Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 69.75
Liaison Josh Lasky
Submission Date Feb. 23, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

George Washington University
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.74 / 6.00 Meghan Chapple
Director & Senior Advisor
Office of 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:
14

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”):
No

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):
36.30

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):
GW signed on to the Real Food Campus Commitment in April 2014 and committed to procuring 20% 'Real Food' by 2020. GW has used the challenge campaign and associated calculator tool to track sustainable food and beverage purchasing efforts based on a 2012/13 baseline assessment. This effort not only increased the transparency of food served on campus, but provided educational and professional development opportunities for students as they gathered and analyzed the data. In May of 2016, GW certified 14% of its institutional dining in the Real Food Challenge.

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):
Inventory Version 3.pdf

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 Real Food Calculator tool is the method that was used in 2015-16 to determine annual purchases of sustainable foods for the student dining program. Real Food Challenge Calculator tour: https://www.realfoodchallenge.org/documents/13/Calc_Tour.pdf Real Food Challenge Inventory Legend: Barn: local Scale: fair Leaf: ecological Hand: humane Black plus sign: disqualifier A red dot means - Product does not meet criteria A green plus sign means - Product meets criteria A red dot with a bar means - Disqualifier A grey dot means - Criteria not applicable

If uploading output from the Real Food Calculator, provide:

Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):
5

Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):
9

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 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

Optional Fields 

A brief description of purchased food and beverage products that have other sustainability attributes not recognized above :
Because flour is not local, we could not include a large quantity of baked goods that were purchased from local bakeries as opposed to being from out of state.

Additional percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional products with other sustainability attributes not recognized above (0-100) :
2.70

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
http://gwtoday.gwu.edu/university-joins-real-food-challenge-earth-day-celebration

Additional documentation to support the submission:
RFC_FY16_Summary_Percent Only.pdf

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The 14% real food metric is from GW's 2016 fiscal year with Sodexo. We are providing this to show continuity from the prior year's 2017 STARS snapshot. GW added a new on-campus food service provider Restaurant Associates in the 2017 fiscal year and we were unable to get the data from that contractor as we were still working on the prior year data. Currently, GW offers an open dining program, allowing students to enjoy more than 100 dining partners across the campus and neighborhood area in downtown Washington, DC.

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.