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Publication Date
Spring 2025
Description
In the fall of 2021, St. Mary’s University became one of the first universities in Texas to commit to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ Action Platform (LSAP). With this seven-year commitment to the principles of Laudato Si’, the St. Mary’s community is now taking steps to become a more environmentally sustainable campus. An important part of this effort is to establish baseline conditions from which to measure progress in sustainability with respect to specific university systems. With extensive grounds, dozens of buildings, and thousands of students, staff, and faculty, however, the complexities of a college campus can make it difficult to gather this information and explore more sustainable options in a systematic way. For the Spring 2025 semester, students in the StMU Honors Program are working with the Marianists to evaluate environmental sustainability for the Casa Maria Community located on the St. Mary’s campus. This type of smaller, ‘proof-of-concept’ project provides a more controlled way to explore current practices, establish baseline conditions, and develop customized recommendations for a more sustainable Casa Maria Community. For this presentation, a group of five students focused on evaluating water usage for the community, including water used for cooking, hygiene, and irrigation. Baseline data were gathered through observation and by anonymous surveys of the community residents, asking questions about indoor and outdoor water use for purposes of both personal and for their living community. The goal based on our results of this focused project includes recommendations for changes in water use patterns to reduce consumption. From this project, the Casa Maria Community is only the beginning, with our findings we hope to contribute to conservation and offer a potential for application across the broader St. Mary’s campus.
Keywords
Water usage, Laudato Si', Sustainability
Digital Publisher
Digital Commons at St. Mary's University
Collection
Research Showcase Presentations -2025
Format
Medium
Presentation
City
San Antonio, Texas
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
