Earth Day Message from Loyola President Terrence M. Sawyer, J.D.

Terrence M. Sawyer, J.D., president of Loyola University Maryland, sent this Earth Day message to the Loyola community:

Dear Members of the Loyola Community,

Earth Week offers the perfect opportunity to reflect on our commitment to our ongoing work to advance sustainability—and to challenge ourselves to consider what more we can do. Individually and as a Jesuit university community, we have a responsibility to care for our common home.

This is not a new commitment for Loyola, which has named sustainability in our Mission Priority Examen, and which the Society of Jesus has named as an apostolic preference. It is, however, one we are working to elevate in conversation and in action.

Many of the initiatives that are underway at Loyola might seem to be happening in quieter ways, such as our renewable energy agreements or the continued progress on our Climate Action Plan. Others are more prominent, such as our Evergreen campus’s designation as an arboretum or the fact that our new Fernandez Center for Innovation and Collaborative Learning has just earned LEED Gold certification. Earlier this academic year, Loyola joined the first cohort of Laudato Si' Universities, committing to Pope Francis’ 7-Year Journey Towards Integral Ecology—an action-oriented and holistic approach to address seven ecological and social challenges in the world. Each of these steps is taken strategically, intentionally, and with conviction that they can and will make a difference now and in the future.

As we look forward to Earth Day tomorrow, I encourage you to participate in some of the offerings and opportunities available to you on the Evergreen campus this week. You can learn more on Loyola’s Earth Week events site.

“Many things have to change course,” Pope Francis tells us in Laudato Si’, “but it is we human beings above all who need to change.”

It can be easy to feel that the problems are so vast that we cannot make a difference, but I invite you to join me in continuing to learn more so we can help lead to positive change and significant transformation in our world.

Sincerely,

Terrence M. Sawyer, J.D.

President