S-I-Y! (Sustain it Yourself!)
Reduce your environmental footprint this holiday season!

Gift-wrapping generates tons of waste every Christmas season. Do you want your gifts to still look pretty and festive? Try this:

• Japanese Furoshiki gift wrapping. All you need for this Japanese technique is some fabric (cotton, silk, nylon, canvas - anything will do). It is easy and reusable! Watch the tutorial here.
• Reuse cardboard shipping boxes and upcycle other shipping supplies;
• Wrap boxes with brown paper bags or newspaper; 
• Use biodegradable paper tape (also called washi tape) or ditch tape altogether.

What you cannot put into your recycling bin:

• Wrapping paper that has metallic, glitter, wax, or is textured;
• Batteries (check for battery disposal locations near you);
• Christmas lights (you can bring your non-working holiday lights for recycling here);
• Foam packaging;
• Bubble wrap;
• Any small electronics;
• Ribbons and bows.

What you should put into your recycling bin:

• Cardboard and paper boxes;
• Plain wrapping paper and paper gift bags;
• Holiday cards and envelopes (without glitter and glue).

Sustainable decorations

Christmas paper chains, recycled paper snowflakes, DIY advent calendar - check out this list of recycled Christmas decorations that are fun to make!

Choosing a Christmas tree? There is an ongoing debate on the environmental impact of real vs artificial Christmas trees. Recent articles have suggested that artificial trees are a more sustainable option only when reused for over 10 years! More about the environmental implications of Christmas trees in this article. Look for opportunities to recycle and compost your live trees in the Upcoming Events section below.

During the Obama administration, I managed the State Department-funded Climate Change programs. We had a lot of money appropriated to the State Department, and I managed how those funds were being used. We would work with other countries, other agencies in the Federal Government to promote climate change action on the ground. During that time I was also a lead negotiator for the United States in the UNFCCC. There, we would negotiate language, negotiate mechanisms, negotiate ways in which North, the OECD countries, could facilitate and accelerate technology development and diffusion into developing countries. So I did that for a number of years until I became rather dissatisfied with the system and the way it was going. We weren’t making much progress. And in large part, I think, because there was a lack of genuine desire to solve the problem. In technology it’s very simple: you move technologies and people invest in countries that have solid business and commercial environments, such as the United States, most developed countries. In developing countries, we find levels of corruption and levels of dysfunction that inhibit investors. I left the climate negotiations to become the Director of the Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. There, I worked with other countries who would come to us, the United States, asking how did we move towards greater reliance on renewable energy.

What does it mean to be a climate negotiator? What did you do?

Being a climate negotiator is representing your country, and finding solutions and ways to compromise with other countries. Because everybody comes at this from a different direction and different circumstances. To be a negotiator, you have to be a good listener, you have to be tolerant, patient, and respectful of the other side’s views. You also have to try to balance and reconcile America’s interest, because you work representing the United States and the interest of countries that you’re there to cooperate with. The countries have to look at the United States for that creative reconciliation of language. I’ve been in negotiations and often times when you’re in negotiations, there’s a lot of side meetings going on and countries are making interventions and half the people aren’t listening because they’re either doing something on their laptops or talking with other negotiators. But as soon as the chairperson recognizes the United States of America, the entire room goes silent. Because everyone wants to hear what the United States is going to say. And I think this is especially true now in the Biden administration. I think there’s a fair amount of skepticism on whether America is really back. They read the political polls just like we do, and they know that Biden may be president for four years. And so while they’re eager to have America play a larger role in these climate negotiations, they still have learned their lesson of being not too dependent on the United States. So being a climate negotiator is a tremendous privilege, but it can be a frustrating one as well.

What is your role at Loyola right now?

I’m teaching in the Political Science department. I teach a class in the fall on renewable energy, climate change, and development. In the spring I’ll be teaching a class on American Foreign Policy and another class on the politics of energy. I have also spoken to Dean Tuchman several times about contributing to the SES program. I think there’s no more important topic than climate change. And the beauty of teaching climate change is you have to address every other discipline - economics, engineering, philosophy, political philosophy, sociology, anthropology - all those academic disciplines come into the picture. And you’re able to talk about all the other domestic and foreign policy issues. I find climate change as a topic so thematically opulent that it allows the instructor and the student to engage in all the contemporary issues. And energy is a subset of that because energy is an antecedent condition to everything else on the agenda. You can’t have health, you can’t have education, you can’t have water, you can’t have gender equity. It all comes down to how do we provide our energy services. I look forward to working with the students and faculty on this important topic of climate change because it just captures everything. And now with especially given the Holy Father and his encyclical of 2015 Laudato si, I don’t think that there’s a Jesuit institution in the world that should not be focused heavily on climate change. 

To learn more about Dr. Thompson’s work, check out two articles he authored in the Tribune & America magazine 
 

*This interview was transcribed from a Zoom interview between Anastassiya Goncharova and Dr. Griffin Thompson and has been edited for length 

Celebrating Matthew Lorentz!

Matthew Lorentz is one of this year's recipients of the Loyola President's Medallion award. A leader within the School of Environmental Sustainability, Matt is helping our university to become a more sustainable institution. 

Tell us about your organization

The Edgewater Environmental Coalition (EEC) is a ten-year-old, 100% volunteer organization leading on the ground projects in our community advocating for environmentally-related legislation and change. We are working on a local level on global challenges. We are an independent group of volunteers, and we are really just working to make our community more sustainable through the different initiatives, projects, and events that we have.

What are some of the projects planned for 2022?

There are some projects that we will specifically be working with Loyola on. First, we are collaborating with Urban Agriculture program. This past year we initiated a project that we are calling Parkways for Pollinators. It’s about seeing if we can transform the parkways so this place between the street and the sidewalk into pollinator-friendly habitats. We had five test sights this year, and things went really well, so we are extending this effort next year. Last month we gave Urban Ag a wide variety of seeds collected from the community to grow them in the Loyola greenhouse over the winter. In spring we are going to give them out for free to any public garden. The other project that we’re working on with Loyola is called Community Air Research Experience (CARE). On this project, we’ll be working with Dr. Ping Jing and Dr. Tania Schusler. The goal of the project is to provide applied socially-relevant research experience for underrepresented minority students, understand the spatial distribution and temporal variation of particle pollution in Chicago, and provide air quality data to communities.

How can Loyola community get involved?

We are a 100% volunteer organization, so we have students that currently volunteer with us, and anybody in the neighborhood can. Our website is sustainedgewater.org. There is information about how to get involved as a volunteer. We also do a bi-annual internship program (January through June and July through December). Come to our meetings and our events, we work on everything sustainability that you can think of! We’re all about passion, not an obligation. So if you have an idea and you want to tackle some problem, we are a great resource of community knowledge. We also offer small grants that we can partner with Loyola on.

*This interview was transcribed from a Zoom interview between Anastassiya Goncharova and Renee Patten and has been edited for length 

Upcoming Events

December 19, 1 pm
The following event is going to be a Zero Waste Game. At Zero Waste Games, Campus Sustainability interns and volunteers, in partnership with Athletics, Millard, and Loyola Limited, engage fans to recycle or compost as much of the waste generated as possible.

• Sunday, December 19 – Men’s Basketball against Norfolk State at 1:00 pm

December 26 - January 29 (times vary, check website for complete schedule)
Christmas tree recycling in Cook County and the City of Chicago
Not sure what to do with your live tree and old or broken light strings post-holidays? There are many opportunities to recycle these items in Cook County. Make your holiday season a little more sustainable this year by keeping holiday waste out of the landfill.

All times listed are Central time zone

Office of Sustainability
School Of Environmental Sustainability
1032 W. Sheridan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60660
LUC.edu/SustainLoyola