By Rita Buettner, Director of University Communications, Loyola University Maryland
Students gather on the Quad of Loyola Maryland’s Evergreen campus in Baltimore (photo courtesy of Loyola University Maryland)
Take a walk on Loyola University Maryland’s grassy Quad and you’ll find yourself gazing up at the leaf-filled branches stretching overhead. The 80-acre Evergreen campus in Baltimore, MD boasts more than 2,200 trees that represent 114 varieties, including 33 native species.
In recent years, Loyola has worked to have the Evergreen campus designated as an accredited arboretum by ArbNet, an international network for arboretum professionals. Loyola was awarded Level I Accreditation in December 2013 and, six years later, achieved Level II accreditation, thanks to expansion and enhanced preservation.
Those accreditations make a statement to the campus and to the broader community that Loyola values its trees—and invites visitors to engage with them directly through a self-guided walking audio tour. “The Loyola Arboretum directly engages hundreds of Loyola community members in the vast and critical beauty of biodiversity,” says Taylor Casalena, Loyola’s sustainability program manager. “The arboretum supports Loyola’s Climate Action Plan goal to reimagine the campus landscape to protect biodiversity and inspire environmental stewardship.”
The Beauty of Nature
Loyola takes its commitment to the earth seriously. Trees are a defining feature of its historic Evergreen campus in northern Baltimore, adding grandeur, beauty and shade, as well as homes to birds and squirrels.
Students stroll across Loyola Maryland’s Evergreen campus in Baltimore (photo courtesy of Loyola University Maryland)
“Our mission is to provide a beautiful and sustainable environment for Loyola students, faculty, staff and visitors,” says Helen Schneider, associate vice president of facilities and campus services. “Maintaining the Loyola Arboretum is an opportunity to preserve the natural aesthetics of our historic campus and enhance its biodiversity.”
The Loyola Arboretum is just one piece of the University’s overall plan and vision for supporting and strengthening God’s creation. The University has an active and thoughtful Sustainability Committee, which provides leadership and collaboration to help the University achieve the four major goals of its Climate Action Plan. An energy management policy is guiding Loyola’s efforts to reduce energy consumption campus-wide, invest in more renewable energy, and reach the University’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
In recent years, Loyola has begun to introduce native and pollinator-friendly landscaping to the Evergreen Campus, first with a Peace Meadow, and then with a Conservation and Experiential Learning Garden. The campus composting program has been expanded, and Loyola is taking steps to meet goals set in Baltimore City’s plan to eliminate all food waste at higher education institutions by 2030.
The University’s approach to sustainability and food justice extends beyond campus to programs like FreshCrate, which places fresh produce in corner stores along the York Road corridor, just east of Loyola’s campus. As part of Loyola’s York Road Initiative, the Govanstowne Farmers Market is held on Wednesdays between June and September, featuring local growers and food producers from the local community. This summer will be the market’s tenth season.
Teaching the Next Generation of Environmental Activists
Education and intellectual engagement around the topics of environmental science and sustainability can be found inside the classroom (through an interdisciplinary minor) and outside, through events such as Loyola’s Francis Feast and Learn, an annual informative teach-in and dinner featuring local foods.
“As with our global studies initiative, it was really the students who brought environmental sustainability to the forefront,” says Loyola’s president, Rev. Brian F. Linnane, S.J. “The students are offering the greatest challenge around these questions. It is their future. And we are already seeing how this is unfolding with climate change. The concern for the environment and concern for the materially poor align among young people. These questions invigorate them. When you talk about helping a younger generation move to a hopeful future, that future is deeply tied to the environment.”
Loyola’s work in this area had begun well before Pope Francis published his encyclical, Laudato Si’, in 2015. But the pope’s vision supported and gave added meaning to the importance of the University’s work, leading Fr. Linnane to sign both the Catholic Climate Covenant’s St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor, and President Obama’s Carbon Commitment.
“For the pope, coming from the developing world, he sees how (with environmental degradation) the wealthy and the privileged can avoid the worst of it. But the poor are the most vulnerable,” says Fr. Linnane.
Members & Neighbors of the Loyola Maryland community gather weekly at the Govanstowne Farmers Market (photo courtesy of Loyola University Maryland)
Creating a Culture
The link between sustainability, equity and inclusion is one that Loyola’s community continues to delve into more fully. During Loyola’s Mission Priority Examen process (which concluded last year), these topics emerged as priority areas. At that time, “Caring for Our Common Home” was named as one of the Jesuits’ Universal Apostolic Preferences, further affirming Loyola’ commitment to engagement.
Incorporating the Jesuit mission into the work at Loyola has helped sustainability efforts gain momentum, says Taylor Casalena. Her hope is that, as time goes on, the University won’t even need to talk about sustainability—that it will be so embedded in the community’s behaviors that it will be part of the culture.
“We have so many successes, but also a lot of failures,” Casalena says. “This isn’t something that always goes well. It’s trial and error. It’s behavior change.”
A Gift to the Community
But change is underway, and important—and intentional—steps are being taken.
In Summer 2019, when Loyola leaders realized that a nearly 200-year-old white oak was diseased and needed to be removed from the ground, members of the campus community gathered for a last farewell. Casalena read Mary Oliver’s poem, “When I Am Among Trees,” and the community prayed together, celebrating the gift that the tree had been to the community for generations.
“We can’t replace nature,” Casalena said at the time. “Even if we plant something now, it would take at least 100 years to replace this tree.”
Still, even the smallest step can make a difference. This week, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day 2020, a new white oak will be planted on Loyola’s Evergreen campus: a concrete, beautiful way to celebrate the University’s commitment to the earth.