Ateneo co-organizes Jesuit university conference on the 10th year anniversary of Laudato Si’

Last 12–14 June 2025, Ateneo de Manila co-organized a conference of Jesuit universities from different continents entitled “Ten Years of Laudato si’: Hope and Challenges.” The conference was held at the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome, Italy. Ateneo was represented by Assistant Vice President for Social and Environmental Engagement for Development and Sustainability (AVP SEEDS) Dr Leland Joseph R Dela Cruz and Director of the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability Dr Emmanuel D Delocado.

The first day of the conference focused on featuring the best practices and promising strategies in promoting the ecological conversion of university stakeholders and in mainstreaming infrastructure and curricula contributing to sustainability. In one of the sessions, Ateneo de Manila shared the stage with Loyola University Chicago (USA) and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Argentina) for a panel discussion on the “University as a Laboratory of Sustainability and Integral Ecology”. In this session, Dr Delocado talked about the University initiatives on the management of energy, water, waste, and biodiversity in the Loyola Heights campus, as well as how these structures are introduced to formal and informal curricula in order to propagate awareness of sustainability on campus.

The conference shifted gears to foster a more discursive mode on the second and third days. The Jesuit universities had an open discussion on their own experiences in advancing integral ecology education, the influence of artificial intelligence to sustainability, the future of theology and ministry in the changing geopolitics, and socioecological transitions amidst the numerous problems of the world. In particular, in the session on “Integral Ecology Education and Communication”, Ateneo presented about the creative strategies of embedding sustainability knowledge in teaching, research, and outreach in the last ten years as a response to Laudato Si’.

The conference ended with the different universities committing to strengthen integral ecology initiatives for the next ten years and to continue the discussion by forming a network of sustainability champions among Jesuit institutions. The conference was jointly organized by the Ateneo de Manila University (Asia), Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana (Holy See), Institut de Théologie de la Compagnie de Jésus (Africa), Integral Ecology Research Network (Europe), Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Latin America), Georgetown University and Loyola University Chicago (North America).