Stewards of our neighbours and our world

I recently had a conversation with a parishioner from Scarborough who asked about any environmental policies or practices we incorporate into the ShareLife campaign. We talked about our collective responsibilty to be good stewards of this world. As a result, I thought I would share a couple of our intitiatives with you.

I'm conscious of the fact that we use a lot of paper to promote the ShareLife campaign: posters, brochures, letters, envelopes and more. We have a massive diocese, including more than 350,000 households registered with our 225 parishes. Getting the ShareLife message out to them all takes a lot of resources.

Last year, we implimented a program to better streamline our direct mail campaign. As a result, we eliminated more than 35,000 extraneous addresses (duplicates, wrong addresses, and undeliverable mail) from our mailings for the 2010 ShareLife Campaign -- a tangible financial and a resource (paper) savings.

As well, this year, all ShareLife Parish Campaign posters were printed on FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified paper and carry the FSC logo (meaning the paper used meets a rigorous environmental and social standard for responsible forest management). We were able to do so with only a minimal increase in costs. It's not the same as using 100% post-consumer paper, and it still involves a great deal of resources, but it's a good first step.

We also explored the cost of using FSC-certified paper for the ShareLife brochures, by far the largest portion of our paper use. The increased cost implication, however, was prohibitive this year. We are continuing to work with our printers to find cost-effective ways to be better environmental stewards. We have to balance the responsible use of donor contributions with our environmental responsibility. My hope is that we will one day use only FSC-certified papers for all ShareLife campaign materials.

In the meantime, we'll continue to reduce our environmental footprint while making a positive impact on the community through our network of ShareLife agencies.