Overall Rating Platinum
Overall Score 86.17
Liaison James Gordon
Submission Date May 31, 2022

STARS v2.2

Thompson Rivers University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Aaron Wiebe
Research Assistant
Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Sustainable dining initiatives

Local community engagement

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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Sustainability-themed outlet

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?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:
The TRU Retail Meat Store, which is part of the TRU Culinary Arts program, offers only locally produced meats from the region, most of which are raised to strong sustainability-based standards (free-run, no antibiotics, etc.). All beef, pork, chicken, lamb and fish (seasonal) comes from local ranchers, farmers and producers in the region, and is processed on the campus by students and staff in the Retail Meat Cutting program, and sold to TRU and community customers from its retail outlet.
See "Sustainability-related aspects of meats" section on site: https://www.tru.ca/culinary-arts/retail-and-services/retail-meat-store.html

Inclusive and local sourcing

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:
TRU Culinary Arts approaches cuisine from a community-driven, farm to table approach, with much of our food being local, regional and sustainable. We tour and source from local farms for fresh herbs, fruit and produce, meat and more from vendors like SSOL farms, Blackwell dairy, and Devick’s ranch.

Aramark has joined "feed BC" as a partner. Feed BC is a provincial government initiative that encourages institutions to bring in more BC food to government support facilities. As a partner, we aim to reach the goal set by Feed BC of 30 percent of all food purchased being locally sourced from within BC. We are currently at 21 percent BC-sourced food suppliers and plan to continue to increase that over the next year. read more here: https://inside.tru.ca/2022/03/18/news-nibbles-supporting-local-suppliers/

Estimated percentage of total food and beverage expenditures on products from disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:
30

Low-impact dining

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:
One of the main campus food service outlets, Urban Market (run by Aramark), has had several "Meatless Mondays" events during the last three years.

Vegan dining program 

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:
Aramark identifies vegan entree options in its menus and through other types of signage whenever they are available. On top of this, they always have choices of salads, fruit options, nuts, and often various cooked grain/vegetable dishes (for example, rice and/or quinoa). They also introduced “Vegetarian Wednesdays”. They offer vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and halal options in the nine food-service outlets it operates on campus. TRU's Culinary Arts Program indicates on their menu when an entrée is vegan. They also have an extensive salad bar open every lunch, which features several vegan options, including complete-protein options. Their two or three daily soup options also often have vegan choices.

Labelling and signage 

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:
TRUSU's Common Grounds Cafe has biodegradable cutlery, compostable coffee and soup cups made from 100% renewable resources, and locally roasted, certified organic coffee, which are all either labeled or have visible signage.
All Aramark-run dining service outlets on campus have vegetarian, vegan, and halal labeling, with the following signage: https://inside.tru.ca/2017/11/24/dietary-friendly-food-selections/

Part 2. Food waste minimization and recovery

Food recovery program

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?:
No

A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:
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Trayless dining and portion modifications 

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:
TRU Food Services has a tray-less dining system to minimize food waste, conserve energy and water and reduce the amount of cleaning chemicals entering the waste stream.

Food donation 

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:
When possible, excess food from Culinary Arts (CU) is donated to the Kamloops Mission (social assistance and housing program for men) or Kamloops Food Bank. The food bank comes to pick up the surplus perishable food supplies at the end of each semester from CU, or before they are closed for an extended period (example: Reading Break).

Food materials diversion 

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:
A local animal food manufacturing facility from the regional town of Grindrod, BC picks up the used cooking oil from the main campus kitchen regularly to use in their manufacturing process.

Composting 

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:
TRU has partnered with Spa Hills compost services to broaden what we are able accept in our composting program to include things like BPI certified plastics, compostable paper products, and box board which were not able to be composted on-site with our previous setup.

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:
Compost bins are available around campus and are collected by the janitorial team and the contents are delivered to centralized bins for weekly pickup by Spa Hills.

Dine-in service ware 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor utilize reusable service ware for “dine in” meals?:
Yes

A brief description of the reusable service ware program:
In addition to the above-mentioned composting by Common Grounds, both main food preparation operations on campus (TRU Culinary Arts and Aramark), and, to a lesser extent, the student union run cafe/restaurant (Common Grounds), all offer regular reusable china and metal cutlery for many meal and catering functions.

Take-away materials 

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:
All food service outlets use only compostable to-go coffee cups, clamshell containers, and soup bowls. These to-go items will soon be able to be composted in a new industrial-strength anaerobic digester called The Rocket.

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:
Common Grounds coffee shop offers a 50 cent discount to any students who bring their own reusable mugs. Culinary Arts offers a 15% discount for reusable mugs. Aramark offers a 25 cent discount to students who bring their own mug, and Starbucks and Tim Horton's offer a 10 cent discount for bringing a reusable mug.

Optional Fields

A brief description of other sustainability-related initiatives not covered above:
TRU's annual International Days event in March (IDays) is a week-long event all over campus that celebrates and educates about the many diverse cultures that are on the TRU campus each year, and food is a central part of this education and celebration. The culmination of this sharing of the value and appreciation of wide-ranging foods and food choices is expressed in the final event, where a variety of entertainment from all over the world is mirrored in the types of foods offered and enjoyed.
https://www.tru.ca/internationaldays.html

Website URL where information about the sustainable dining programs is available:
http://www.tru.ca/campus/life/food-services/did-you-know/sustainability.html

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
All dollar amounts are in Canadian.
Data and information came from the TRU website, as well as Jessica Papineau (Aramark), and Paul Murphy (Culinary Arts)

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.