LISTENING TO THE EARTH - An Environmental Audit For Benedictine Communities ppt

LISTENING TO THE EARTH An Environmental Audit For Benedictine Communities by Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania at Lake Erie-Allegheny Earth Force About the authors: This Environmental Audit for Benedictine Communities in Central and South America was prepared under the direction of members of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA whose work with Earth Force, Inc. gives expression to the Community’s commitment to Ecological Stewardship. Principal author, William L. Bartlett, graduated from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Mathematics; he has been an advocate for environmental protection and human rights through his work with various non-profit making organisations. Presently he is preparing to spend a year serving as an Americorps volunteer working with Lake Erie- Allegheny Earth Force, where he will continue to work with groups of youth trying to implement sustainable changes in their communities. He remains very grateful for the Benedictine community of Erie, and for his beautiful son who was born during the preparation of this manual. Annette Marshall, OSB has served as Director of Administration for the Western Pennsylvania (USA) branch of Earth Force* since 1997. After twenty- five years as teacher and school administrator in Catholic elementary and high schools, she now enjoys sharing her love for nature and her commitment to developing the next generation of civic leaders with school teachers and youth leaders. Pat Lupo, OSB has served as Program Director for the Western Pennsylvania (USA) branch of Earth Force since 1997. Daily through the education of teachers and students and in her personal commitment to local, state, national and bi-national boards, Pat models responsible citizenship and environmental stewar dship. Margarita Dangel, OSB has served as Education Director for the Western P ennsylvania (USA) branch of Earth Force since 1997. Her position as a summer camp director and assistant for environmental education at the Benedictine owned center prepar ed her in many ways to guide youth and educators to become actively involved in their community. Her goal is to help young people realize that they are really needed in their community and that they can contribute to finding solutions to envir onmental problems. * www.earthforce.org/section/offices/lea Cover image: “Web of Life” painting by Daniel Fallshaw www .artofcreation.co.uk. LISTENING TO THE EARTH An Environmental Audit for Benedictine Communities by William L Bartlett Margarita Dangel OSB Pat Lupo OSB Annette Marshall OSB Lake Erie-Allegheny Earth Force, Erie, PA, USA This publication is funded by The World Bank’s Faiths and Environment Initiative* with support from the President’s Contingency Fund in partnership with ARC (Alliance of Religions and Conservation)† The authors would like to thank: Joanne Robinson – Handbook Co-ordinator, ARC Tony Whitten – Coordinator, the World Bank’s Faiths and Environment Initiative Bekir Onursal and John Morton – World Bank peer reviewers Richard Prime – designer P. Martin Neyt OSB and Gisela Happ OSB – AIM, Alliance Inter-Monastères, Paris Jordi Sánchez – translation into Spanish IoL Language Services Ltd (Débora Chobanian) – translation into Portuguese Published in London 2006 This edition is also published in Spanish and Portuguese © Earth Force, Inc. 2006 * www.worldbank.org/faithsandenvironment † www .arcworld.org FOREWORD by Joan D Chittister OSB . . . . . . vii ABOUT THIS MANUAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 BENEDICTINE LIFE AND MINISTRIES Environmental Stewardship in Benedictine Life: Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Environmental Stewardship in Benedictine Life: Inventory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1. Prayer and Liturgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2. Ministries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3. Community Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4. Community Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5. Community Resource Management . . . . . 7 6. Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Environmental Stewardship in Benedictine Life: Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1. Prayer and Liturgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2. Ministries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3. Community P olicy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4. Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5. Resource Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6. Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2 AIR Overview of Chapter:Air Pollution, Indoor and Outdoor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Air, Earth’s Sacred Gift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Combustion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Over view of Outdoor and Indoor Air Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Outdoor Air P ollution: Assessment . . . . . 16 This Chapter’s Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Our Atmosphere: A Gift to be Preserved . . 16 Problems in the Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The health effects of air pollution . . . . . . . 18 What’s causing the problems? . . . . . . . . . . 19 What’s being done? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 What can we do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Outdoor Air Pollution: Inventory . . . . . . 20 1. Vehicles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2. Community Transportation Practices. . . 21 3. Public Transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4. Other Internal Combustion Engines . . . 22 5. Other Combustion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 6 Ozone depleting substances . . . . . . . . . . 23 7. Herbicides and Pesticides. . . . . . . . . . . . 23 8. Community Tree Preservation . . . . . . . . 23 9A. Expert Environmental Information Source. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 9B. Expert Public Health Information Source. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Outdoor Air Pollution: Evaluation. . . . . . 24 1. Community Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2. Community Transportation Practices. . . 27 3. Public Transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 4. Other Combustion Engines . . . . . . . . . . 30 5. Bur ning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 6. Ozone Depleting Substances . . . . . . . . . 31 7. Pesticides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 8. Community Tree Preservation . . . . . . . . 31 9. Expert Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Indoor Air P ollution: Assessment . . . . . . 34 Air pollution—Inside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Indoor Air Pollution: Inventory. . . . . . . . 34 1. Types and uses of community fuel . . . . . 34 2. Getting fuel; buying and gathering . . . . 35 3. F uel drying (for biomass fuels). . . . . . . . 35 4. Health and Wellbeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 5. Smoking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 6. V entilation of the Kitchen ar ea . . . . . . . 36 7. The stove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 8. Smoke extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 9. Education, Policy, and Civic Engagement38 i Contents I ndoor Air Pollution: Evaluation . . . . . . . 38 1-2. Types, Uses, Costs of Community’s F uel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3. Fuel Drying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 4. Health and Wellbeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 5. Smoking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 6. Ventilation of the kitchen area. . . . . . . . 39 7-8. The stove and smoke extraction . . . . . 40 9. Education, Policy, and Civic Engagement41 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 3 DRINKING WATER Water: Catalyst and Crisis. . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Water: The Catalyst of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Water: Global Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Uses and Abuses of Water Resources . . . . . 46 Assessment of Community Practices . . . . . 47 Drinking Water Quality and Source Protection: Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 1. Main Drinking Water Source. . . . . . . . . 47 2. Potential sources of pollution: . . . . . . . . 48 3. NGO involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 4. Community Water Governance . . . . . . . 49 5. Water Quality Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 6. Water Treatment by the Community. . . 49 7. Water Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Drinking Water Quality and Source Protection: Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 1. Water sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 2. Water Sour ce Pollution Hazards . . . . . . 51 3. W ater r esour ce protection committee . . 52 4. Water Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 5. Water quality testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 6. Water Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 7. Water handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Site-Specific Sour ce: Assessment . . . . . . . 57 A Surface Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 B Dug Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 C1 Borehole: Deep with Mechanized P umping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 C2 Borehole with Handpump . . . . . . . . . . 58 D Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 E Rainwater Collection and Storage . . . . . 59 F Vendors (Tanker Trucks) . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 G P iped W ater (General) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 G1 Piped Water (from Storage Tank) . . . . 60 G2 Piped Water (from Water Provider) . . 60 S ite-Specific Source: Evaluations. . . . . . . 61 Surface water (A) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 G round Water: Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Ground water: Dug wells (B) . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Ground water: Boreholes (C) . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Ground water: Springs (D). . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Rainwater (E) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Water vendors (F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Piped Water (G) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Water Conservation: Inventory . . . . . . . . 69 1. Monitoring Water Consumption . . . . . . 69 2. Leaks and plumbing fixtures . . . . . . . . . 69 3. Water Provider’s Practices . . . . . . . . . . . 70 4. Education and Personal Habits . . . . . . . 70 5. Using Greywater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Water Conservation: Evaluation . . . . . . . 70 1. Monitoring Water Consumption . . . . . . 70 2. Leaks and plumbing fixtures . . . . . . . . . 71 3. Water Provider’s Practices . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4. Education and Personal Habits . . . . . . . 72 5. Using Greywater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 46 Ways of Saving Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Saving Water Outdoors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 General Water Saving Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4 SANITATION AND WASTE Overview: Sanitation, Municipal Waste, and Hazardous Waste. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Community Excr eta Handling and Sanitation: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Ecological Sanitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Sanitation and Population Explosion: A Deadly Mix?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Excreta: Environmental Pollutant and Health Hazard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Sewer ed Sanitation Technology: Pr oblematic and Unsustainable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Sustainable Approach to Sanitation, and this Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Community Excreta Handling and Sanitation: Inventor y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 1. Mix or No-Mix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 2. Soil conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 3. Characteristics of Sanitation System: . . 82 4. Resource Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 5. Sewer Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 6. Waste Water Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 ii L istening To The Earth 7 . Hygiene Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 8. General Sanitation Practices . . . . . . . . . 85 Community Excreta Handling and Sanitation: Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 1. Mix or No-Mix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 2. Soil Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 3. General Characteristics of Sanitation System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 3i. Characteristics of Sanitation System: Plumbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 3ii. Characteristics of Sanitation System: Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 3iii. Characteristics of Sanitation System: Emptying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Evaluation of Sanitation Facilities (3-3iii) . 97 4. Resource Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5. Sewer Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 6. Wastewater Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 7. Hygienic Behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 8. General Sanitation Practices . . . . . . . . 103 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Community Solid Waste Management: Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Preserving the Gifts of Garbage . . . . . . . . 105 The Inherent Dangers of Solid Waste . . . 105 The Waste Crisis: A Burden Borne by the Poor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Contributions to the Mismanagement of Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 What’s Being Done? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Community Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Community Solid Waste Management: Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 1. Community Waste Generation Survey 110 2. Community Waste Collection and Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 3. Solid Waste Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 4. R ecycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 5. Land Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 6A. Waste Handling Workers or Workers’ Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 6B. Governmental Regulatory Agency . . . 116 6C. Environmental Information Source. . 116 6D. Expert P ublic Health/Safety Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 7. Cleaning of Public Areas . . . . . . . . . . . 117 8. Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Community Solid Waste Management: Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 1 . Community Waste Generation Survey 118 2. Community’s Practice for Solid Waste C ollection and/or End-Disposal . . . . . . . . 119 3. Solid Waste Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 4. Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 5. Land Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 6. Seeking Expert Information . . . . . . . . . 125 7. Cleaning of Public Areas . . . . . . . . . . . 126 8. Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Hazardous Products and Wastes: Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 An Overview of this Assessment . . . . . . . 129 What is Hazardous Waste? . . . . . . . . . . . 129 How Hazardous Waste Affects Health. . . 130 How Hazardous Waste Affects the Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 What needs to be done? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Your Community’s Responsibility . . . . . . 133 Hazardous Products and Wastes Handling: Inventory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 1. Hazardous Product Survey. . . . . . . . . . 133 2. Hazardous Product Handling. . . . . . . . 134 3. Quantities and Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . 135 4. Legislative Policy Framework and Regional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Hazardous Products and Wastes Handling: Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 1-2. Hazardous Product Inventory and Handling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 3. Quantities and P riorities . . . . . . . . . . . 149 4. Legislative Policy Framework and Regional R esources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 5 ENERGY Ener gy: The Animation of the Universe 155 Properties of Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Many Forms of Energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Electricity, a Special Form of Energy . . . . 156 Electricity: Modern ‘Utility’ . . . . . . . . . . . 156 The Grid and Social Inequality . . . . . . . . 157 P r oducing Electricity, Creating Catastrophes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Sustainable Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 K eeping Ener gy Sacr ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Electricity Production Practices: Inventory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 iii 1 Community Consumption . . . . . . . . . . 160 2 Community Generative Potential . . . . . 160 3 Community Generative Practices . . . . . 160 4. Sources of Expert Information . . . . . . . 161 5. Electricity Provider Governance. . . . . . 162 6. Public and Environmental Safety. . . . . 163 7. Provider Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 8. Community Practices and Education. . 163 Electricity Production Practices: Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 1. Community Consumption . . . . . . . . . . 164 2. Community Generative Potential. . . . . 164 3. Community Generative Practices. . . . . 165 4. Sources of Expert Information . . . . . . . 169 5. Electricity Provider Governance. . . . . . 169 6. Public and Environmental Safety. . . . . 170 7. Provider Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 8. Community Practices and Education. . 171 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Conservation Practices: Inventory. . . . . 173 1. Community Energy Use. . . . . . . . . . . . 173 2. Air Conditioning/Cooling. . . . . . . . . . . 173 3. Air/Space Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 4 . Refrigeration and Freezing . . . . . . . . . . 176 5. Water Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 6 . Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 7. Electric Motors and Pumps . . . . . . . . . 177 8. General Conservation Practices . . . . . . 177 Electricity/Energy Conservation: Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 1. Community Energy Use. . . . . . . . . . . . 178 2. Air Conditioning/Cooling. . . . . . . . . . . 178 3. Air/Space Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 4. Refrigeration and Freezing . . . . . . . . . . 181 5. Water Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 6. Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 7. Electric Motors and Pumps . . . . . . . . . 183 8. General Conservation Practices . . . . . . 184 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 6 AFTER THE AUDIT: DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN Prioritizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Evaluating Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Generating an Action Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Appendix: General Resources. . . . . . . . . . 190 iv L istening To The Earth v vi [...]... the other For Benedictines, an environmental audit is not a fad It is not a social nicety It is certainly not an option It is simply a contemporary manifestation of an ancient commitment to the rhythm of the earth, the needs of the community and the God of Creation Congratulations to those who see its sacramental value, its claim to the Benedictine heart They shall be called blessed for centuries to. .. human-produced pollutants can and does kill plants, trees, and small organisms, and can cause extreme illness in humans It is up to us to become aware of and change those practices of ours which contribute to the poisoning of the Earth s atmosphere A Definitions In order to understand and communicate about air pollution, it is quite helpful to know a little bit about the most common air pollutants These... our eyes The industrial revolution that made the robber barons rich also made the globe poor: We poisoned our fresh waters and drowned them in tin cans and coffee cups We wasted our forests and drained the world of their medicinal herbs We turned farmland into grazing land to make cheap hamburgers and so denied the people of the land, the very land they needed to live We belched gasses into the atmosphere... what it needs to do, an action plan needs be developed and implemented This plan should include the specifics regarding how to acquire and mobilize the resources necessary for success, and a deadline established A budget may need to be created, and funding secured The plan should include how to effectively communicate the change to other community members As well, the means of assessing the action’s... segments: an introduction, an inventory, and an evaluation The introductions provide background information about the subjects at hand, including the scope and importance of the problems, and how individuals’ actions contribute to the problems The inventories, then, are series of questions which are suggested approaches to inventorying the behaviors of community members Lastly, each suggested inventory... of the earth to support future generations has been called into serious question Donnella Meadows explains, “What the scientists and now also the economists I Principles for sustainable living include: • • • • 5 respect and care for the community of life improve the quality of human life conserve the Earth s vitality and diversity minimize the depletion of non-renewable resources Listening To The Earth. .. Deforestation and agriculture Natural forests cover 47% of the land area of Latin America, and the Amazon basin accounts for onethird of the world’s tropical forest area These forests are an important source of products, fuelwood and employment for local people, a major source of foreign exchange for governments, serve important functions in protecting watersheds and freshwater resources, act as a storehouse for. .. moment in Earth s history, a time when humanity must choose its future As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise… The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for the Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways... order, a new pattern of life, a new commitment to the land and to life Almost 700 years later, Cistercian groups again devoted themselves to the reforestation, the replanting and the reclamation of some of the worst land in Europe As a result of those conscious efforts, Europe became a garden again Life thrived People organized themselves into productive communities Agriculture flourished everywhere... its ministries? 123456789 Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living, WCU/UNEP/WWF If your community offers retreats, to what extent is attention given to the relationship between humans and the cosmos, between humanity and the earth? 123456789 As we look to this section of the audit, we do so knowing that today’s call to Benedictine Stewardship is a call to sustainable living If we hold . LISTENING TO THE EARTH An Environmental Audit For Benedictine Communities by Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania at Lake Erie-Allegheny Earth. new commitment to the land and to life. Almost 700 years later, Cistercian groups again devoted themselves to the reforestation, the replanting and the reclamation