University of San Diego Magazine 75th Anniversary 2024

Care for our common home

S ustainability is baked into the University of San Diego’s DNA, rooted in its mission and its commitment to Pope Francis’ call to care for our common home. It is a focus on a greener future, with the campus looking to set the standard for sustainability efforts in the region. “The university has a very aggressive goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035,” said Director of Sustainability John Alejandro. “USD uses quite a bit of electricity, water and natural gas in its daily operations. First and foremost, our goal is to reduce the consumption of all of these, which in turn will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately help the environment.” Environmental efforts are underway throughout the university, with projects having widespread impact, from working on air conditioning units to generating renewable energy onsite to be directly supplied to the campus. “These projects are very important,” said Alejandro. “Oftentimes a lot of the work is behind the scenes that can go unnoticed. But then there are the bigger projects, like installing new solar arrays on campus, that are highly visible. The university is very committed to not only reducing energy use, but also creating new ways of generating power.” Alejandro’s passion for sustainability is clear, and he loves connecting with members of the community to discuss efforts to achieve USD’s

green goals. From working on a new solar project that’s set to begin in the summer to addressing food waste and composting with his team, Alejandro sees firsthand how sustainability across campus impacts everyone. “It really does touch virtually every aspect of a person’s life,” he said. “How we live our lives helps to determine whether or not we’ll have a positive impact in making the planet a better place.” For him, it’s all about applying an environmental lens to everything, which enables one person’s actions to have a greater impact. “If people live their lives through a lens of sustainability, through a green lens so to speak, they can really see how they can make changes in virtually everything they do,” he said. “One person’s efforts, when combined with other people’s efforts, can lead to great change.” It is this great change that Alejandro sees as a defining part of USD’s future, a future that takes sustainability practices from the campus and helps build environmental stewardship on a larger scale. “Our efforts should not only take care of USD’s environment but also that of the surrounding community and the greater San Diego region,” he said. “In doing so, USD can demonstrate to the entire Southern California region how working together can achieve all of our environmental goals.” •

We take to heart what it means to care for our common home. Our commitment to the environment and environmental justice is based on the vision outlined by Pope Francis in his encyclical to the world — what became known as Laudato Si’ . Essentially what Pope Francis is asking of all of us to do is to realize that by caring for our common home — God’s green earth — we are recognizing that it’s most often the poor and the underprivileged who are most impacted by changes in the climate.

– Allyson Meyer ’16 (BA), ‘21 (MBA)