Adopting a sustainable lifestyle isn’t about losing but gaining, by welcoming something better. That something is connection—with the natural world, the human family, even our interior selves. Still, it’s so easy to succumb to the idea that things are the gateway to happiness.

Why is that? Do we accumulate to fill a void of dissatisfaction? Or maybe it’s our way of fabricating beauty, order, security and status.

In developed countries, we amass and discard resources and goods carelessly, often out of habit or to appease our desire for comfort and convenience. Rarely do we consider the toll that extraction of resources from the earth, production and use of dangerous chemicals, or the disposal of non-biodegradable waste have on our land, water and air, other living organisms and ourselves.

—Laudato Si'  23

Pursuing a Common Good

Being mindful about how we live can reveal new practices that sustain a more equitable and healthy future for our planet. It can also induce a mindset of sufficiency—the knowledge that what we have is enough—and hospitality—a generosity for the common good.

Key areas to address include use of natural resources, energy and single-use plastics, and food consumption and sourcing. Just making a few changes can simplify our lives and influence broader cultural and institutional changes, especially in business operations and production.

—Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross Constitutions