SCU Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative

04/06/2026

Help SCU’s Environmental Justice & the Common Good Initiative foster community-engaged research and learning for environmental and social justice.

Donations support student researchers to participate in our community-driven research for environmental justice with partners in the San Francisco Bay Area, California’s Central Valley, and Central America. Help students apply their research skills directly to community needs for food security, access to safe water, protection from toxic chemicals, and other environmental justice issues around our region and around the world.

Your donation – of any size – will also help us unlock a $5000 challenge grant.

Donate by Weds April 8 at https://tinyurl.com/3nwbm3u3

Link to donate: https://tinyurl.com/3nwbm3u3

03/03/2026

We are surrounded by , and its growing use is driving a huge expansion of data center construction. Many times, these data centers are built in communities already burdened by pollution and poverty. They also require massive amounts of energy and water to function. So when we use ChatGPT, Gemini, Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, etc., do we recognize the enormous impacts of their use?

Join us on Thursday, March 5th at 1 p.m. ET for an online discussion of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of data centers and how we can respond as people of faith. Register at bit.ly/DataCentersCreation

02/23/2026

SCU’s Environmental Justice & the Common Good Initiative is hiring a Communications Intern. This is a great opportunity for an SCU student to develop your social media, web design, and graphics skills while learning about environmental justice. See the job description and apply by March 3 on Workday at https://www.myworkday.com/scu/d/inst/15$392530/9925$15749.htmld

02/12/2026

Twenty students in Chris Bacon's Environmental Studies capstone class, and several research assistants from the Initiative’s Food Justice Program and Bacon’s ACRAF Lab, gathered at SCU’s Forge garden to learn about ancestral vegan tamales from the La Huasteca region in Hidalgo, Mexico. Eleazar Flores from Ely’s Bakery – an educator, baker, and tamale-making expert from the Nahualt indigenous culture – guided the students in preparing these special tamales that the Indigenous community uses to celebrate seven days after a new baby is born. Slow-roasted sesame and pepper-based salsa, combined with fresh cilantro, squash, and cooked beans, is wrapped in a corn masa tamale and in banana leaves, then softened over the fire. Students learned that many original Mexican recipes are vegan, even if they are not called that in Mexico. Later, a capstone student team interviewed Ely as part of an educational video they are producing about diverse and resilient food economies in the South San Francisco Bay Area.

02/04/2026

02/03/2026

This is great news worth celebrating! Congratulations Amah Mutson Land Trust, Peninsula Open Space Trust, Green Foothills, and everyone who joined the Protect Juristac coalition to win this long struggle to protect sacred lands.

02/03/2026

Congratulations, Ely's Bakery! We're proud of the SCU Food Justice Lab's work with you and Veggielution

11/11/2025

Follow at Ecojesuit, sharing the voices of youth and Indigenous peoples for and .

11/11/2025

Sending thanks to Jesuits, Catholics, and all those who are calling for climate justice at this week. We are with you in spirit!

11/03/2025

Here's an important opportunity for community involvement for in . Check it out!

Safe Jobs, Healthy Families: Re-imagining Just Futures

Thursday November 6, 2025
5:00 - 6:30 pm
Learning Commons 129

Please join us in close conversation with local organizer and attorney Mandy Hawes. Hawes is the founder and president of Safe Jobs, Healthy Families, and has directed number of environmental organizations across San José for nearly five decades. She was instrumental in the passage of California’s Proposition 65, one of the first and strongest chemical handling laws in the nation.

Hawes will be speaking to us about her new project, Safe Jobs, Healthy Families, and her ongoing community outreach to secure redress for workers and residents whose health has been damaged by industrial pollution and workplace hazards.

Click on the link to register: https://bit.ly/cahsafejobs

11/03/2025

Welcome Capeltic-Nuestro Café to Santa Clara University! This is what looks like in your cup.

10/28/2025

Calling all SCU students to complete this year’s Basic Needs Survey by Nov 20!

The survey takes just 5-10 minutes to complete.

Enter to win one of multiple $50 gift cards, which will be randomly selected.

This survey on students’ food and housing security informs SCU’s Basic Needs Program.

Take the survey now at https://bit.ly/SCUBasicNeeds

Survey closes November 20, 2025

Interested in previous findings, resources, and award updates? See http://bit.ly/48kTDit