Stewardship

Stewardship is personal responsibility for taking care of another person's property or financial affairs. Historically, stewardship was the responsibility given household servants to bring food and drinks to a big castle dining hall. The term was then expanded to indicate a household employee's responsibility for managing household or domestic affairs. Stewardship later became the responsibility for taking care of passengers' domestic needs on a ship, train and airplane, or managing the service provided to diners in a restaurant. The term continues to be used in these specific ways, but it is also used in a more general way to refer to a responsibility to take care of something one does not own.

Environmental stewardship

Environmental stewardship is the responsibility to take care of our natural resources to ensure that they are sustainably managed for current and future generations. Stewardship of the environment can include recycling, conservation, regeneration, and restoration. Stewardship is an ethic whereby citizens participate in the careful and responsible management of air, land, water and biodiversity to ensure healthy ecosystems for present and future generations.^[1]

Stewardship is an ethic that embodies cooperative planning and management of environmental resources with organizations, communities and others to actively engage in the prevention of loss of habitat and facilitate its recovery in the interest of long-term sustainability (Fisheries and Oceans Canada - 'Stewardship in Action' program)

Environmental stewardship may have a religious connotation for some people, as in the Christian suggestion that people should be "stewards of God's earth, and it is in their duty to respect His creatures."^{[citation needed]}

Product stewardship is a specific aspect of environmental stewardship that applies to commercial products.

Organizations

In an organizational context, stewardship refers to management's responsibility to properly utilize and develop its resources, including its people, its property and its financial assets. For more in depth detail, see, in Organizational development, the pages on succession planning, employee development, and performance improvement. In a development sense, stewardship also refers to thanking and recognizing donors. This includes organizing thank you phone calls, recognition events, and conveying the impact that the donor's gift has had.

Land claims

Stewardship in a land claims context is when a monarch or other noble may appoint a steward to oversee parts of his or her realm.

Religion

Stewardship is also a concept in theology. Green Christianity emphasizes stewardship as a Bible-based environmental outlook.

See also

• Agency (law)
• Forest farming

References

1. ^ Alberta Stewardship Network

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