Loyola Chicago School of Environmental Sustainability

Dean Malini Suchak shares how students and entry-level professionals can break into the sustainability industry amidst the "green jobs boom" with Job Advisor. 💼

Read her tips to plant seeds for career growth. 🌱
https://bit.ly/49TX7L5

The Green Jobs Boom Is Real—Here's How to Position Yourself for Success The Green Jobs Boom Is Real—Here's How to Position Yourself for Success

Kevin Erickson, our senior sustainable agriculture manager, was quoted by the Chicago Tribune about a vertical farm in a downtown Chicago office space that delivers food locally.

It “creates a major opportunity for year-round production because most food production still happens during only three seasons of the year,” he said.

The perfect spot for a farm? Vacant office buildings in downtown Chicago. Farm Zero is selling vegetables to several companies in the Loop and looking to build more vertical farms in the city.

Loyola University Chicago has received the Platinum rating from the AASHE STARS program, the first institution in the midwest and one of only ten in the U.S.

Many of our students, faculty, and staff are involved in the initiatives that helped earn this distinction, including the Biodiesel Production Program, Urban Agriculture and Campus Gardens, and Zero Waste Games.

Learn more about Loyola's sustainability performance below.

Loyola Receives Top Rating for Sustainability Performance Loyola University Chicago has earned the Platinum rating—the highest possible—from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in their Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS).

Visit our YouTube channel to discover what life is like at the School of Environmental Sustainability. Hear directly from our students, faculty, and staff. (Please like, subscribe, and share!) https://www.youtube.com/

Congrats, Class of 2026! 🐺 🎓 🎉 This phase of your education is done, but there's so much more to come in your careers and lives!

Dean Suchak offered a challenge to our newest graduates:

"For all of you graduating today, you are leaving here with knowledge and skills—but also with the responsibility to keep learning and to help others understand the world in better, deeper ways."

Today is the day! Congratulations to all of our graduating SES students!

NBC Chicago visited our Searle Biodiesel Lab to discover how the student-run lab turns vegetable oil into fuel and hand soap.

"We get hundreds of gallons, probably close to a thousand gallons a year, of oil just dropped off at our door," said lab manager Zach Waickman.

Watch:

Loyola students turn old cooking oil into biodiesel fuel Ever wonder what to do with your old cooking oil? Some students at Loyola University Chicago are turning it into environmentally-friendly biodiesel, as Regina Waldroup reports.

For students interested in sustainability, career paths are not always clearly defined. The Net Impact student organization is working to change that by bridging business and sustainability in partnership with the Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business.

Read more: https://www.luc.edu/sustainability/about/newsevents/2026-news/bridgingbusinessandsustainabilityinsideloyolasnetimpactchapter/

Aaron Durnbaugh, Loyola's director of sustainability, has been named an AASHE fellow. The prestigious honor recognizes professionals who are making significant contributions to advancing sustainability in higher education.

“To be recognized as a fellow by the leading organization in our field is a terrific honor,” he said. “But while my name is attached to it, it really reflects the work of dozens—if not hundreds—of people across Loyola.”

Congrats, Aaron! More: https://www.luc.edu/sustainability/about/newsevents/2026-news/durnbaughnamedto2026classofaashefellows/

Did you see our Searle Biodiesel Lab in the Chicago Sun-Times?

The newspaper visited the lab that turns vegetable oil into fuel to talk to lab manager Zach Waickman and Aiden Geraty, a student who works at the lab.

“Maybe someone deep fried a turkey at Thanksgiving. We’ll turn the oil into fuel,” said Zach. “The oil goes to really good use.”

More:

Loyola University's lab turns used cooking oil into fuel to run buses The Searle Biodiesel Lab makes 8,000 gallons a year of cleaner-burning fuel from waste oil sourced from Loyola’s dining halls, the Art Institute of Chicago, Shedd Aquarium and elsewhere.