Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	83.80
Liaison	Breeana Sylvas
Submission Date	March 1, 2019
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

University of California, Merced
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	1.11 / 6.00

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

This credit requires:

A completed STARS Food and Beverage Purchasing Inventory,
An itemized inventory based on output from the Real Food Calculator, or
An alternative inventory that includes for each product:

Product vendor
Product label/brand
Product description
The category in which the product qualifies (Third Party Verified or Local & Community Based)
Information justifying inclusion: the standards met if the product is third party verified; ownership, size, distance, production methods for Local & Community Based products

Part 1

Third Party Verified and Community Based Products

Percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on products that are third party verified under one or more recognized food and beverage sustainability standards or Local & Community-Based:

Part 2

Animal Products

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (expenditures on conventional animal products)? (If data is not available, respond “No”):

Yes

Percentage of total dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional animal products (meat, poultry, fish/seafood, eggs, and dairy products that do NOT qualify in either the Third Party Verified or Local & Community-Based category):

Food and Beverage Purchasing Inventory

Required if pursuing either part of the credit:

A brief description of the sustainable food and beverage purchasing program, including how the sustainability impacts of products in specific categories are addressed (e.g. meat, poultry, fish/seafood, eggs, dairy, produce, tea/coffee):

The campus does not have a formalized sustainable purchasing program. Dining Services purchases products from vendors that meet the sustainable criteria. Criteria examples include organic produce, and sourcing products from local vendors.

An inventory of the institution’s sustainable food and beverage purchases that includes for each product: the description/type; label, brand or producer; and the category in which it is being counted and/or a description of its sustainability attribute(s):

AL_STARS Food and Beverage Inventory v2.1_UC Merced 5.10.xlsx

A brief description of the methodology used to conduct the inventory, including the timeframe and how representative samples accounted for seasonal variation (if applicable):

The campus captures usage reports from sysco, general ledger data, prime vendor velocity reports to support the development of sustainable purchases. The time frame spans from fiscal year 17-18. The University of California Office of the President (UCOP) established the Sustainable Practices Policy that includes policy in sustainable food-services products. Sustainable Food Criteria includes, but is not limited to. 1. Locally Grown: Currently defined as food grown 250-mile radius around the campus. This distance was set to align current standards to most other UC campuses in the system. a. Cannot exceed 500 miles max, set by the UC system in its sustainable practice policy. 2. Locally Raised, Handled, and Distributed a. Currently defined as food that are raised, handled and distributed in a 250-mile radius around the campus.

If uploading output from the Real Food Calculator, provide:

Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):

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Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):

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Required if pursuing either part of the credit:

Which of the following food service providers are present on campus and included in the total food and beverage expenditure figures?:

	Present?	Included?
Dining operations and catering services operated by the institution	Yes	Yes
Dining operations and catering services operated by a contractor	No	No
Student-run food/catering services	No	No
Franchises (e.g. national or global brands)	No	No
Convenience stores	No	No
Vending services	No	No
Concessions	No	No

Optional Fields

A brief description of purchased food and beverage products that have other sustainability attributes not recognized above :

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Additional percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional products with other sustainability attributes not recognized above (0-100) :

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

http://dining.ucmerced.edu/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The campus tracks it sustainable food purchases through specific vendors - who source sustainable items that meet the sustainability criteria.

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.