The Archdiocese of Chicago will shift its entire electricity purchase to 100% renewable sources this year. The Dec. 17, 2023, announcement, timed to coincide with Pope Francis’ 87th birthday, said the renewable energy purchase is the equivalent of removing 15,000 cars from the road annually, or the carbon emissions generated by 8,500 homes per year. “From the early days of his papacy, Pope Francis has written and spoken on the environmental crisis facing our common home and the creatures that inhabit it, including humankind,” said Cardinal Cupich. “As his words delivered at COP28 reminded us, the future of us all depends on the present that we now choose. As an expression of our commitment to the sanctity of life, the Archdiocese of Chicago has chosen to do all we can to ensure generations to come have a future.” Eric Wollan, the archdiocese’s chief capital assets officer, said the move came in response to “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”), a follow-up document to his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home,” that was published in October. “We’ve always been sensitive and always looked for ways to limit our carbon footprint or our impact on the environment, whether that’s sustainability or ways to reduce our energy consumption,” Wollan said. “This was a way that we could immediately have an impact. We are always looking for ways to help parishes reduce their energy consumption, but that takes time.” The archdiocese will make the move to renewable electricity sources by purchasing enough renewable energy certificates from its electricity supplier to cover the needs of its parishes, schools, offices and other facilities, which total about 2,000 buildings. The supplier then will buy that much energy from renewable sources, Wollan said, with much of the power likely to come from wind farms in the Midwest. The energy cost to parishes and other archdiocesan organizations will be 3% to 4% higher than it would be without the commitment to renewable sources, Wollan said. “When you look at the cost tradeoff with the environmental benefit, I think the parishes are more than willing,” he said, adding that as more renewable energy infrastructure is developed, the incremental cost of buying renewable energy will likely decrease. The archdiocese’s latest energy initiative follows several other projects, including the construction of a cross-shaped solar installation at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. The only such installation at a U.S. seminary, the array is expected to produce the energy equivalent of about 215 tons of coal annually and to save approximately $1 million in utility costs over its lifespan. “The solar array, installed three years ago, has proved to be good investment and an excellent demonstration to our seminarians and the thousands of people who visit the grounds every year that care of our common home is a biblical responsibility,” said Father John Kartje, rector/president of USML. “Our seminarians come from 25 dioceses in the U.S. and abroad and we believe they will carry the commitment to good stewardship of the earth with them as they live out their vocations in the years ahead.” At the same time, the archdiocese will continue its efforts to help parishes and schools reduce their energy consumption, which will reduce their energy costs as well as help the environment. Those efforts include facilitating energy audits for parishes and schools that want them. Such audits will provide a baseline for each organization’s energy use patterns and a roadmap for them to reduce their energy use going forward. The archdiocese also has encouraged parishes to make the switch to LED lighting, which uses much less power than other forms of lighting, and to consider updating their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, especially those with boilers that have been in place for decades. “A lot of parishes have already undertaken this work,” Wollan said. “In the last 36 months, across the diocese, we’ve done over 100 HVAC projects, and at least 50 have been boiler replacements. That’s millions of dollars of boiler work.” Those costs are borne by the parishes, he said, noting that the parishes reap the benefit of reduced costs. “The ultimate goal is doing more of what we’re doing,” Wollan said. “We want to support sustainable energy. … What helps the most is shrinking our energy footprint and reducing our energy use.”