Université de Sherbrooke
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

1. TIMEFRAME

• The timeframe chosen to build the inventory was fiscal year 2021 (FY-21) ranging from 1 May 2020 to 30 April 2021.
• This period was chosen because it was the most recent and complete data set available when the calculations started in January 2022.
• Obtention of data was time-consuming and involved a lot of back and forth.
• We chose not to pursue a newer period (e.g., FY-22) to avoid a lengthier data compilation/analysis process, and to minimize the possibility of incomplete data.

2. DATA SOURCES

2.1. COMMERCIAL CONCESSION
• Data was requested from the main food and beverage service contractor, Café-Caus, of the Université de Sherbrooke. This entity is an independent cooperative (a social enterprise) that operates various services (i.e., cafeterias, catering, vending machines, and a small convenience store) on two campuses.
• Café-Caus provided three reports. Firstly, a report on food purchases of their vendor Gordon Foods. A second report on Pepsico (for cold drinks). And the last one on Van Houtte (hot drinks).

2.2. SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN (SFSC) OF ORGANIC PRODUCE AND HONEY
• Contracts with local producers ensure that the supply of organic agricultural products on campus is enhanced.
• Four external and privately-owned farms provide fresh produce to students and employees of the university, namely: Le Potager D’Émylou, L’Agneau Maraîcher, Ferme Croque-Saisons and Aux Bio-Légumes.
• Baskets of fresh produce are distributed (i.e., sold) on a schedule, all-year round, at three pick-up/delivery points.
• Moreover, a student association manages two small-scale programs: (1) a campus garden producing vegetables and herbs, and (2) Ruche Campus [EN: Campus Beehive] collecting honey from honeycombs. These products are sold at the Campus Durable [EN: Sustainable Campus] locale at the student’s pavilion. Honey pots are also available for sale at the cafeteria under agreement with Café-Caus.
• Sales figures for each of the vendors and student unions for FY21 were requested.
 
3. BUILDING THE INVENTORY

• Every itemized line of each report was translated from French to English.
• Once the product descriptions were in English, a classification according to the criteria suggested by STARS® 2.2 Technical manual OP-07 was made: (A) Sustainably or ethically produced foods, and (B) Plant-based foods.
• The stream (A) Sustainably or ethically produced foods was coded per category as follows: sustainable agriculture (SAG), sustainable seafood (SSF), Fair Trade / Labour (FTL), Humane animal care (HAC), other independent certifications (OTI), other corporate certifications (OTC), institution-affirmed production (IAP), and non-applicable items (NA).
• Where there was doubt about the sustainability standard of a particular product, the websites of the manufacturers/distributors were visited for validation. Some products may meet more than one standard, but the most recognizable one was chosen.
• As the physical products were not on hand at the time of the verification, some of the items on the original list may be able to meet the sustainability standards. However, it was decided to remove them from the list due to lack of evidence. This suggests that certified/verified purchases may be under-represented.
• The stream (B) Plant-based foods was coded per category as follows: unprocessed or minimally processed (UPM), processed culinary (PCL), simple processed foods (SPF), vegetarian/vegan (VEG), and non-applicable items (NA).
• For all products, a code for each line was assigned, and once each list was completed, pivot tables were constructed to organise categories by monetary value.
• Lastly, the exercise was completed by transferring the results to the template provided by AASHE to document purchases in the Food and Beverage Purchasing credit.

4. SHORTCOMINGS AND PRECISIONS

• The inventory documenting Food and Beverage Purchases at the Université de Sherbrooke is based on data from FY-21 which was an atypical year impacted by COVID school closures. This suggests that on a regular year, the purchase figures and consumption percentages of certified products and plant-based foods might be higher.

Please see the Flowchart of the methodology employed to build the inventory in the field "Additional documentation to support the submission".

The main food and beverage service contractor of the Université de Sherbrooke is Café-Caus. This entity is an independent cooperative (social enterprise) operating various services : cafeterias, catering, vending machines, and a convenience store.

Café-CAUS favours the purchase of local products from the immediate Estrie region (Sherbrooke and surrounding areas) and has several partnerships with local food companies for its supply of bread, milk, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, pre-cooked, and ready-to-serve meals. Food offered to the university community by Café-CAUS is mainly sourced from Quebec suppliers thus ensuring content from Quebec origin.

In early 2022, Café-CAUS enrolled as a partner of the Statégie nationale d'achat d'aliments québécois [EN: National Strategy for Quebec-sourced food products]. This is an ongoing endeavour focusing on a food-calculator for locally sourced ingredients, and a wider offer of Quebec-sourced food products. As of September 2022, Café-CAUS started to track this initiative.

In addition, all coffee served by Café-CAUS is fair-trade certified (by Fairtrade Canada). Also, whenever tea and chocolate are offered, a certified fair-trade option is provided.