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Mark Your Calendars!

Featured Campus Events:
Sun Come Up, an academy award nominated film about climate change, will be screened on campus as part of our partnership with the Catholic Climate Covenant Coalition. Presentations by experts in the field and discussion will follow. 
  • Thursday, October 4, 6:30pm
  • Information Commons, 4th Floor
 
 
compost 
Join us for our Composting: Tips and Tricks workshop to learn the best techniques to turn food materials into compost.  The first portion of the workshop will give an overview and how to participate in the new Loyola Compost Collective Program. The second portion will cover vermicomposting and all the wonderful techniques for healthy and happy worms.
  • Thursday, October 11, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
  • Quinlan LSB, 3rd Floor Atrium
 
Social Justice, Human Rights, and Global Sustainability: Responsibility & Accountability will be presented by Dr. Khadija Khaja from Indiana School of Social Work, with comment from our own Director, Aaron Durnbaugh. This lecture is part of Homecoming Weekend festivities! A reception will follow.
  • Friday, October 12, 2:30pm - 6pm 
  • Lewis Towers, Beane Hall, Water Tower Campus


Grower's Guild is sponsoring the Homecoming Autumn Festivalat Loyola's own Urban Demonstration garden on the corner of Winthrop and Loyola Avenue. Activities include scarecrow-making, pumpkin painting, and an acoustic battle of the bands. Stop by to try some locally grown apples, apple cider, and vegan homemade apple pie! 
  • Saturday, October 13, 2pm-5pm
  • Urban Ag Garden, Winthrop Lot

 
Featured Community Events:
The Chicago Architectural Foundation's Open House weekend will feature 4 of Loyola's buildings: Klarchek Information Commons, Cuneo Hall, Mundelein Center, and Madonna de la Strada. This is a free event open to the public!
  • Sat & Sun, October 13 & 14, 9am - 5pm
  • Various locations throughout Chicago
Healing Nature: A Chicago Regional Forum on Ethics and Sustainability brings together local and national experts to present their perspectives on the relationship between nature and personal and social health. Scholarships and student scholarships available.
  • Tuesday, October 16, 9am - 4pm
  • Chicago Botanic Garden
 
is coming to Chicago,  November 2-4, 2012! This 
3-day conference entitled "Innovators and Visionaries Inspired by Nature" will feature keynote speakers Bill McKibben, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Richard Heinberg, and many more!
  • November 2-4, all day
  • UIC, Student Center East

 

The Chicago Wilderness Biennial Congress is coming up! This event will provide the representatives of the alliance's 260 member organizations a forum to join students, educators, volunteers, community partners, and interested members of the public in a dynamic exchange of ideas, success stories, and lessons learned.

  • Thursday, Nov 15, 8:30a-4:30p
  • UIC, The Forum 
Check out our Events Calendar for more event listings and registration!








Office of Sustainability
Loyola University Chicago
Record-Breaking Recycling Rates on Loyola's Campus

Reports generated this month show that Loyola has surpassed all of previous recycling records! The amount of recyclables collected on campus in August of 2012 is the highest in Loyola's history.

 

In 2007, Loyola switched to collecting recyclables with the "separating at the source" method which keeps recyclables separated from landfill items therefore preventing contamination within the recycling stream. Since then, the University has been collecting data on the amount of recycling taking place on Loyola's Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses. This data is tracked according to the percentage of total recyclables diverted from landfills through recycling, and the number of pounds of recyclable materials that were recycled, as opposed to thrown away.

 

For the first time since recycling started at Loyola in 2007, more than 50% of all recyclables at Loyola's Lake Shore campus were recycled! And almost 50% of all recyclables at the Water Tower campus were recycled as well, for a combined total of 52.5% of all waste diverted from landfills through recycling! To give you an idea of what tremendous progress this is, this percentage is up from less than 10% when the program first began in 2007, and just over 30% in 2011.

 

In pounds, the data shows that more than 50,000 pounds of recycling was collected at the Lake Shore campus alone. The Water Tower campus collected over 20,000 pounds, for a combined total of more than 70,000 pounds of recycled materials. Our recycling materials outweigh the amount of trash collected in the trash compactors. This does not even take into account the amount of waste that is being diverted through composting, thanks to our new composting program.

 

   

Many thanks to Facilities Management, Director of Environmental Services Bill Curtin, Housekeeping Services, recycling student worker Alexandra Vecchio and recent graduate Kelsey Horton for their hard work in making the recycling program at Loyola a tremendous success!  Plus a thank you to the many staff, faculty and students by engaging others and promoting best recycling practices.  

 

Let's keep up the good work and continue to recycle all that we can! Check out this page on what you can recycle at Loyola.

Interested in collaborating with others to carry forward the success of the recycling program to higher diversion rates?  Contact the Office of Sustainability at sustainability@luc.edu to participate in future planning of the consumption reduction and recycling program.
Sustainability-Related Grants
Environmental Sciences
We are pleased to announce that the department of Environmental Sciences received a Higher Education Challenge planning grant from the USDA to develop curriculum for its new track in Sustainable Agriculture. Loyola will partner with community colleges, four-year universities and local and urban farmers to develop curriculum, share faculty expertise and facilities in the creation of a premiere program in sustainable urban agriculture within the Chicago region.  
During the two-year funding period, Loyola will develop an inter-institutional collaborative proposal for submission in March, 2014.

Biodiesel Program and STEP: Water

The Biodiesel Program and STEP: Water have received $10,000 through the Environmental Protection Agency's People, Prosperity and Planet (P3) Grant Program. The grant is to explore the possibility of treating water used in the biodiesel production process through biological means. Water is used to pull contaminants from raw biodiesel and now students are designing a constructed wetland that can treat this water in order to safely return it to either the sewer system or continue using it in a closed-loop water wash system. The Biodiesel Program ad STEP: Biodiesel were originally launched through this same grant program in 2007.

 

Loyola Farmer's Market

The Loyola Farmers Market has been awarded funding for a local food marketing campaign to increase patronage at the Market through targeted direct mailings.  The mailings are to announce food benefits programs accepted at the market and to educate customers about seasonal food preparation. The funding from the USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) offers grants to help increase farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture programs and other direct producer-to-consumer market opportunities. 

Eco-Spirituality: God in Nature Retreat at LUREC
for Alumni, Faculty, & Staff

This month, October 12-13, the Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus (LUREC) is hosting an Eco-Spirituality Retreat for Alumni, Faculty, & Staff entitled "God in Nature." 

 

Loyola's Retreat and Ecology Campus in Woodstock, Illinois provides a peaceful setting where individuals and groups are empowered to do the work necessary for reconnection and renewal of the mind, body, and spirit. Use of the Retreat Campus supports the spirit and principles of Transformative Education in the Jesuit tradition, offering participants a place of personal reflection as well as professional growth and development. 

 

LUREC is also committed to sustainability through the Green Promise: a fundamental guiding principle of conservation on campus by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Loyola is committed to restoring and maintaining the biodiversity of the LUREC campus and invites participants to join in this mission of sustainability, conservation, and restoration during their stay.

 

The "Eco-Spirituality: God in Nature" retreat will encourage participants to renew and nurture their relationship with God, community, and the earth by exploring the wonders of the natural world. Participants will return refreshed, with a deeper understanding of ecological sustainability and a greater appreciation for God's creation.

  

The goals of this retreat are in perfect alignment with the mission of the Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus:

  1. To serve as a place for spiritual and intellectual growth through retreats and adventure programs
  2. To serve as a campus for study and research of the environment and ecological sustainability
Don't miss this chance to experience spirituality in nature on 100 acres of prairies, savannas, woodlands, wetlands, and ponds- otherwise known as the ecologically-friendly campus of LUREC. 
 
  • The retreat begins Friday at 8:00pm (overnight stay is optional, space is limited to 8 rooms), and continues on Saturday, from 8:00am - 7:00pm. 
  • Fees include all meals and are $75 for overnight participants and $25 for Saturday only participants.

For registration information, please email lurec@luc.edu.
370,000 Plastic Water Bottles Saved from Landfills
Last year, our students voted to ban the sale of bottled water on campus because students believe that "access to water is a fundamental human right and must not be handled in ways that put profits over people". This ban has not only raised awareness on campus of the ethical issues surrounding privatized water, but has saved thousands of disposable plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill. Statistics show that only 1 in 5 disposable water bottles are recycled.
 
As a part of the ban, Loyola has installed nearly 50 water refill stations on our campuses and given out free re-usable water bottles to students to promote their use. This effort was expected to significantly cut back on Loyola's waste, and the results are in! Using tracking devices built into the water refill stations, our data shows that re-usable water bottles have been refilled more than 370,000 times on campus since the stations were installed, beginning in March of 2012. That means 370,000 plastic bottles were saved from landfills in just 6 short months!
 
The Office of Sustainability will continue to track data on the number of water bottle refills on a quarterly basis to determine more long-term benefits of our water bottle ban.

 

Use our maps to find the nearest water refill stations:

Lake Shore Campus

Water Tower Campus

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stusec 
Student Section
by Alexandra Vecchio
Assistant Manager for the Farmers Market and University Recycling Program

Welcome Loyola students to the section of this newsletter that is just for you! Read here to learn about student-led sustainability initiatives on campus, important events, and what the student voice is saying around the topic of sustainability at Loyola. 
 
Quite honestly, you as the student, have the most powerful voice on this campus. You are the constituents of this university and have the power to create change in every area of this campus. Of course, complaining to the student sitting next to you in class is never the way to create change; all that does is upset you and your friend. Instead, you must tap into the different resources you have as students and move forward your goals and vision for a more sustainable campus.

Student- led sustainability success stories can be seen all across campus. Read on to learn about some of these great student endeavors!

Loyola Farmer's Market
The Loyola Farmers Market was created, designed, and implemented by Loyola students concerned with our local food system. It is now in its second season, serving the Loyola and Rogers Park community. Click here to read more. 
 
SOAR: Student Operation for Avian Relief
Students concerned with migratory birds traveling along the Lake Michigan shoreline worked with facilities managers to ensure our buildings were "bird safe" by closing blinds and turning out lights to prevent birds from flying into windows. Click here to learn more about the SOAR project. 

Bottled Water Ban
In spring 2010, Student Environmental Alliance, became concerned with the global issue of water privatization. After partnering with other organizations and USGA, they launched a two year long educational campaign to help raise awareness and educate the Loyola community about water privatization and the role of bottled water. In April 2012, Loyola students voted in favor of ending the sale of bottled water on campus. The phase our process began in August 2012 and will be completed by August 2013. Click here to learn more. 

The list of student led projects can go on and on. The point here is to understand that educating ourselves and then the greater Loyola community is one of our primary roles as students of this university.

Student Events
This year, the Office of Sustainability is hosting a variety of workshops, film screenings, and lectures to highlight our sustainability success stories, as well as expand our action areas as a university. 

Now, I understand the issues here- we are all busy. We have classes, work, meetings, group projects, exams to study for, and the future to worry about. How is it possible to add MORE events, lectures, workshops to our schedules when we are already so busy? Well, realistically it is not possible for one student to attend every event, workshop, or film screening. Instead, it is sometimes better to pick one sustainable "adventure" to participate in, learn more about what is happening at Loyola, and find out how you can get involved and help out. 

An upcoming event that will fit nicely with this student driven effort is a training called "Composting Tips and Tricks" taking place on October 11th from 3-5 pm. In effort to examine the waste we produce on this campus, Loyola has launched a compost collection program. This program began in August 2012 and currently collects all plate waste from Simpson dining hall. The office of sustainability is offering this workshop so that interested parties can learn how to compost their own individual plate waste from their apartment, office, or residence hall. The workshop will also cover vermicomposting , a new program that has been launched (by Loyola students!) in some of the residence halls on campus. If interested please register online!

The real idea here is to make sure that you are utilizing your student voice and resources wherever possible. Ask the appropriate questions, research your areas of interest, and rally for peer support. Before you know it, you will be able to proudly state: "I attend the most sustainable Jesuit University in the country!" 
 
So what are you waiting for, Loyola? Let's make it happen!


Loyola University Chicago strives to create a more sustainable university community. Doing this requires the collaboration, cooperation and creativity of every department and office and of all students, faculty and staff. Together we're building awareness, taking action and transforming society into one that will lead us sustainably down the path of ecological and social responsibility.