Issue Paper: Environmental Topics

Caring for Creation: Environmental Topics
NOVEMBER 2007

Background
The earth is a planet of beauty and abundance; the earth system is wonderfully intricate and incredibly complex. But today living creatures, and the air, soil, and water that support them, face unprecedented threats. Many threats are global: most stem directly from human activity (“Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice” [ELCA, 1993], section 2.B-1). [1] As Christians we understand human beings as fundamentally responsible before God. With the reach of our contemporary human knowledge and the power we employ in new technologies, this responsibility in terms of caring for creation now includes the global future itself.

Caring for a global future includes the range of issues from health to environment to biotechnology. Over the past few decades, hundreds of companies have begun to voluntarily issue statements about their environmental policies and practices. One could even say that a shift has been occurring where companies no longer see environmental stewardship as imposed from outside governmental forces, but they have begun to see it as a market-driven opportunity that enhances productivity, corporate image-building, and shareholder value. The key question for investors then becomes whether one can glean enough meaningful information about the environmental performance and sustainable development strategies.

The faith-based investment community for many years has been involved with looking at environmental issues. Two guidelines have been embraced to give foundations to the work. The first is “Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility: Bench Marks for Measuring Business Performance,” The Corporate Examiner 31, nos. 4–6 (2001), [2] where the first set of principles offered includes those around ecosystems. They provide an ethical standard of measurement on which to base decisions about corporate social responsibility. Companies are asked to look at their actions so they do not damage the global and local environment. The precautionary principle is invoked. Clean-up is sought when damage has occurred, and stakeholder consultation is desirable at every step along the way.

A second way of looking at sustainability reporting guidelines is found in the new Global Reporting Initiative 2006, Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. [3] These, along with the CERES (Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies) Principles, [4] set the framework for the environmental dimension of sustainability concerns that an organization’s impact has on living and nonliving systems.

ELCA Social Policy
“Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice” (ELCA, 1993): The social statement develops the Church’s vision of creation, while showing us the gift of hope. It calls us to justice through principles of participation, solidarity, sufficiency, and sustainability. Specifically this social statement calls (section 5.E.1-1) the church to engage in dialogue with corporations on how to promote justice for creation. This includes dialogues around implementing comprehensive environmental principles, healthy environments, and cooperation between the public and private sector regarding sustainability.

In addition, the Churchwide Assembly in 2001 (Assembly Action CA01.07.57) [5] reaffirmed the commitment of this church to the care of creation, including global warming, as part of the web of complex interwoven environmental concerns.

ELCA Church Council passed a screen [6] relating to environmental issues on April 21, 1990 (CC90.4.38).

Corporate Response
In becoming a good steward of creation, the corporate world can provide comprehensive environmental reporting. This would include articulating the corporate vision, outlining policies, and providing methods of measuring environmental performance. Companies must move from being compliance-oriented to engaging in best practices in environmental management.

Social Criteria Investment Screens
The energy and environment social criteria investment screen approved by the ELCA in 1990 and updated in 2007 responds to this issue. http://www.elca.org/advocacy/corporate/environmental.asp 

Resolutions Guidelines for ELCA

• We support proposals asking for endorsement of the CERES Principles.
• We support promotion of renewable sources of energy.
• We support requests for reporting on the development of renewable energy sources.
• We support requests for reduction and/or elimination of toxins, pesticides, and/or radioactive materials in the environment.
• We support reports on toxin exposures.
• We support reports on environmental impact assessments for oil drilling.
• We support reports on recycling strategies.
• We support reports that ask for risk assessments and propose measures to reduce the risks of nuclear storage.
• We support reports regarding the use of antibiotics in the food supply chain.
• We support reports regarding long term sustainability in the delivery of food.
• We support reports evaluating the impact of company operations on water usage, water resources, and land as well as the company’s waste management policies.
• We support reports identifying environmental hazards and their impact on the communities in which a company operates as well as reports on the development of a company’s policy about such hazards.
• We support reports identifying a company’s work in environmentally or culturally sensitive areas.
• We support the preparation of sustainability reports.

Recommended by ACCSR September 5, 2003
Endorsed by DCS Board October 24, 2003
Approved by Church Council November 2003
Updated by ACCSR September 28, 2007
Approved by Church Council November 2007

[1] Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1993. http://www.elca.org/socialstatements/environment/

[2] The Steering Group of the Global Principles Network. Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility: Bench Marks for Measuring Business Performance. New York, NY: Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 2003. http://www.bench-marks.org/

[3] The GRI Board of Directors. Sustainability Reporting Guidelines: Global Reporting Initiative. The Netherlands: Global Reporting Initiative, 2006.

[4] Ceres Investors and Environmentalists. Ceres Principles. Boston, MA: Ceres, 1989.

[5] Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Global Warming Assembly Action CA01.07.57. Chicago, IL: Office of the Secretary, ELCA, 2001.