund;
- Partner with other investors to engage corporations on water stewardship, greenhouse gas emissions, plastics use, biodiversity and other important issues; and engage with other like-minded impact investors through the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative, which is led by Francesco Collaborative, and through continued leadership within the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.
Sustainable Lifestyles
- The Justice Team and Climate and Sustainability Director will start exploring possibilities for working with other congregations of women religious to influence practices of dining service companies who serve our convents, retirement centers and other facilities.
- The Justice Team and Climate and Sustainability Director will continue the Mercy Tips to Care for Earth as a monthly feature on the website.
Ecological Education
- Mercy Education has planned several activities for 2024:
- “Generation Mercy,” an online meeting for students who are involved in Earth initiatives/clubs at their school, in the first half of the year;
- A commitment to highlight Earth in their newsletter at least 1 issue per month;
- Promote Mercy Meatless Mondays for the Lenten season; and
- Share some suggestions for Earth challenges for schools (i.e. zero waste meetings) to try to implement before Earth Day in April, then share about these in the newsletter/social media.
- The Justice Team will organize an immersion trip to a region of western Pennsylvania experiencing an expansion of fracking and petrochemical facilities.
- The Justice Team will organize three immersion experiences at the U.S.-Mexico border to expand the number of sisters, associates, companions and co-workers who are educated about immigration policy and the reality at the border. One of these experiences will be solely for staff and board members of Mercy Investment Services.
- A Mercy associate in Guyana will develop a guidebook and set of advocacy tools for communities to understand the risks of the growing oil and gas industry in her country, and that will become a template for similar education elsewhere.
Ecological Spirituality
- The Justice Team will promote Laudato Si animators’ trainings and create a network of Mercy animators to work together and support one another.
- The Institute will participate in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ exploration and implementation of transformative justice work.
Community Participation and Empowerment
- The Justice Team will educate our network on the issues and the importance of voting our values in advance of the 2024 elections in the United States.
- The Justice Team will participate in a newly forming collaborative of Catholic organizations engaged in environmental and climate justice education, advocacy and practices.
