Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 53.97
Liaison Stephen Ellis
Submission Date Aug. 2, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Boston University
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.99 / 6.00 Amy Elvidge
Sustainability Director of Dining
Dining Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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:
18.71

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):
34.29

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):

BU Dining Services prioritizes the purchase of food grown, caught, and raised locally, thereby supporting a healthy, equitable, self-sustaining food system in New England. Additionally, we prioritize purchasing foods grown with agricultural practices that are ecologically sound, socially responsible, and economically viable. Our production team meets weekly to discuss what's local and how to incorporate foods into our menus at our three dining halls. Current goals include working to ensure that as much local, seasonal produce is purchased, given economic feasibility. That includes taking advantage of all local, seasonal produce as well as frozen processed fruits and vegetables to lengthen the season, ensuring access to local products for our operations year round. A vast majority of all dairy, including milk, yogurt, butter, and cheeses are bought locally year-round. All eggs are cage-free, where ever feasible, and all the coffee served in residential dining rooms is organic and fair trade. We also purchase grass-fed, Maine-raised ground beef and hot dogs, as well as local whole chickens and turkey. We look for MSC Certified seafood, and work with a local fishing company, Red’s Best, to purchase fish from sustainable populations using sustainable technology, and provide full traceability.


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

Spending reports were obtained from vendors that service BU Dining Services. Reports include all purchases for the time period July 1 2017 through June 30 2018. The BU Dining Services Sustainability Director then analyzed the reports using the AASHE and Real Food Challenge Criteria to determine whether items could be counted as third-party certified and/or local and community based.


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

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

American Humane Certified (poultry and pigs) – verify the humane treatment of animals

American Humane Certified Cage Free eggs (laying hens) – verifies hens are provided uncrowded cages that exceed the industry norm

Direct Trade coffee from local roaster – Fazenda Coffee uses as direct-trade sourcing model for their coffee. https://www.fazendacoffee.com/pages/the-roastery

Best Aquaculture Practices certified - The Best Aquaculture Practices is the only third-party aquaculture certification program to be compliant with the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), Global Social Compliance Programme (GSCP) and Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI). The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) coordinates the development of the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification standards for seafood processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills. The standards are developed and continually updated through production method-specific technical committees and under the guidance of a Standards Coordinator as well as a 12-member Standards Oversight Committee (SOC) comprised of members with broad stakeholder representation — one-third conservation, one-third academia and one-third industry. After review by the SOC, standards are modified, if necessary, and published for 60 days of public comment. The committee’s consideration of comments leads to a final draft that must be approved by the SOC and GAA Board of Directors before implementation.

Local & community based products that exceed the annual revenue cap (e.g. Cabot - co-op, within 250 miles, 100% of ingredients are local).

Kosher certified animal products


Additional percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional products with other sustainability attributes not recognized above (0-100) :
6.45

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

BU has seven Certified Green Restaurants on campus. Three of which are four star restaurants and four of which are three star restaurants. The George Sherman Union is the Greenest Food Court in the Nation, according to the Green Restaurant Association.

Alcohol from food service and catering is not included due to gaps in data. We plan to include this data in the next report iteration and will begin tracking it moving forward.


BU has seven Certified Green Restaurants on campus. Three of which are four star restaurants and four of which are three star restaurants. The George Sherman Union is the Greenest Food Court in the Nation, according to the Green Restaurant Association.

Alcohol from food service and catering is not included due to gaps in data. We plan to include this data in the next report iteration and will begin tracking it moving forward.

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.