Sustainability Research
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The sustainability research repository was compiled from a survey sent to all SU faculty during the summer of 2020 with the question if between AY17–AY20, they engaged in scholarship or academic research related to “social justice, economic and/or environmental sustainability?" In addition, research from faculty fellows from the Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, and Center for Business Ethics was added, as well as data from SU’s Office for Sponsored Projects.
For the count of faculty that conduct research, only Tenure and Tenure-track faculty members (that is, faculty members who do research at SU) are included. Based on all data collected, 390 faculty members at SU were engaged in research in 2019–2020, of whom 88 conducted sustainability-research. For the definition of sustainability research, we use the AASHE-STARS terminology as follows:
“Sustainability research is research and scholarship that explicitly addresses the concept of sustainability, furthers our understanding of the interdependence of ecological and social/economic systems, or has a primary and explicit focus on a major sustainability challenge.”
Major sustainability challenges include (but are not limited to) climate change, global poverty and inequality, natural resource depletion, and environmental degradation, and/or the targets embedded in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Repository of Sustainability Research
How many faculty members at Seattle University conduct sustainability research? Based on data from Academic Year 2019-2020, about 22% of faculty are engaged in sustainability research. Check out the wealth of research (549 items) presented and/or published between 2015 and 2021 in this Research Repository. Read more below about the methodology behind the numbers.
View the repository
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Laudato Si' Action Platform Goals (LSAP)
In 2015, Pope Francis published his second encyclical, titled Laudato Si' ("Praise Be to You"). The encyclical has the subtitle "on care for our common home". In it, the pope critiques consumerism and irresponsible development; laments environmental degradation and global warming; and calls on all people of the world to take "swift and unified global action.” This call lead to the Laudato Si' Action Platform (LSAP), a papal initiative launched in 2021, to envision sustainability in the holistic spirit of integral ecology and to redefine and rebuild our relationship with each other and our common home. The LSAP supports institutions, communities, and families to discern and implement a response to Laudato Si' by guiding actions.
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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
In 2015, the United Nations published Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a "plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. "The publication outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as 169 targets and associated indicators, forming a 15-year agenda intended to balance "the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental." It seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom and recognizes that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.