Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	71.74
Liaison	Carrie Metzgar
Submission Date	March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of California, San Diego
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.00 / 2.00	Michelle Perez Energy and Sustainability Manager Utilities and 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?:

Yes

A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:

The university hosts a farmer's market on campus every Tuesday during the academic year.

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:

In 2011 we opened the Root's Restaurant, the first dedicated Vegan Restaurant in the UC System. Root's offers exclusively vegan entrees, salads, sides, and smoothies. Roots is the university’s first exclusively vegan eatery and lounge. UC San Diego also works with students and campus stakeholders to identify desired menu options, locate sources locally, and promote sustainable and healthy food options to students.

Sixty-four North features a mix of California cuisine featuring local vegetables and trending international dishes.

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?:

A brief description of the support for disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:

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

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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:

All HDH dining halls participate in Meatless Mondays, every Monday during the school year.

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:

UC San Diego was recognized by Peta2 as a Top 10 Vegan Friendly University in 2010 and 2011 and as a Most Vegan Friendly University in 2012. In 2011 we opened the Root's Restaurant, the first dedicated Vegan Restaurant in the UC System. Root's offers exclusively vegan entrees, salads, sides, and smoothies. Roots is the university’s first exclusively vegan eatery and lounge. UC San Diego also works with students and campus stakeholders to identify desired menu options, locate sources locally, and promote sustainable and healthy food options to students.

In the other campus dining facilities on campus, 20% of main courses and up to 80% of side dishes are vegetarian or vegan.

The Food Co-op is an exclusive vegan and vegetarian student-run food store that features a fresh, organic salad bar, bagels, trail mix, soups, and a variety of other foods and beverages. Since its introduction to the campus in 1978, the Food Co-op has committed itself to providing the UC San Diego community with a natural food alternative, as well as, a resource for environmentally conscious products and information. The Food Co-op carries a variety of food and non-food products such as baked goods, juices, sandwiches, fresh organic produce, macro-biotic options, ethnic foods, cruelty-free cosmetics, and environmentally safe cleaning products. Many foods are stocked in bulk to reduce the price to the customer and the waste of packaging.

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:

Dining often posts signage about Fair Trade and organic items alongside nutrition information. The HDH EcoNauts, student employees of HDH, educate other students about Fair Trade, organic and other sustainable food purchasing standards, especially those followed by Dining.

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?:

Yes

A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:

HDH educates students to only take what they need to eat. The student chapter of the Food Recovery Network on campus educates students about food waste and works to get uneaten food to students. Through the university's zero waste efforts and UC-wide My Last Trash campaign, students have been educated about not wasting food.

HDH also partners with the Triton Food Pantry and annually participates in the nationwide Colleges Rock Hunger competition, receiving recognition from the San Diego Food Bank in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

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:

Some HDH restaurants have trays, but not all. They go 100% trayless in the summer with the exception of student groups that have that specific requirement in their contract for federal aid.

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:

HDH donates uneaten food to UC San Diego Food Recovery Network (FRN),Triton Food Pantry (TFP) and San Diego Rescue Mission. It donated 4.9 tons in FY20. During student moveout, non-perishable food is collected from students (along with usable clothing, furniture, electronics, etc.) In total, 9 tons were donated to the Disabled Veterans of America (DAV) local chapter in spring 2020.

During the COVID pandemic in 2020, The Triton Food Pantry continued to recover food from local grocery stores and harvested produce from campus community gardens. The Student Sustainability Collective and Triton Food Pantry acted quickly to establish pick-up window service and arrange additional mobile food pantry locations so that students sheltering in place could have convenient access to nutritious food. During the 2019–2020 academic year, 4,979 students visited the Triton Food Pantry 19,753 times.

In 2018, HDH Dining worked with Student Affairs to provide the campus's new Basic Needs Coordinator and her student staff with food safety handling training to help their program: https://basicneeds.ucsd.edu.

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:

HDH sends its used cooking oil to a local refiner that turns it into biodiesel.

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:

Pre-consumer food scraps are collected from HDH restaurants, markets and Catering kitchens and taken to the City of San Diego’s Greenery Food Scrap composting program. Pre-consumer composting also occurs at University Centers (with its retail food vendors), Sunshine Market, and through Campus Rec (through on-site Earth cubes.) For example, organic waste from Yogurt World, Tapioca Express, and coffee grounds from Starbucks and Sunshine Market are composted at student-run Roger's and Ellie's Gardens.
In FY20, 150 tons of pre-consumer waste was diverted.

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a post-consumer composting program?:

A brief description of the post-consumer composting program:

HDH partnered with Rogers Urban Farmlab and Facilities Management for the collection and processing of post-consumer waste during AY2019 and first half of AY20. Post Consumer collection in HDH facilities was suspended during COVID. North Torrey Pines Living Learning Neighborhood opened in Fall 2020 and has an anaerobic digestor which is not yet fully operational. UC San Diego will be able to send most of its post consumer waste to the large-scale industrial anaerobic digester built by EDCO sometime in late 2021.

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:

Housing Dining and Hospitality (HDH) at UC San Diego uses reusable service ware for all “dine in” meals. For meals with Outback Adventures, each participant brings their own service ware.

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:

Housing*Dining*Hospitality launched the Triton2Go Mobile Ordering App and Reusable Container Program, which replaced the use of 75,000 disposable containers during Fall Quarter 2020. https://hdhdining.ucsd.edu/triton2go/

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:

UC San Diego provides discounted rates for reusable mugs or bottles for cold beverages. $0.05 discounts for mugs and $0 .99 discount for reusable bottles.

Optional Fields

A brief description of other sustainability-related initiatives not covered above:

HDH is an active member of UC San Diego's Healthy Campus Network, which brings faculty, staff, students and community members togehter to infuse health and wellness across all of UC San Diego. https://hdh.ucsd.edu/wellness/pages/

Website URL where information about the sustainable dining programs is available:

https://hdhdining.ucsd.edu/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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