Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	70.78
Liaison	Amber Saxton
Submission Date	Sept. 1, 2017
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

George Mason University
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	0.49 / 6.00	Mary Liang Sustainability Analyst Sustainability

"---" 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:

9.23

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):

35.38

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):

George Mason University does not have a formal sustainable food and beverage purchasing program. Mason's dining vendor has Sodexo's Better Tomorrow Plan which includes 14 commitments in health, community, and planet.

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):

STARS Food Beverage Inventory (Mason).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):

Purchases of food and beverages made in the months of February 2017 and September 2017 were included in the food & beverage inventory; thus only a two-month sample. Since September has a large availability of local produce and February has the smallest availability of local produce, seasonal variability was accounted for by choosing these two months to evaluate. The inventory covered all locations Mason Dining has direct purchasing control and menu creation (all three dining halls and The Rathskeller). The calculations were made by manually sorting through the purchases within the chosen two-month period and calculating totals based on STARS guidelines.

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	Yes	Yes
Student-run food/catering services	Yes	No
Franchises (e.g. national or global brands)	Yes	No
Convenience stores	Yes	No
Vending services	Yes	No
Concessions	Yes	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:

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Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

George Mason University is also a participant of the Healthier Campus Initiatives, an initiative by the Partnership for a Healthier America. The initiative aims to curb obesity by delivering healthier options and promoting more opportunities for physical activity to improve health. Mason has committed to having a nutritionist available to all students as well as more healthy options at each meal, more fruits and vegetables, additional calorie labeling, and more outdoor and indoor physical activity options. Information is for calendar year 2017.

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.