UW Badger Catholic Honored for Efforts in Conservation

The University of Wisconsin campus is home to dozens of student organizations whose focus is geared specifically to sustainable practices. You can imagine what a pleasant surprise it has been for Badger Catholics after learning that our organization has been chosen by the Office of Sustainability for the Bucky Award for Conservation and Sustainability, the first Bucky Award in our history!

I am convinced that we won this award not because we have done more than all of those sustainably-minded organizations have done to promote conservation and sustainability, but because our efforts are the fruit of what all of these organizations have been working toward for years: the widespread acknowledgment of the reality that sustainability is not to be relegated to a certain class of students who take certain courses and are a part of a certain campus subculture, but that it is for everybody. In other words, responsible use of resources is just common sense. We owe a huge debt to those other student organizations for educating the student body all of these years in order to make good sense more commonplace!

Of course, as Catholics, we believe that while sustainable practices are certainly a matter of common sense, they are also much more than that. They are a mandate upon our consciences from our Creator. In the face of a consumerist culture of waste, He asks us to live simply—to master the fleeting appetites and comforts of the flesh for the sake of the lasting gifts he has given us. He asks us to share in the process of creation’s redemption and restoration, through Christ.

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