By John Norton

OSV does its part to offset its carbon footprint

Care to guess how many trees it takes each year to print this newspaper?

Our production department recently calculated the answer: 291 trees (to make roughly 220 tons of paper). When you count all of OSV's other periodicals, books and parish offering envelopes (800 million!), our company uses about 2,200 trees annually.

So, as part of a "Green Week" (and Arbor Day) initiative here at OSV this spring, we planted 1,500 red oak trees near a local lake with the help of 80 volunteers from the community, including Boy, Girl and Cub Scouts and members of the Boys and Girls Club.

We distributed an additional 500 trees to the 340 OSV employees to plant in their own yards.

Other components of the week, intended to promote a corporate culture of recycling, reusing and reducing waste, included:

• Recycling 105 pounds of batteries from home and office.
• Recycling 2,287 pounds of waste paper collected from offices in "spring cleaning days."
• A company give-away to employees of used computers and monitors.
• Introduction of an Xclerator air hand dryer in bathrooms to conserve paper towels.
• Display in the cafeteria of biodegradable plateware and silverware made from cornstarch, reed grass and sugar cane fiber.

Care for and stewardship of the environment is a key part of the Catholic worldview. One of its most famous practitioners was St. Francis of Assisi, whose order is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year (see Page 14).

You or your neighbors may even have a statue of St. Francis watching over the flora and fauna in your yard. If so, be sure not to miss Mary DeTurris Poust's reflection on the radical, Christ-centered love St. Francis lived and represents (see Page 8).

The Franciscan emphasis on the correlation between God's creation and care for the poor has found life in a new organization called the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change.

The group's website does not attempt to sort out the science behind climate change, but instead focuses on perennial Catholic principles of stewardship. It also offers the opportunity to make a "St. Francis pledge" on the environment, which starts with a commitment to pray (see Pages 6-7).

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Don't miss the good-news pro-life story by Scott Alessi on the introduction in the U.S. House of the Pregnant Women Support Act (see Page 4). The bill, backed by the U.S. bishops' conference, would provide practical resources to women who are pregnant and might be tempted to have an abortion if they don't receive help.

I look forward to hearing from you at feedback@osv.com.