Loyola University recently unvieved its new Institute of Environmental Sustainability as President Fr. Garanzini introduced the facility to community members, students and polticians. The Institute of Environmental Sustainability is the latest addition to Loyola’s family of high performance facilities, and combines academics and research with sustainable agriculture and community living.  The Chicago City Council recently passed an ordinance allowing for the vacation of the 6300 block of N. Kenmore, where the Institute is located, and Loyola will create a pedestrian green way to complement the new sustainability living and learning centers.

The mission of Loyola University Chicago’s Institute of Environmental Sustainability is to engage students in understanding and responding to local and global environmental issues.  The new facility includes classrooms, faculty offices, research and teaching labs, a clean energy lab, an urban agricultural greenhouse, a green café. We will share common spaces with San Francisco Hall, a new residence hall that will house the green learning community – freshmen and sophomores who share classes and co-curricular activities and engage in Loyola’s initiatives to develop a more sustainable campus.

Specifically, the building itself utilizes rain waiter harvesting for it’s restrooms in the Ecodome, the Institute’s Greenhouse, and it’s irrigation system. The Geothermal system underneath the new faciltiy uses 91 wells, 500 feet deep, providing over 700 tons of cooling energy, making it the largest in the city of Chicago. In walking through the facility it felt cool and air-conditioned, but in reality it was simply air water that was circulated through the wells under the building to cool it before it returned to the surface. The Geothermal system is extremely efficient and cuts the buildings heating and cooling costs by 30%.

Check out some photos below of the brand new building.  Loyola is a huge asset to have in our community and over the past fews years Loyola has been striving to establish a school that competes with the most elite Universities in the country. Last year Loyola ranked 106 on the list of top schools and universities in the United States. With the opening of their new facility they are expecting to break into the top 100.