Stanford University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Over the past year, 11,500 pounds of produce and 500 bunches of flowers, filling 20 CSA boxes per week, were provided by R&DE from the Stanford O’Donohue Educational Farm to staff and faculty, with another 100 boxes per week to support six student programs. Seasonal produce has included, for instance: Swiss chard, persimmons, wild arugula, sunchokes, seckel pears, gala apples, and more.

R&DE Stanford Dining's entire dining operation is "sustainability themed." Rather than only send students to one outlet focused on sustainability, we imbue the six pillars of our One Plate, One Planet sustainable food program throughout our entire footprint campus-wide, along with our longstanding leadership and implementation throughout all of our dining halls of the 24 Menus of Change Principles of Healthy, Sustainable Menus. Read more here in our One Plate, One Planet overview: https://rde-stanford-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/Dining/PDF/One%20Plate%20One%20Planet%20Overview%20-%20Document%20%281%29.pdf

Of particular note, the Forbes Café, offers flexitarian fare focused on real foods rich in vegetables, fruits and grains, as well as sustainably-sourced proteins.

Please also see details in subsequent questions regarding especially our universal food waste prevention efforts across our units, our plant-forward menu standards across our units, and our overall sustainability initiatives.

Stanford Dining leverages its institutional purchasing power to help reverse the disappearance of Black farms. 98% of Black agricultural landowners have been dispossessed since the 1950s. Today, less than one percent of all farmland is owned by Black farmers. By supporting Black-owned farms, Stanford Dining is committed to helping Black farmers overcome historical barriers--such as systemic racism in lending and access to land and capital--as well as the related inequities caused by these barriers, such as insufficient access to traditional markets and distribution channels. Along the way, our vision is to study and share the purchasing model we develop, and disseminate toolkits widely among both Black farmers and college and university foodservice leaders, so that the model can be scaled across the campus dining sector. Stanford has a particular interest in those farmers who are growing legumes, grains, produce, and other healthy, delicious, immune-supporting ingredients that are ingrained in the cultural heritage and cuisines of the African (Black) diaspora. These crops are also central to Stanford’s Red Skillet Kitchen dining program, which is led by celebrity chef Tanya Holland. This Black food program connects to Ujamaa, an ethnic theme house at Stanford that focuses on the histories, issues, and cultures of the African (Black) Diaspora for its student residents. Stanford Dining will be collaborating with both Chef Tanya and Ujamaa to use the ingredients and dishes as springboards for education and campus community engagement around the history of Black farmers and Black chefs. Our hope is for every volume foodservice purchasing department to think of equitable supply chains in the same way they think about local purchasing: the norm, just as it is to buy local. Long term, the idea is to expand the purchasing model to support Black businesses more broadly and ultimately increase supply chain diversity across other important underrepresented groups.

As part of our long-term commitment to equitable supply chains, we are currently in the process of developing a framework, collecting, and analyzing data to capture a baseline and begin to set targets over time for this very question, particularly around support of Black farmers, BIPOC producers/BIPOC-led businesses, and supporting underserved purveyors more broadly. We also have a robust history of supporting small family farms, and our participation in Regen1 Marketplace will further this support specifically of small family farmers throughout Northern California who are employing regenerative agricultural practices.

R&DE continues to run the Teaching Kitchen @ Stanford, a groundbreaking cooking education program available to the Stanford University community. The 9-week hands-on cooking classes have sustainability information woven into the curriculum, with a focus on plant-forward dishes. The students visit the organic teaching garden and use produce in their cooking lessons from the garden. Beyond the Teaching Kitchen, R&DE Stanford Dining offers a variety of plant-forward options in every dining hall each day. Currently, 86% of menu items each week are vegetarian, and 64% are vegan. We have been awarded an A+ rating for vegan dining by Peta(2). We have chefs specializing in vegan and vegetarian cuisine who create new globally inspired dishes for the menu throughout the year. We even have a dedicated Vegan and Plant Forward Sous Chef who specializes in developing new plant-forward recipes and enhancing the vegan dining experience for Stanford University students. Furthermore, we detail menu standards in our Food Choice Architecture Playbook that largely pertain to the availability of delicious and appealing plant-forward options (including vegan options): We recognize that the foods we serve are a reflection of our values and commitments to offer a variety of delicious, healthy, and sustainable options. Our talented culinary team is dedicated to inspiring students with new flavors, enticing recipes and expertly crafted dishes that showcase how exciting, delicious, and diverse eating well can be. The availability of foods and their placement in a dining hall setting can shift perceived norms and promote selection of more nutritious and sustainable foods. We utilize the following standards and defaults related to plant-forward menuing, to ensure our core menus promote the health and wellbeing of people and the planet, while still offering an abundance of choice, and that the plant-forward menu options we provide are nutritionally dense, varied, and delicious and appealing to our diners.

CORE MENUS
- At least 75% of menu items offered at each meal are vegetarian.
- At least 50% of menu items offered at each meal are vegan.
- Processed beef and pork (e.g. bacon, sausage) are offered no more than 3 times per week.
- Beef is offered as a main entree no more than 3 times per week.
- At every meal, at least one vegan entree with a plant-based protein source (e.g. beans, legumes, tofu, meat alternative, whole grains, nuts, and/or seeds) is always offered.
- When beef is an entree, a plant-forward special or popular plant-forward entree is offered as the alternative.
- All mixed dishes containing meat (i.e. stir-fry, sauces, soups) and 50% of meat and poultry entrees are served as a Protein Flip, having at least 30% plant-based ingredients by volume.

PLATED DISHES
- Plated salads and bowls are vegetarian or vegan, with meat offered separately as an optional addition
- The portion of meat in plated dishes doesn’t exceed 4 oz (3 oz for beef).

GRILL
- A plant-based (vegan) burger is always available when burgers are served.
- Beef burgers are 30% mushroom by default and offered no more than 3 days per week.

SIDES
- At least 50% of grains and grain-based foods are whole grain.
- At every meal, a chef-crafted vegetable, steamed vegetable, and salad bar are always offered.

CHEF SPECIALS
- At least 75% of chef specials are aligned with Menus of Change Principles.
- Any special that features meat offers a vegan alternative.

Please see the description of the plant-forward program above, which includes an abundance of delicious vegan options. All vegetarian and vegan options are clearly labeled (V=Vegetarian, VGN=Vegan). We interpret vegetarian as lacto-ovo-vegetarian (includes eggs and dairy but no meat, poultry or seafood) and vegan to be free from all animal products (including honey). To see the selection of vegetarian and vegan items offered in a student's dining hall, they can visit our online menus at rdeapps.stanford.edu/dininghallmenu

Detailed information about our vegan dining program is available in our Guide to Vegan Dining: https://rde-stanford-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/Dining/PDF/Guide_to_VeganVegetarian_Dining.pdf

Through R&DE’s Sustainable Food Program (One Plate, One Planet) and Performance Dining Program, sustainability education is interwoven into the fabric of the dining halls. Menus are labeled with vegetarian and vegan items as well as organic, local, and sustainable ingredients. That said, R&DE partners with faculty and works with researchers on all types of programs, so for instance, from some of our own published research, we know that taste is the most important driver of food choices, so we lead with flavor in all of our marketing while also promoting transparency of ingredients, allergens, preparation, and sourcing practices through our menu labeling program.

LABELING STANDARDS: Printed menu labels identify all ingredients, allergens, dietary traits, and sustainability attributes in a dish at the point of service. Taste-focused language is used to highlight flavorful and delicious attributes of healthy and plant-forward menu items; health-focused language is avoided. Instead of including dietary descriptors (e.g. “vegan” and “vegetarian”) in the name or description of a dish, colored icons assist diners with easily identifying food options that meet their needs and preferences.

MARKETING & PROMOTION: Chefs actively encourage healthy and plant-forward food choices through Tasting Tables, chef specials, and communications with diners. Marketing utilizes dynamic norms messaging to promote the growing popularity of healthy and plant-forward menu items among other students/diners. Signage encourages diners to take only what they can eat to manage portions and help prevent food waste.

PLATING: Plant-forward options are always presented in a way that makes them look delicious and enticing. This includes use of attractive serving dishes, plating techniques, and garnishes to add color and interest.

All dining halls have Visix screens that have sustainability signage related to our six One Plate, One Planet pillars and our student resource, How To Eat Sustainably on Campus, among other sustainability information. R&DE Stanford Dining also publishes a tabletop newsletter, Stanford Flavor, which features sustainability information in every issue. Last but not least, our Stanford Food Institute newsletter includes videos, articles, recipes, and more information about our One Plate, One Planet sustainable food program, and it is read by nearly 4,000 community members.

We use Leanpath to measure, track, and ultimately prevent pre-consumer food waste in the dining halls. We also focus on source reduction through our Central Production Kitchen by utilizing production worksheets (further details below). We do indeed participate in competitions, to much success:

Stanford Wins Top Place for Reducing Food Waste: https://sustainable.stanford.edu/content/stanford-wins-top-place-reducing-food-waste

Stanford Wins Campus Race to Zero Waste 2021 in the Large Campus Per Capita Category: https://www.nwf.org/Latest-News/Press-Releases/2021/05-04-21-Campus-Race-To-Zero-Waste-2021

As part of R&DE Stanford Dining’s “Love Food Hate Waste” program, all dining halls have Leanpath systems to measure and track pre-consumer food waste. Staff are trained on One Plate, One Planet sustainable food program and the impact of food waste, creative culinary solutions to preventing food waste, and how to use Leanpath. Staff are also trained on proper waste sorting and waste reduction at new staff on-boardings and ongoing trainings. Stanford Dining is committed to reducing food waste through a comprehensive roadmap of strategies, detailed in its new Food Waste Prevention Playbook. The Big Picture: Our Strategic Roadmap for Minimizing Food Waste:

COMMIT. It all starts with dedication at the leadership level. In 2019, Eric Montell, Executive Director of R&DE Stanford Dining, created a Food Waste Reduction Task Force. It includes key expertise from across the department: culinary, sustainability, food choice architecture, management, and research. Their objective was to develop a Food Waste Reduction Strategy and action plan for the years to come. In April 2021, incorporating the recommendations of our partners and our task force--and as part of our overall sustainable food program, One Plate, One Planet and our adoption of the Menus of Change Principles of Healthy, Sustainable Menus--we built upon our long-standing initiatives reducing food waste by committing to further reduce Stanford Dining’s food waste by 25% by the end of 2022.

COLLECT AND ANALYZE DATA. Having both sufficient quantity and quality of food waste data enables us to make better decisions. After all, you can only manage what you measure.

CULTIVATE A CULTURE OF FOOD WASTE PREVENTION. We hold a robust suite of annual trainings for our entire staff: from the climate impacts and the “why” behind food waste prevention, to the inspiring potential of creative culinary upcycling, to the use of technological tools such as Leanpath for tracking waste over time. We acknowledge and identify success cases and innovative leaders within our organization, and share and replicate best practices within our units. This approach produces the greatest effect in terms of cultivating the organization’s culture of food waste prevention.

Food Waste Reduction Task Force leaders share high-level reviews of the progress made during Community Roundtable discussions, to celebrate and learn from the impact we are having across the units.

This culture applies to our students as well, who help us see through collaborative research that, although signage has not significantly changed food waste-related behavior, having signage in the dining halls is an important signal to everyone in our community that minimizing food waste is an essential element of Stanford Dining’s culture. For this reason, signage remains a key part of our overall strategy.

OPERATIONALIZE BEST PRACTICES. We both learn from and contribute to the growing knowledge on effective food waste reduction strategies, through academic and operational research studies. These allow us to identify and test the best ways to prevent food waste at the source and reduce it throughout the entire value chain. This strategy has a particular focus on what’s called “food choice architecture”--how we design dining hall environments to make it easier for students to take only the amount they need and want to eat, and to make it more difficult to generate waste. One example is trayless dining, a widely used best practice throughout many college dining programs in the nation, for its proven ability to reduce food and water waste. (Trays are available to students upon request.) Check out our Food Choice Architecture Playbook to read the full set of strategies for making healthy, sustainable choices the easy choices. Ultimately, we translate food waste-related research into programs; pilot and test them to ensure their feasibility and impact; then replicate, standardize, and continuously improve them at scale across our entire dining ecosystem. As part of the Food Waste Prevention Playbook, we developed our own version of the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy, illustrating the key categories of strategies we employ throughout Stanford Dining, ranging from biggest impact to lowest impact: Forecast and Order Accurately | Portion Control/Just-in-Time Cooking | Repurpose Leftovers | Donate | Toss.

ENGAGE STUDENTS. These efforts include: real-world opportunities for students to collaborate on research and education; participation in food waste audits; volunteer positions with our partner organization, the student-led group Stanford Food Recovery, to support food donations to food-insecure individuals and families in the Bay Area; and clear, compelling signage when they enter the dining halls and when scraping their plates into the compost bin.

All R&DE Stanford Dining halls are trayless and have been for years. We have a robust Food Choice Architecture Playbook that details our commitments to strategic portion design. Research shows that reducing portion sizes is an effective strategy for promoting more mindful consumption and minimizing food waste. We aim to encourage balanced food choices while offering flexibility for diners to take the amount of food that is right for them. Here are some details beyond our use of trayless dining.

Display plates are featured on the entree line, following the R&DE Stanford Dining Balanced Plate:
½ of plate is vegetables (about 2 cups serving)
¼ protein foods (3-4 oz serving)
¼ grains/starches (½ cup or 4 oz serving)

Desserts do not exceed these portion sizes:
Pie or round cakes = 1/10 of pie or cake
Square desserts = 1.5-inch square
Scooped desserts = 2-oz scoop
Cookies = 1 oz

Entrees do not exceed these portion sizes:
Pizza slice = 1/10 of pizza
Poultry and pork (plated or in salad/bowl)= 4 oz
Beef (plated or in salad/bowl) = 3 oz
Standard plate size does not exceed 10 inches

Stanford Dining works with students at Stanford University and local nonprofits to reduce food waste on campus and help alleviate food insecurity in the Bay Area. In 2021, Stanford Dining donated a total of 62,771 combined prepared and bulk meals to families in need.

R&DE recycles all cooking oil from dining halls, dorms, cafes, and catering into biofuel through a partnership with SeQuential. Additional related strategies and details include:

DIVERT ORGANICS TO FEED ANIMALS. 100% of the organics that make it into the dining hall organics/compost dumpster are so nutrient-dense, they get converted into pig and dog feed by our waste hauler in Santa Clara. Diverting food scraps for animal feed is a much-preferred outcome to sending all organics to compost--according to the EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy--as it extends the life of those food scraps, ensures their inherent nutritional value gets put to good use, and saves natural resources and land that would otherwise be used to grow food to feed these animals.

SUPPORT STANFORD’S ZERO-WASTE CAMPUS INITIATIVE THROUGH OUR ROBUST COMPOST PROGRAM. Stanford University is committed to reaching a diversion rate from the landfill of 90% by 2030. In the future, we’re excited about how this aspect of our operations can help support another One Plate, One Planet pillar, which is to help catalyze a circular economy of food. We embrace the principles of a circular economy, which are: design out waste and pollution; keep products and materials in use; and regenerate natural systems. We aim to design operations and physical spaces and purchase products with these principles in mind. In the meantime, by composting, we ensure that nearly all our remaining organics contribute to the creation of nutrient-rich soils.
SEND REMAINDER TO COMPOST. While Stanford Dining’s food waste is sent from dining halls to animal feed, the remainder of Stanford’s food waste that isn’t captured in a dining hall (i.e., in a dorm, an apartment, anywhere else on campus other) is sent to the Newby Island Resource Recovery Facility in San Jose, where it is composted. Our agreement allows us to send 100% of material collected, meaning no organic material collected needs to be landfilled.

All R&DE kitchens have pre-consumer composting programs. Staff are trained when they join R&DE and at quarterly trainings to ensure the compost bins are used properly and the compost is not contaminated.

All campus staff, residents, and visitors have access to composting at all Stanford facilities. Stanford annually composts over 3 million pounds of food waste from its dining halls and other campus eateries. Compost that is rich with food waste is brought to a facility in Santa Clara, California, were it is processed into animal feed. All other compost (compost with paper and compostable plastic products) is sent to the Newby Island Commercial Composting facility in San Jose. A major focus of Stanford’s sustainable food program, One Plate, One Planet, is to reduce the impact of R&DE’s operations through efficiency measures, education and engagement of staff and customers, collaborative efforts with partners across campus, and creative design solutions to complex behavioral challenges. The pre- and post-consumer composting program is an ideal example of these initiatives. At all dining halls, students and staff scrape their own plates into compost containers before placing dishware in the dishroom. The compost bins are open so that students are able to see individually and collectively the amount of food that is being wasted. R&DE also uses newsletters, emails, and social media to discuss and highlight food waste issues and engage all stakeholders in cultivating a culture of food waste prevention across campus.

R&DE Stanford Dining uses only reusable serviceware in the dining halls. Stanford Dining also gives all new students on the meal plan and dining hall staff a reusable mug at the beginning of the year.

When needed, R&DE Stanford Dining uses BPI-certified compostable wares. All residential buildings have compost dumpsters to ensure that to-go compost containers are properly disposed of. R&DE Stanford Hospitality & Auxiliaries uses BPI-certified compostable products (cups, plates, bowls, and straws) in all cafes and catering on campus. R&DE also sells compostable products
to students for parties and events through Catering.

R&DE Stanford Dining provides reusable cups to all incoming freshmen and transfer students to help reduce disposable bottled beverage consumption on campus. Additionally, and more holistically, especially amid COVID when to-go eating has increased, the best incentive strategy we employ is to encourage dine-in vs. to-go, because our dine-in program uses plates, cups, and utensils that are inherently reusable and always have been. Part of how we incentive dine-in is the fact that we offer 80% seating capacity of the total population--far above the average on most campuses. We do so as part of our ResX neighborhood model of community building, which centers around students enjoying meals at a table and breaking bread together on a regular basis. Offering such extensive tables and chairs--including copious outdoor seating surrounding dining halls, to encourage students to even take their china to eat together outside--conveys that dine-in is the default style of service vs. to-go, and therefore that the dining program centers reusable containers by design. This has continued--safely--during COVID, reducing the total need for to-go containers in the first place, which is certainly most impactful from a sustainability perspective.

R&DE Stanford Dining demonstrates that sustainable, ethical, and healthy food systems can be deployed at scale, while simultaneously inspiring the next generation to improve how Earth’s precious resources are managed. One Plate, One Planet represents these six pillars:

1. Climate-smart dining. We are encouraged and motivated by the fact that food plays a critical role in reversing global warming, from plant-forward menus to food waste reduction, as well as the positive potential impact of the physical spaces where we all eat and gather.

2. Racial equity and supporting Black businesses. Stanford Dining leverages its institutional purchasing power to help reverse the disappearance of Black farms. 98% of Black agricultural landowners have been dispossessed since the 1950s. Today, less than one percent of all farmland is owned by Black farmers. Stanford Dining is committed to helping Black farmers overcome historical barriers--such as systemic racism in lending and access to land and capital--as well as the related inequities caused by these barriers, such as insufficient access to traditional markets and distribution channels. Our vision is to share the purchasing model we develop and disseminate toolkits widely among both Black farmers and college and university foodservice leaders, so that the model can be scaled across the campus dining sector. Our hope is for every volume foodservice purchasing department to think of equitable supply chains in the same way they think about local purchasing: the norm, just as it is to buy local. Long term, the idea is to expand the purchasing model to support Black businesses more broadly, and ultimately increase supply chain diversity across other important underrepresented groups.

3. Curbing deforestation through supply chain pressure. Through our sourcing decisions, we are committed to helping ensure the carbon-sequestering power of forests and the essential biodiversity they house remain intact.

4. Thriving oceans. Partnering with leading academic researchers across the Stanford campus can give us the tools to source sustainably and actively play a role in the global supply chain to support sustainable fisheries management, responsible aquaculture, emerging technologies, and an abundance of delicious, nutritious, biodiverse plant-based foods from the sea.

5. Catalyzing a circular economy of food. We embrace the principles of a circular economy, which are: design out waste and pollution; keep products and materials in use; and regenerate natural systems. We aim to channel resources toward circularity especially as it relates to the twin crises of overreliance on single-use plastics and food waste.

6. Embracing systems thinking, upstream thinking, and minimizing unintended consequences. Food systems are not linear. They are complex, intricate webs of players and levers, sub-systems and multi-directional relationships. We believe in the potential of multi-solving: addressing multiple imperatives--from human health and nutrition to racial justice and gender equity, from water footprint and carbon footprint to animal welfare and workplace conditions--through strategic shifts in our operations. Read about One Plate, One Planet in detail in our overview document: https://rde-stanford-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/Dining/PDF/One%20Plate%20One%20Planet%20Overview%20-%20Document%20%281%29.pdf

• Menus of Change University Research Collaborative: https://www.moccollaborative.org/
• Sustainability at Stanford: 2020-2021 Year in Review (See the Living and Eating Sustainably section highlighting R&DE Stanford Dining’s initiatives): https://sustainability-year-in-review.stanford.edu/2021/
• Stanford Wins Top Place for Reducing Food Waste: https://sustainable.stanford.edu/content/stanford-wins-top-place-reducing-food-waste

One Plate, One Planet: R&DE Stanford Dining Sustainability Initiatives:
R&DE Stanford Dining is proud to be a leader in sustainability and pioneering efforts to promote more sustainable diets and food systems. We recognize that food systems account for about a third of all greenhouse gas emissions globally, and we work to reduce our food-related environmental impact through innovative procurement strategies, food waste reduction, and promotion of more plant-forward food choices. These strategies are among the most impactful paths we can take, as Project Drawdown ranks reducing food waste the #1 solution for reversing global warming; it ranks shifting to plant-rich diets as the #3 most effective solution. These rankings cover 80+ potential solutions spanning transportation, energy, buildings, and beyond—which underscores a driving motivation for us as an organization: the often overlooked but tremendous power of food as a tool for climate action.
We have developed our Sustainable Food Ethos to establish a practical framework and an ongoing process to guide decision-making in support of sustainable food systems. These guidelines take into account the best interest of our environment, the social and economic systems on which our food depends, and the health of those to whom we serve food. Our guidelines are informed by the most current science and research available and draw upon the input and involvement of many stakeholders within our campus community with the goal of improving the overall health, safety, security, and sustainability of our food supply. Read the full ethos here: https://rde-stanford-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/RDE_sustainability%20ethos_1_OPOP.pdf
Learn more in Sustainable Food @Stanford By the Numbers: https://rde-stanford-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/RDE_sustainability%20ethos_2_OPOP.pdf
How to Eat Sustainably on Campus: https://rde-stanford-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/RDE_sustainability%20ethos_3_OPOP.pdf

PURCHASING STANDARDS

Whenever possible we prefer to purchase food that is:

• Agroecological: We prefer to source from farms that plant a diverse number of crops, as opposed to a monoculture, and employ agroecological methods of farming that protect and enhance soil health and biodiversity, and that protect and preserve ecosystems.
• Direct: We prefer to purchase food directly from independently-owned growers, producers and manufacturers. We value knowing who grows our food and having direct relationships with them so that we can improve and learn together. We also prioritize purchasing food from women and/or minority owned businesses.
• Fair: We prefer food that is grown in environments that treat their workers fairly and respectfully, comply with all labor laws, provide safe work environments, and do not employ slave labor. We prefer Fair Trade certified products over those that are not certified.
• Humane: We prefer meat and dairy products from animals that are treated humanely and allowed to express their natural behaviors. We prefer products that have a third-party humane certification, such as Food Alliance, Global Animal Partnership, and Certified Humane.
• Local/Regional: We prefer food that is grown, raised, or processed locally in order to sustain our local economies (especially supporting small and mid-sized farms and companies) and minimize transport, especially of fresh fruit and vegetables. We define three tiers of location: local is within 150 miles, regional is within 250 miles, and statewide refers to California grown produce. Given the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting our local economies and participating in our regional foodsheds is of only greater importance as we all navigate these difficult times.
• Organic: We prefer organically grown food to minimize exposure to harmful pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers for our customers, farmworkers, pollinators and wildlife, and the environment.
• Raised without Antibiotics & Hormones: We prefer meat, dairy items, and seafood from animals that were never given hormones or subtherapeutic antibiotics (unless sick and under the advice of a veterinarian).
• Sustainable Fisheries: Seafood must be sustainably raised in a way that allows the fishery to sustain itself for future generations without damaging the environment, overfishing, catching bycatch, or using slave labor. We prefer family fisheries that provide economic growth in their communities. We ensure that all of our seafood is Seafood Watch best choices or good alternatives.

SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS
R&DE Stanford Dining is committed to sustainable operations that reduce our consumption of resources, generate as little waste as possible, and responsibly reuse any resource waste that we do generate. Programs to promote sustainable operations include:
• Reducing Food-Related GHG emissions: We recognize that food systems account for about a third of all greenhouse gas emissions globally, and we work to reduce our food-related environmental impact through innovative procurement strategies, food waste reduction, and promotion of more plant-forward food choices.
• Composting & Animal Feed: All dining halls collect pre- and post-production food waste and send it to an off-site facility that converts the food waste to pig feed. All non-food compostables in R&DE are also composted off-site. This diverts waste from the landfill and results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
• Recycling: R&DE Stanford Dining recycles paper, corrugated cardboard, plastic bags, aluminum cans, glass bottles and jars, tins cans, and aseptic containers from all of our dining facilities.
• Food Donations: R&DE Stanford Dining donates leftover edible food to partner agencies in the Bay Area.
• Waste Oil to Biodiesel: Waste oil from the dining halls — roughly 7,000 gallons a year — is converted to biodiesel by SF Greasecycle.
• Energy Conservation: To conserve energy, our Dining in the Daylight program promotes using available sunlight during daytime hours. The program resulted from a collaborative project with the student-run Green Living Council and saves 20,735 kWh every year. When daylight is not available, we rely upon energy efficient LED bulbs, have been installed in all dining halls.
• Water Conservation: R&DE Stanford Dining works closely with LBRE to identify opportunities and technologies to reduce our water consumption. Our efforts have led to an annual reduction of about 21% as compared to a baseline year of 2013. As of August 2017, we had saved over 3.7 million gallons of water since 2013.

• R&DE Stanford Dining Takes the Lead as Pilot Program for New Scope 3 Emissions Program

The University has recently launched a Scope 3 Emissions Program, spearheaded by one of its longstanding sustainability leaders and Stanford alum, Moira Zbella, and sponsored by the Vice President of Business Affairs. While Stanford has made tremendous strides in reducing its scope 1 and 2 emissions over recent years and will achieve its goal of 80% emissions reduction by the end of next year, scope 3--which represents indirect greenhouse gas emissions--is truly the next frontier. We in R&DE Stanford Dining are humbled and delighted to have accepted the invitation to take the lead as the University's first pilot program for this important and urgent campus-wide initiative to confront the climate emergency. We will provide insights from our years of experience tracking food-related emissions from the Collective Impact Initiative of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, which we co-founded and jointly lead. The Collective Impact Initiative was launched in 2017 and set a target to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions through our combined protein purchases by 25% by 2030. As a result of Stanford Dining's leadership of that program, we have developed relevant subject matter expertise that can support the success of the University's Scope 3 Emissions Program at large. We have begun working closely with Moira and her team, and look forward to both learning and contributing, and above all, to supporting the University's climate action goals. “As an ongoing exemplar of sustainability at Stanford, R&DE Stanford Dining is well-positioned to pilot a successful and informative scope 3 emissions mitigation program,” Moira notes. “We look forward to developing multiple data-driven, long-term scope 3 emissions mitigation initiatives and collaborations that can be modeled off of those established by R&DE Stanford Dining.”

-BeWell Community Gardens The BeWell Community Gardens are open to the Stanford community and are managed by Residential & Dining Enterprises. The gardens are part of Stanford’s BeWell program. We have two gardens, one near the Medical School and one near the Munger Complex for a total of more than 150 individual garden plots spanning one acre of land. For more information, see here: https://rde.stanford.edu/dining/bewell-community-gardens?qt-stanford_bewell_community_garden=1#qt-stanford_bewell_community_garden


• Menus of Change University Research Collaborative

o Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises is a proud member of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative (MCURC), co-founded and jointly led by Stanford University and The Culinary Institute of America. The MCURC is a collaboration of forward-thinking scholars, food service leaders, executive chefs, and administrators for colleges and universities who are accelerating efforts to move people toward healthier, more sustainable, and delicious foods using evidence-based research, education, and innovation. Together, we are working to find best practices and operational innovations that support the MCURC’s vision of cultivating the long-term well-being of all the people and the planet—one student, one meal at a time. On our own campus, at every meal and in every unit of Stanford Dining, we strive to operationalize the Menus of Change Principles of Healthy, Sustainable Menus: a holistic, evidence-based framework for menu concepts, operations, foods, and ingredients that is put forward by The Culinary Institute of America and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Furthermore, the Collaborative’s Collective Impact Initiative has set a collective target across member institutions’ combined protein purchases to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030. Stanford Dining both learns from and contributes to impactful initiatives such as this within the MCURC.

The power of partnership:
In addition to co-founding and jointly leading the MCURC, Stanford Dining’s history of sustainability-inspired partnerships and collaborations spans its membership in the Google Food Lab, Bay Area Sustainable Sourcing Group, and World Resources Institute’s Better Buying Lab. Building on this history, Stanford Dining has joined Drawdown Labs, a consortium of private sector partners working to scale climate solutions. Stanford Dining is the first university-based member to be part of Drawdown Labs’ network of bold business leaders taking accelerated climate action. See more here: https://www.drawdown.org/programs/drawdown-labs

Project Drawdown ranks reducing food waste the #1 solution for reversing global warming. With our membership announcement in Drawdown Labs, we are building on our long-standing initiatives reducing food waste by committing to further reduce Stanford Dining’s food waste by 25% by the end of 2022. Our partnership in Drawdown Labs will help us learn and shape not only long-term food waste targets but broader food-related climate targets over the months to come.

We have also joined REGEN1, a consortium of food system leaders in Northern California supporting farmers who are employing regenerative agriculture principles that improve air, water, and soil quality, enhance biodiversity, and prioritize greater inclusion and equity for all. We look forward to channeling these purchases to especially farmers of color, in alignment with our Black farmers initiative.