Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.14
Liaison Aaron Durnbaugh
Submission Date Feb. 27, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Loyola University Chicago
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Aaron Durnbaugh
Director of Sustainability
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held at least one sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability? :
Yes

Has the institution held at least one sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Name of the campaign:
WaterWeek / UnCap LUC

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged:

"UnCap LUC" is a campaign that led to the banning of the sale of bottled water at Loyola University Chicago. In March of 2012, the students voted in favor of ending the sell of bottled water at Loyola and the phase out process started directly after that. The campaign began with eliminating the selling of bottled water at campus stores, followed by school catering services and finally campus vending machines.

Although the use of plastic is a contributor to environmental problems, the primary goal of UnCap LUC campaign is to raise awareness of the social injustices as well as environmental impacts of water privatization. Water privatization occurs when private businesses develop or are allowed to control public water supplies, and then bottle the water and sell it to the public for a profit. The issue of water privatization focuses on the product in the bottle, not the bottle itself. The students felt strongly that water is a basic human right and the University should not support the privatization of this natural resource.

UnCap LUC has led to the creation of refill stations where individual can refill water bottles, and a map of the stations for Loyola community to access and review. All incoming freshmen and transfer students are given a reusable bottle during orientation,and are made aware of the campaign. Reusable bottles are also sold in campus dining stores.

This campaign continues each year for incoming students as well as the general Loyola community to refresh the university's approach to water rights issues.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:

As of December 2016, Loyola had 77 refill stations on its Lakeshore Campus & Water Tower Campuses. They had reduced the usage of 4,411,880 plastic water bottles.

Notes: this number was taken from the tracker on each refill station. This number represents anytime the refill station was used to fill a bottle.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available:
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
GoSolar

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged (2nd campaign):

GoSolar was a campaign by the Student Environmental Alliance to get on-site solar energy at Loyola in 2016/ 2017.
Led by two students and sponsored by the Facilities Department, the campaign advocated for the environmental and social benefits of on-campus renewables.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):

This initiative was supported by the VP for Capital Planning and Loyola is currently under an RFP process to determine the best partner to construct and operate the solar array.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available (2nd campaign):
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns, including measured positive impacts:

Other campaigns have addressed pressure to develop a climate action plan (Loyola2020), Sustainable Investment Policy (SIP), mountaintop mining (Shareholder Advocacy), Plastic bag ban (BYOB).


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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