| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68.22 |
| Liaison | Mary Ellen Mallia |
| Submission Date | Dec. 21, 2018 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
University at Albany
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.10 / 6.00 |
Mary Ellen
Mallia Director of Environmental Sustainability Finance and Business |
Percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on products that are third party verified under one or more recognized food and beverage sustainability standards or Local & Community-Based:
Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (expenditures on conventional animal products)? (If data is not available, respond “No”):
Percentage of total dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional animal products (meat, poultry, fish/seafood, eggs, and dairy products that do NOT qualify in either the Third Party Verified or Local & Community-Based category):
A brief description of the sustainable food and beverage purchasing program, including how the sustainability impacts of products in specific categories are addressed (e.g. meat, poultry, fish/seafood, eggs, dairy, produce, tea/coffee):
University Auxiliary Services (UAS) and Sodexo partner to bring local and sustainable food to the dining halls, convenience stores, vending machines, catering services and concessions.A priority is placed on the distributors to find NY sourced, local and sustainably produced products. Our professionally-trained chefs write our menus to take advantage of the fresh fruits and vegetables that are naturally in season. We partner with many local distributors to bring local products including Byrne Dairy, Gillette Creamery and Purdy and Sons among others.
An inventory of the institution’s sustainable food and beverage purchases that includes for each product: the description/type; label, brand or producer; and the category in which it is being counted and/or a description of its sustainability attribute(s):
A brief description of the methodology used to conduct the inventory, including the timeframe and how representative samples accounted for seasonal variation (if applicable):
The purchases of food are collected by Sodexo. UAlbany's Director of Sustainability reviews the purchases to determine which will be considered local and/or sustainable. The criteria for sustainable food purchases are outlined by STARS. In addition, UAlbany participates in a SUNY wide initiative called Farm to SUNY. This entails placing an emphasis on procuring products from NYS. As a result, our local purchases include items grown and produced in NYS. However, since Albany is centrally located, we have not found the NYS items are being procured from a distance greater than 250 miles and thus would also meet the STAR's criteria. Any items included in the dining services that are not food (such as paper products, trash bags, cleaning supplies, etc) were eliminated from the total food spend number.
Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):
Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):
Which of the following food service providers are present on campus and included in the total food and beverage expenditure figures?:
| Present? | Included? | |
| Dining operations and catering services operated by the institution | Yes | Yes |
| Dining operations and catering services operated by a contractor | Yes | Yes |
| Student-run food/catering services | No | No |
| Franchises (e.g. national or global brands) | Yes | Yes |
| Convenience stores | Yes | Yes |
| Vending services | Yes | No |
| Concessions | Yes | Yes |
A brief description of purchased food and beverage products that have other sustainability attributes not recognized above :
Additional percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional products with other sustainability attributes not recognized above (0-100) :
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.