Energy & Laudato Si’ 101: CUA students advise archdiocese on sustainability upgrades

At the beginning of the year, the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, received a report on ways to improve energy use at its pastoral center.

The in-depth, 79-page slide deck provided analysis of the three-story administrative building's current energy demands and offered a range of possible upgrades, from simple steps like upgrading insulation to more complex solar installations. The report didn't come from the local utility or a solar developer or even the archdiocese's facilities manager. Instead, it was compiled by college students at Catholic University of America.

The students were part of a new CUA course on net-zero design — where a building produces enough energy to counterbalance the amount required to power it. But unlike most architectural classes, this one constructed hands-on sustainability instruction atop a foundation of theology and ethics, framed around why a building's energy and emissions footprint matters at all.

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