Green Campus
Green Campus
Environmental sustainability continues to be a University-wide priority at Loyola, and the University is committed to answering Pope Francis’s call to Care for Our Common Home, as outlined in his encyclical, Laudato Si’. The Office of Sustainability coordinates campus-wide initiatives and tracks Loyola’s progress as we strive to reduce our environmental footprint. Here are some recent activities and accomplishments.
Loyola installed 22 geo-exchange wells to serve Piper Hall and a future building at the lakefront.
New geothermal system on the Lake Shore Campus
Over the summer of 2024, Loyola installed 22 geo-exchange wells to serve Piper Hall and a future building at the lakefront. (The photo above shows the geothermal installation in progress.) The project is a vital part of the University’s Climate Action Plan and ongoing decarbonization work. The geothermal system is similar to existing systems serving the School of Environmental Sustainability and the Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus (LUREC). The university expects to file for a tax credit under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to receive a 40 percent return on the project’s cost. Compared to traditional boiler systems, geothermal systems reduce the energy costs for heating and cooling our facilities by 30 percent, while greatly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Partnering with a local company to destroy greenhouse gases
Loyola is partnering with Chicago-based company Tradewater to destroy industrial refrigerants used in heating and cooling equipment. These halocarbons are potent greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Tradewater collects and incinerates them before they leak or are released, helping avoid the most harmful impacts of climate change. Loyola has removed the equivalent of 13,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually through Tradewater’s carbon offset projects starting in 2024, helping meet the goal of the 2015
Climate Action Plan
In addition to providing carbon offsets, Tradewater works with Loyola to create opportunities for students to conduct research, learn from guest lecturers, and intern with the company. During the summer of 2023, four Loyola students partnered with Elara Engineering to inventory all heating and cooling equipment at all three campuses. From this information, they were able to estimate the potential risk of on-campus refrigerants and help model a transition to safer chemical refrigerant use in the future.
Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy’s first Sustainability Scholars
During the 2023 to 2024 academic year, Loyola’s Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy welcomed its first two sustainability scholars who helped explore sustainability and environmental justice and created resources for the classroom and student success.
Amy Wilkinson, PhD is a senior lecturer in dance in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Wilkinson’s research interests include political identity, arts education, academic capitalism, and creative voices in environmental sustainability. During the last school year, Wilkinson created resources for faculty across Loyola to use in their teaching, including a detailed set of materials related to the performing arts.
Urooj Raja, PhD, is an assistant professor of advocacy and social change in the School of Communications. Raja teaches and studies public engagement on climate change and seeks to contribute to mitigating environmental and societal harm. Her scholarship focused on understanding and defining an environmental justice pedagogy for Loyola to support improved teaching outcomes.
Students and staff helped hand-sort nearly 2,000 pounds of campus trash to gain insights into how to reduce the amount of waste Loyola sends to landfills.
Understanding and managing waste
In the past year, Loyola partnered with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) to conduct a waste audit to understand the makeup of landfill and recycling streams on Loyola’s campuses and discover opportunities for improvement. The ISTC team conducted initial walkthroughs of the Lake Shore, Water Tower, and Health Sciences Campuses to observe current materials management infrastructure and discuss programs, operations, and challenges with staff from Loyola’s Office of Sustainability and Facilities teams.
ISTC staff, Loyola employees, and student volunteers hand-sorted waste from the Lake Shore and Water Tower Campuses, sorting 1,923 pounds of material from landfill bins and 1,532 pounds from recycling bins into 33 identified categories. The team also reviewed contamination in 132 pounds of material from dining hall organic waste bins. ISTC consultants then developed a detailed characterization of the landfill and recycling streams and extrapolated the findings to other buildings in each activity zone and the University campuses.
Campus walkthroughs also revealed how existing systems for managing waste are being reinforced or negated by stakeholders, from students and employees discarding items to waste collection and hauling.
The audit provided vital insight into Loyola’s waste stream and revealed opportunities to divert more recyclable and compostable items from landfills and reduce contamination of recycling and compost bins. The observations and data from the audit directly informed the recommendations in Loyola’s forthcoming Zero Waste and Sustainable Materials Management plan.
Compost Bucket Program at Water Tower Campus
Loyola’s Compost Bucket Program provides an excellent way for students and employees to help divert organic waste from offices, classrooms, shared kitchen spaces, and on- or off-campus housing (students only). The program has been available at the Lake Shore Campus for over a decade and expanded to the Water Tower Campus in the 2023-2024 school year.
Student interns in the Office of Sustainability manage weekly drop-offs on each campus, collecting compost from participants and answering questions about composting. Visit LUC.edu/compost to learn more and sign up.
New geothermal system on the Lake Shore Campus
Over the summer of 2024, Loyola installed 22 geo-exchange wells to serve Piper Hall and a future building at the lakefront. (The photo above shows the geothermal installation in progress.) The project is a vital part of the University’s Climate Action Plan and ongoing decarbonization work. The geothermal system is similar to existing systems serving the School of Environmental Sustainability and the Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus (LUREC). The university expects to file for a tax credit under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to receive a 40 percent return on the project’s cost. Compared to traditional boiler systems, geothermal systems reduce the energy costs for heating and cooling our facilities by 30 percent, while greatly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Partnering with a local company to destroy greenhouse gases
Loyola is partnering with Chicago-based company Tradewater to destroy industrial refrigerants used in heating and cooling equipment. These halocarbons are potent greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Tradewater collects and incinerates them before they leak or are released, helping avoid the most harmful impacts of climate change. Loyola has removed the equivalent of 13,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually through Tradewater’s carbon offset projects starting in 2024, helping meet the goal of the 2015
Climate Action Plan
In addition to providing carbon offsets, Tradewater works with Loyola to create opportunities for students to conduct research, learn from guest lecturers, and intern with the company. During the summer of 2023, four Loyola students partnered with Elara Engineering to inventory all heating and cooling equipment at all three campuses. From this information, they were able to estimate the potential risk of on-campus refrigerants and help model a transition to safer chemical refrigerant use in the future.
Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy’s first Sustainability Scholars
During the 2023 to 2024 academic year, Loyola’s Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy welcomed its first two sustainability scholars who helped explore sustainability and environmental justice and created resources for the classroom and student success.
Amy Wilkinson, PhD is a senior lecturer in dance in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Wilkinson’s research interests include political identity, arts education, academic capitalism, and creative voices in environmental sustainability. During the last school year, Wilkinson created resources for faculty across Loyola to use in their teaching, including a detailed set of materials related to the performing arts.
Urooj Raja, PhD, is an assistant professor of advocacy and social change in the School of Communications. Raja teaches and studies public engagement on climate change and seeks to contribute to mitigating environmental and societal harm. Her scholarship focused on understanding and defining an environmental justice pedagogy for Loyola to support improved teaching outcomes.
Understanding and managing waste
In the past year, Loyola partnered with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) to conduct a waste audit to understand the makeup of landfill and recycling streams on Loyola’s campuses and discover opportunities for improvement. The ISTC team conducted initial walkthroughs of the Lake Shore, Water Tower, and Health Sciences Campuses to observe current materials management infrastructure and discuss programs, operations, and challenges with staff from Loyola’s Office of Sustainability and Facilities teams.
ISTC staff, Loyola employees, and student volunteers hand-sorted waste from the Lake Shore and Water Tower Campuses, sorting 1,923 pounds of material from landfill bins and 1,532 pounds from recycling bins into 33 identified categories. The team also reviewed contamination in 132 pounds of material from dining hall organic waste bins. ISTC consultants then developed a detailed characterization of the landfill and recycling streams and extrapolated the findings to other buildings in each activity zone and the University campuses.
Campus walkthroughs also revealed how existing systems for managing waste are being reinforced or negated by stakeholders, from students and employees discarding items to waste collection and hauling.
The audit provided vital insight into Loyola’s waste stream and revealed opportunities to divert more recyclable and compostable items from landfills and reduce contamination of recycling and compost bins. The observations and data from the audit directly informed the recommendations in Loyola’s forthcoming Zero Waste and Sustainable Materials Management plan.
Compost Bucket Program at Water Tower Campus
Loyola’s Compost Bucket Program provides an excellent way for students and employees to help divert organic waste from offices, classrooms, shared kitchen spaces, and on- or off-campus housing (students only). The program has been available at the Lake Shore Campus for over a decade and expanded to the Water Tower Campus in the 2023-2024 school year.
Student interns in the Office of Sustainability manage weekly drop-offs on each campus, collecting compost from participants and answering questions about composting. Visit LUC.edu/compost to learn more and sign up.