Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 74.30
Liaison Joséanne Bélanger-Gravel
Submission Date Sept. 2, 2022

STARS v2.2

Polytechnique Montréal
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.80 / 2.00 Joséanne Bélanger-Gravel
Sustainability Advisor
Sustainable Development Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a farmers market, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, or urban agriculture project, or support such a program in the local community?:
No

A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:
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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?:
No

A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:
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Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor support disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its food and beverage purchasing?:
Yes

A brief description of the support for disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:

ASaP worked within the MAPAQ's (Quebec's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) program towards the integration of local sourcing. The implementation went fast with excellent results. After one year of the program's implementation, ASaP reached 67% of all products from local sourcing. The goal for 2022 is to reach 75%, meaning ASaP takes the impact of transportation and supporting local businesses very serioulsy. ASaP will obtain "Aliments du Quebec" certification for the category "local products purchase".


Estimated percentage of total food and beverage expenditures on products from disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:
67

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host low impact dining events or promote plant-forward options?:
Yes

A brief description of the low impact dining events and/or plant-forward options:

Vegetarian offer is generalized to all the products offered. ASaP reduced the use of beef protein by 95% in the menus and increased the offer without animal protein by 65%. This progress allows us to make a request to obtain the silver level of certification of "Végé engagé" from AVM (Vegetarian Association of Montreal). ASaP inveites all distributors, creators and manufacturers of products from here to perform a tasting with the community. If the result is positive following the survey carried out, ASaP introduces the product.


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 vegan offer has increased by 65% ​​over the past 2 years. ASaP's use of animal protein is ever decreasing. Two out of three meals offered at the hot table do not contain animal protein. Soups are 100% vegan, 50% of prepared meals sold are vegan, 2 out of the 5 sandwich choices are vegan, vegan options at the grill have increased by 35%, two out of three sauces offered at the pasta counters are vegan, and 50% of the poke bowl choices are vegan.


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

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

ASaP choices and actions are both display in physical spaces and on ASaP social medias and website. The environmental signage program with visual indicator based on a life cycle study for the hot table menu will begin in June 2022 as a pilot project, looking towards expanding the project for the whole 2022-2023 year. This indicator, based on the academic grading system (A to F), will inform the community on which menu selection produces less GHG emissions according to the life cycle analysis done, so people can make an advised choice for their meal.


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:

Food from production and compostable are weighed at the end of each day and placed in the appropriate container. This data is compiled in a register. Food waste and its management are included in the characterizations of residual materials carried out for the entire establishment.


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:

Our contractor's tracking program has helped them optimize the portion sizes to reduce waste (the use of specific service spoons for instance).


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:

ASaP management is very effective and the loss is practically nil. If for one reason or another items expire, they are sold at 50% or simply given to students at the end of the day for free.


Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor divert food materials from the landfill, incinerator or sewer for animal feed or industrial uses?:
Yes

A brief description of the food materials diversion program:

Used oils are recovered by a company called Sanimax, which has the mandate of transforming used oils into ingredients for the manufacture of everyday items (oils, fuel, proteins). https://sanimax.com/


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:

Composting of organic waste has been used by Polytechnique's kitchen since 2014.


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:

Organic waste bins have been made available the Polytechnique community across the campus in March 2015 and are sent to be composted.


Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor utilize reusable service ware for “dine in” meals?:
No

A brief description of the reusable service ware program:

ASaP is currently working on a trial project to allow the use of reusable service ware for the hot table daily menu only, since the current installations and configuration of the main kitchen does not allow enough space for the equipment required to offer the service for all "dine in" meals.


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:

100% of all the containers, dishes and utensils are compostable.


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

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

There is a 10-cent discount on the daily menu if patrons bring their own plate.
Also, since the fall of 2016, there is a 15-cent tax on single-use disposable cups.


A brief description of other sustainability-related initiatives not covered above:

In April 2020, the undegraduate student society of Polytechnique (AEP) and the dining services (ASaP) adopted a 3-year strategic plan (2020-2023) oriented towards sustainable development. Three development areas are cited: 1-a sustainable, local and healthy plate, 2-responsible use of resources, and 3- community focused dining services. The plan includes 12 orientations.
The AEP measures customer satisfaction with an annual survey. This is to give a voice to the community to express itself and to share its point of view on the dining services. Because of the pandemic, the last one was done in 2018-2019. In 2019-2020, the confinement started in March 2020, before the end of the year but the annual survey was still administered. 2020-2021 was done remotely, so no annual survey was done. Finally, 2021-2022 was partially affected by confinement and various sanitary measures impacting regular activities; in addition, dining services suffered from the labour shortages that are ongoing in the province of Quebec, therefore only partial services were offered. A modified survey was issued in May 2022 for year 2021-2022 and data have not been compiled yet.


Website URL where information about the sustainable dining programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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