Preparing Religious Environmental Plans (PREP):
The Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin – Madison provides an education and outreach platform for faith leaders and religious institutions where they can listen, observe, gain knowledge in how to protect the environment and avert climate catastrophes for their communities. Our mission is to support faith-led environmental efforts locally and around the world through collaborations on capacity building, project management, and public outreach with faith leaders and religious institutions focused on environmental and climate issues.
As part of this mission, Loka offers a FREE online training experience for faith leaders from around the world that is designed to be practical, personalized, and peer-supported on a yearly basis. This non-credit course integrates science with religious and traditional knowledge, providing participants with hands-on training on how to design and manage environmental and climate projects that are specific to their geographies, communities, and faith traditions. This project, Preparing Religious Environmental Plans, PREP for short, launched on January 5, 2026. We currently have over 40 faith leaders from 15 countries taking the course who will stay with us as a cohort until the end of 2026.
The PREP course consists of a combination of reading materials, pre-recorded lectures and videos, live weekly lecture and Q&A, and lively discussions among learners in the group chat, as well as a weekly faith-based home room that allows learners to congregate with other learners and work with their home room leader directly. Given that this was the first year of PREP, Loka culminated the PREP course in an all-expense paid in-person convening from March 23-27, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, where more specialized training beyond the scope of the online course – including media and communications, campaign creation, and fundraising – was provided.
WHO IS IT FOR?
This program is for global faith leaders who have been searching for hands-on training and guidance from scientists and experts to develop environmental and climate projects that best suit their own community of faith, geography, and culture. Acknowledging that English may not be the second or even third language for participants, the materials are developed for an 8th grade reading level standard. We intersperse a lot of video with written materials and will also provide five faith-based home room experiences with a mentor that you can work with more closely. The course program also offers a live presentation followed by a question and answer session with a scientist or expert on a weekly basis.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE?
Applications for 2026 are closed!
Interested in our future programming, including PREP 2027? Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear about our offerings
COURSE LAYOUT
Week 1: Life on Earth
Week 2: State of the Environment
Week 3: Personal Reflection
Week 4: Power of Faith
Week 5: Introduction to Project Design
Week 6: Dimensions of Project Planning
Week 7: Project Management Methods
Week 8: Community Outreach and Partnerships
Week 9: Communications and Fundraising
Week 10: What Next? Your Role as an Environmental Leader!
FURTHER COURSE DETAILS
The learning objectives of the course include the delivery of:
Science-based explorations of contemporary environmental issues
Examination of humanity’s relationship with the environment through the lens of diverse faith traditions, ontologies, and philosophies
Assessments of environmental strategies and actions that can be initiated and managed by individual faith communities
Practicing of critical thinking and problem-solving skills including observing, reading, listening, analyzing, strategizing, teamwork
Development of environmental and climate project plans that are designed to meet local problems, threats, and vulnerabilities within local and regional contexts
We are deeply grateful to the Templeton World Charity Foundation for supporting the development of PREP and allowing us to offer the course for free to faith leaders!
