Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	80.84
Liaison	Alex Davis
Submission Date	Feb. 27, 2017
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

Arizona State University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.00 / 2.00	Corey Hawkey Assistant Director University Sustainability Practices

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1: Sustainable Dining Initiatives

Sustainable Dining Policy

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a published sustainable dining policy?:

Yes

A brief description of the sustainable dining policy:

We consider the environmental impact of our purchasing practices daily. We seek to purchase and use environmentally preferable products and services. We partner with suppliers, customers and environmental experts to understand the impact of available products and services on the environment and communities and to identify better alternatives. We are committed to improving animal welfare by replacing conventional animal products with sustainably certified alternatives.

On-Campus Sourcing

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor source food from a campus garden or farm?:

Yes

A brief description of the program to source food from a campus garden or farm:

Sun Devil Dining, in partnership with the ASU Grounds Department, developed the Campus Harvest program in 2008 as a small scale operation to divert edible landscaping from the landfill and feature Seville oranges and several varieties of dates in campus dining locations.

Local Community Engagement

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a farmers market, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, and/or urban agriculture project, or support such a program in the local community?:

Yes

A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:

Arizona State University works with Blue Sky Farms connecting students with locally grown produce through a CSA.

Vegan Dining Program

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a vegan dining program that makes diverse, complete-protein vegan options available to every member of the campus community at every meal?:

Yes

A brief description of the vegan dining program:

The Daily Root is a plant-based/vegan menu that has been incorporated into the seven Residential Restaurants across all four campuses.

Low-Impact Dining Events

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host low impact dining events (e.g. Meatless Mondays)?:

Yes

A brief description of the low impact dining events:

How Big is Your Food's Footprint: Environmental activities are held relating food to the resource inputs of food: plant based food vs animal proteins. Weekly Meatless Monday tablings at all seven residential restaurants on all four campuses.

Sustainability-Themed Meals

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host sustainability-themed meals (e.g. local harvest dinners)?:

Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-themed meals:

Dining Services hosts Campus Sustainability Month themed meals as well as Earth Day sustainable themed meals in Residential Restaurants. These meals highlight local and/or third-party certified items as well as the ingredient of the month.

Sustainability-Themed Outlet

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a sustainability-themed food outlet on-site, either independently or in partnership with a contractor or retailer?:

Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:

Engrained café is an environmentally-conscious restaurant at ASU which opened September 2008 as part of Sun Devil Dining/Aramark’s sustainability platform. Engrained is a learning-living restaurant committed to locally grown food and environmentally friendly practices.

Labeling and Signage

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor inform customers about low impact food choices and sustainability practices through labeling and signage in dining halls?:

Yes

A brief description of the sustainability labeling and signage in dining halls:

All Dining Halls/Residential Restaurants are labeled with produce maps showing which region of the state the produce on the salad bars are coming from, as well as an Ingredient of the month highlighting a local or hyper-local food item. Meatless Monday handouts and signage showing the resource inputs of animal based proteins vs. plant based proteins are also available. Last but not least, when a student is returning their reusable serviceware, the dishbelt is painted with infographics on describing the composting process as well as how many tons of compost have been composted so far in a year. Rotating poster frames hold signage dealing with green practices, post-consumer food waste and local sourcing.

Outreach and Education

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor engage in outreach efforts to support learning and research about sustainable food systems?:

Yes

A brief description of the outreach efforts to support learning and research about sustainable food systems:

Community Engagement: Sun Devil Dining is constantly working with sustainability stakeholders at Arizona State university to involve the campus community in sustainable food events and educational opportunities. Sun Devil Dining planned and participated in over 55 events during the year, encouraging thousands of attendees to get involved in sustainable food systems.

Other Initiatives

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have other sustainability-related initiatives (e.g. health and wellness initiatives, making culturally diverse options available)?:

Yes

A brief description of the other sustainability-related dining initiatives:

Aramark renovated an entire residential restaurant to incorporate international theme meals. There are four different international stations to create an international flare. At every residential hall there is a vegan plant based daily root station to cater to dietary restrictions that provides an international flare. Our health and wellness platform, Healthy for Life, is at every residential restaurant. This platform allows students to determine which items are healthier than others as well as everything needed to create a healthy, nutritionally balanced meal.

Part 2: Food and Dining Waste

Food Recovery Program

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor participate in a competition or commitment program and/or use a food waste prevention system to track and improve its food management practices?:

Yes

A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:

Aramark's Food Waste Management program, called Food Management Fundamentals, provides extensive food waste management tools for all servers and culinary staff. Food waste is tracked and measured, and spot audited during location audits. This creates a uniform goal in reducing food waste across all lines of operations. For food storage, Aramark uses FIFO (first in, first out) and ensures that nothing is left to waste in coolers.

Trayless Dining and Portion Modifications

Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented trayless dining (in which trays are removed from or not available in dining halls) and/or modified menus/portions to reduce post-consumer food waste?:

Yes

A brief description of the trayless dining or modified menu/portion program:

Trayless Dining encourages customers to take only what they can eat, and reduces food waste per person each meal. Aramark has been trayless in dining services since 2008.

Food Donation

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor donate food that would otherwise go to waste to feed people?:

Yes

A brief description of the food donation program:

The Sun Devil Dining culinary team is highly trained to manage food production and minimize waste based on projections. However, in situations where there is excess food produced, the food is donated to local food rescue agency, Waste Not, who supports organizations in need across the Valley.

Food Materials Diversion

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor divert food materials from the landfill, incinerator or sewer for animal feed or industrial uses (e.g. converting cooking oil to fuel, on-site anaerobic digestion)?:

Yes

A brief description of the food materials diversion program:

Coffee grounds composted at all coffee locations to be used as a compost enricher for flowerbeds on Tempe campus. All used fryer oil is collected for biodiesel and other industrial purposes.

Composting

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a pre-consumer composting program?:

Yes

A brief description of the pre-consumer composting program:

All pre-consumer food waste is composted at all of our locations excluding downtown campus.

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a post-consumer composting program?:

Yes

A brief description of the post-consumer composting program:

All post-consumer food waste, as well as napkins and paper towels, at all of our residential restaurant locations as well as in the main food dining hub of the Memorial Union are composted.

Dine-In Service Ware

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor utilize reusable service ware for “dine in” meals?:

Yes

A brief description of the reusable service ware program:

All 7 of the Residential Dining locations on ASU campus have reusable serviceware to cut down on single use disposables.

Take-Away Materials

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor provide reusable and/or third party certified compostable containers and service ware for “to-go” meals (in conjunction with an on-site composting program)?:

Yes

A brief description of the compostable containers and service ware:

Aramark provides containers for to go meals that are either compostable, recyclable and made from recycled materials, or reusable to go containers.

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor offer discounts or other incentives to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in “to-go” food service operations?:

Yes

A brief description of the reusable container discount or incentives program:

To encourage the use of reusable drink cups, Sun Devil Dining provides a hefty discount in a 99 cent fill of all coffee, tea, and soda in our on-campus markets as well as retail locations excluding Starbucks.

Other Materials Management Initiatives

Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented other materials management initiatives to minimize waste not covered above (e.g. working with vendors and other entities to reduce waste from food packaging)?:

Yes

A brief description of other dining services materials management initiatives:

Annual waste audits are conducted annually for the full operating day to determine the waste diversion rate of a dining location/campus, and to identify potential opportunities to minimize waste and packaging.

Optional Fields

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:

http://sundevildining.asu.edu/sustainability

Additional documentation to support the submission:

Final-KRISTA-Aramark_ASU_Annual_Sustainability_Report_2016.pdf

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.