In May 2021, 76 trees were planted at St. Thomas More Academy in Washington D.C., through the Laudato Trees program and in partnership with local nonprofit Casey Trees. Later, 12 more were added to the campus. (St. Thomas More Academy/Gerald Smith)
by Stephanie Clary
This summer, EarthBeat participated in a journalism collaboration among faith-based publications who wanted to focus on climate stories. The result was the "Growing a Green Church" series, focused on churches' efforts to steward their property (buildings and land) effectively in the context of a changing climate.
With support from the Solutions Journalism Network and funding from the Fetzer Institute, the collaborative focused on initiatives to care for our common home that are already in action, and aimed to find out if they're achieving their goals, what challenges they have faced along the way, and how others might be able to scale or replicate their success.
For #SolutionsJournalismDay — the 10th anniversary of Solutions Journalism Network, celebrated on Oct. 26 — we're revisiting EarthBeat's most popular story from the "Growing a Green Church" series with a brand new video including interviews and footage of the Laudato Trees program in Washington, D.C.
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As NCR environment correspondent Brian Roewe reported in the original coverage: "Laudato Trees — a play on the name of Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home" — has sought out Catholic locations to plant American beeches and chestnut oaks alongside other native and well-adapted species, seeing potential in the church's expansive property footprint in the nation's capital."
Watch the video below, and read the full report "Laudato Trees planting program enlists Catholic properties to help increase DC's canopy" here.
