9: Relational Leadership and Laudato Si’: Pope Francis’ Call to Care for Our Common Home

These are turbulent times for earth and its nearly eight billion inhabitants (Poole, Gharib, & Sofia, 2017). Technological advancements, economic globalization, and a mentality of excessive consumption, among other factors, have contributed to the extraction of our planet’s natural resources at an unprecedented rate and magnitude (Chappell, 2017; Peppard, 2014; Steffen, Broadgate, Deutsch, Gaffney, & Ludwig, 2015; United Nations General Assembly, 2015). However, in an “important sign of hope” (Francis, 2015c, para. 10), the 70^th session of the United Nations General Assembly (2015) adopted a resolution titled, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a non-binding international action plan with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals are “aspirational and global, with each Government setting its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances” (p. 13).