Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
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Overall Score | 60.66 |
Liaison | Neha Sood |
Submission Date | March 30, 2018 |
Executive Letter | Download |
Rochester Institute of Technology
OP-8: Sustainable Dining
Status | Score | Responsible Party |
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1.63 / 2.00 |
Enid
Cardinal Senior Sustainability Advisor to the President Office of the President |
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Part 1: Sustainable Dining Initiatives
Sustainable Dining Policy
No
A brief description of the sustainable dining policy:
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On-Campus Sourcing
No
A brief description of the program to source food from a campus garden or farm:
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Local Community Engagement
Yes
A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:
The RIT wellness program has partnered with the Good Food Collective to offer a year-round CSA. Members can pick up their weekly shares in the Better Me Wellness office.
Vegan Dining Program
Yes
A brief description of the vegan dining program:
All of our dining facilities offer vegan options. The simply eats station at Gracie's dining center also incorporates menu items that address all of the major food allergies: https://www.rit.edu/fa/diningservices/simply-eats
Low-Impact Dining Events
No
A brief description of the low impact dining events:
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Sustainability-Themed Meals
Yes
A brief description of the sustainability-themed meals:
In 2016, the University offered it's first ever local foods harvest dinner. The event was kicked off with a farmer's market earlier in the day and band played in the dining hall during the event.
Sustainability-Themed Outlet
No
A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:
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Labeling and Signage
No
A brief description of the sustainability labeling and signage in dining halls:
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Outreach and Education
Yes
A brief description of the outreach efforts to support learning and research about sustainable food systems:
Gracie's dining center regularly works with classes and faculty on sustainable dining challenges they face. This included their assistance to the NYS Pollution Prevention institute as they developed a state wide food waste audit program.
Other Initiatives
Yes
A brief description of the other sustainability-related dining initiatives:
RIT has a unique initiative called the Visiting Chef Program. The 3 largest dining facilities on campus have visiting chef station. They invite small ethinic restaurants from the community to serve food at that station. This enables the University to offer a wide variety of ethinic food operations and supports small, often minority-owned local businesses in the community.
Part 2: Food and Dining Waste
Food Recovery Program
Yes
A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:
RIT is a participant of the EPA Food Recovery Challenge, and in fact was an EPA region 2 award recipient in 2015.
Trayless Dining and Portion Modifications
Yes
A brief description of the trayless dining or modified menu/portion program:
TRAY-LESS FACILITY - Gracie’s , our largest resident dining hall, is a tray-less facility. This initiative is credited with approximately 30% food waste reduction.
Food Donation
Yes
A brief description of the food donation program:
Recover Rochester, a chapter of the Food Recovery Network, works with Dining services to capture and redistribute excess prepared food at the end of every meal service to area meal centers and shelters.
At the end of the year, non perishable food is collected from students moving out of campus residence halls and is donated to the RIT FoodShare program as well as area food banks.
Food Materials Diversion
Yes
A brief description of the food materials diversion program:
In addition to the food recovery and donation efforts, the University diverts roughly 1.5 - 2tons of food from the landfill weekly when classes are in session. The materials are taken to an anaerobic digester that in turn produces electricity.
Composting
Yes
A brief description of the pre-consumer composting program:
Pre-consumer food waste is captured from 4 of the 6 major dining units on campus.
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:
Pre and post consumer food waste is captured from Gracies, the largest dining facility on campus.
Dine-In Service Ware
Yes
A brief description of the reusable service ware program:
Brick City and Gracies utilize washable ware for dine in meals.
Take-Away Materials
Yes
A brief description of the compostable containers and service ware:
The dining operations near the residence halls (Common's, Sol's Underground, and Gracies) all offer a reusable to-go container option. Gracie's dining center, the largest facility on campus, eliminated disposable to-go containers in FY2013, offering reusable to-go containers only. The program has since expanded to Brick City cafe.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor offer discounts or other incentives to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in “to-go” food service operations?:
Yes
A brief description of the reusable container discount or incentives program:
REUSABLE MUG PROGRAM – Guests using a reusable mug only pay the price of a small cup of coffee.
Other Materials Management Initiatives
Yes
A brief description of other dining services materials management initiatives:
The RIT FoodShare facebook group was created on December 3,2014 and to date boasts over 1781 members. The group is open to the public but the intended audience is the RIT community. Members can request to receive post notifications. Faculty, staff or students can post within the group to notify members through a push notification that there is food available somewhere on campus from a department or organizational event/activity. Posts generally include a picture of the food, quantity, location and time the food will be available.
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.