Overall Rating Platinum
Overall Score 86.87
Liaison Carrie Metzgar
Submission Date Nov. 5, 2024

STARS v2.2

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

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Carrie Metzgar
Campus Sustainability Officer
Utilities & 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 UC San Diego Farmers Market has been celebrating local farmers and food vendors since 2004. The Farmers Market is coordinated by the Campus Performances and Events Office and takes place at the Epstein Family Amphitheater every Tuesday during the academic year.  

UC San Diego Utilities & Sustainability, Facilities Management, and Housing*Dining*Hospitality (HDH) regulary hosts informational tabling about sustainability at the Farmers Market. 

More about the Farmers Market: 


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:

Canyon Vista Marketplace 

Canyon Vista Marketplace features menus designed around the “Rooted in Flavor” principles of healthy, sustainable meals. It is also the largest halal-certified residential dining facility in the nation.  

Canyon Vista Marketplace: https://hdh-web.ucsd.edu/dining/apps/diningservices/Restaurants/Restaurants 

 

Crafted @ Minerva’s Cafe 

Crafted @ Minerva’s Cafe opened in early 2024 with a focus on sustainability. The cafe is in the LEED Platinum building Franklin Antonio Hall.  

Crafted @ Minerva’s Cafe: https://www.craftedatminervascafe.com/  

“New Cafe Brings Food and Community to UC San Diego’s Franklin Antonio Hall”: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/new-cafe-brings-food-and-community-to-uc-san-diegos-franklin-antonio-hall  

 

Pacific Cafe & Catering 

Pacific Cafe & Catering provides fresh, organic food with a focus on sustainability.  

Pacific Cafe & Catering: https://www.pacificcafecatering.com/  

 

Plant Power 

Fast-casual vegan chain focused on health and sustainability. Plant Power: https://www.plantpowerfastfood.com/ucsd  

 

Roots Restaurant 

In 2011, UC San Diego opened Roots Restaurant, the first dedicated vegan restaurant in the UC System. Roots offers exclusively vegan entrees, salads, sides, and smoothies. 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. 

Roots Restaurant: https://hdh-web.ucsd.edu/dining/apps/diningservices/Restaurants/Restaurants 


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:

The UC San Diego Procurement Process continuously communicates its objective to source food and beverages from small businesses, minority/BIPOC owned businesses, and low income owned businesses. Sustainability and equity-based objectives are incorporated into buying practices as well as communicated to large-scale indirect vendors (such as Sysco) to guide their sourcing. The University willingly and consistently purchases from such vendors when and if feasible, if the budget and availability of products permits.  

The markets at UC San Diego highlight products from disadvantaged businesses to help educate our students and customers. These products are displayed with marketing signs and end caps throughout the markets. 

In cooperation with Fair Trade USATM and other fair trade labeling organizations, UC San Diego has earned the status of a “Fair Trade University.” In terms of procurement, this means UC San Diego sells exclusively Fair Trade CertifiedTM Products at every self-operated campus foodservice operation location where coffees, teas and sugars are sold and has Fair Trade CertifiedTM Product Options at every self-operated campus food service operation location where chocolate bars and ice cream pints are sold. 


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:

UC San Diego hosts a variety of events educating students, faculty and staff about plant-based alternatives and plant-forward meals.  

Housing*Dining* Hospitality 

  • All Housing*Dining*Hospitality dining halls participate in Meatless Mondays, every Monday during the academic year. 

  • Annually, and occasionally biannually, Housing*Dining*Hospitality provides a Produce Pop Up during WellFest and Earth Month, with free seasonal produce from its principal produce vendor. The event is well attended with over 500 student participants per pop up. It is an opportunity to obtain free produce, interface directly with the vendors (farm to kitchen), and promote plant-forward options. (Spring Produce Pop Up Flyer) 

  • Housing*Dining*Hospitality Catering developed and advertises a plant-forward menu. Verified compostable service wares and zero waste catered events are also available upon request.  

University Centers 


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:

Vegan meals and options are offered all across campus to make eating plant-based meals accessible for UC San Diego’s students, staff, and faculty. UC San Diego has been graded with an A+ by peta2’s Vegan Report Card: https://collegereportcard.peta2.com/college/university-of-california-san-diego/   

Every dining hall on campus offers a variety of vegan options on a daily basis at every meal. The University has been able to expand vegan options by allowing a "build-your-own-concept" at many dining stations, creating the infrastructure for our students to omit specific ingredients from a plate that in turn makes their meal vegan. Additionally, all campus dining halls and restaurants indicate vegan options on their menus with a “V” icon to enable all customers to make sustainable food choices. The same is implemented within HDH Catering menus.  

The Food Co-Op, located in the Old Student Center, is a vegan student-run cooperative that provides affordable vegan meals to students using ingredients recovered from the Food Recovery Network and Triton Food Pantry. 


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:

Housing*Dining*Hospitality posts signage about Fair Trade, organic, and sustainable items alongside nutrition information. The HDH EcoNauts, student employees of HDH, educate other students about Fair Trade, organic and sustainable food options available to customers. 

University Centers provides a post-consumer organic waste bin with instructions and information about composting. 

The food management system and Dining menus specifically display vegetarian, vegan, and sustainable options with specific icons. Students can utilize these icons and descriptors to personally select more/the most sustainable food options. The EcoNauts create social media content, particularly reels, in which they encourage viewers to make sustainable food choices. They specifically encourage the consumption of vegan, vegetarian, and sustainable menu items and the use of these specific icons to guide and make the most sustainable food choices.  


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:

Housing *Dinging*Hospitality 

  • Housing *Dinging*Hospitality partners with the Triton Food Pantry and annually participates in the nationwide Colleges Rock Hunger competition. 

  • Housing *Dinging*Hospitality Sustainability developed and delivers a “Sustainable Events and Programs” Training, which instructs participants to reduce food waste through the following best practices: planning and ordering ONLY what food is needed, establishing a food recovery plan, and composting food that cannot be donated. In the training, information about the Food Recovery Network (FRN) is provided and participants are encouraged to donate leftover food through it and similar programs. Annually, UC San Diego Dining donates tons of recovered food to the Food Recovery Network (FRN). During the academic year 2023-2024, over 5,300 lbs (over 2.5 tons) of food was recovered and donated.  


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:

Housing *Dining*Hospitality has implemented trayless dining in a majority of locations. The restaurants go 100% trayless in the summer with the exception of student groups that have that specific requirement in their contract for federal aid. 

UC San Diego Dining works in conjunction with its teams of Dietitians to ensure that each dish contains sufficient calories, nutrients, etc. At this time, UC San Diego Dining is not experimenting with modified portions and there is no data indicating that minimizing portions is necessary or appropriate. However, with its implementation of an a la carte versus an all-you-care-to-eat restaurant system, UC San Diego Dining is best able to minimize overproduction and overall food waste compared to other University Dining programs.  


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:

UC San Diego Dining has two food donation programs-one for perishables and one for nonperishables.  

Nonperishable Donations: UC San Diego Dining coordinates three nonperishable food donation drives during each academic year: before Fall Break, Winter Break, and Move Out respectively. The drives average between 2 and 4 tons of nonperishables per drive and between 6 and 12 tons of nonperishable food per year. The collected food is then donated to the Triton Food Pantry (TFP), which is part of the Student Basic Needs Hub, to ensure food insecure Triton students have access to the food first.  

Perishable Donations: UC San Diego Dining has an established partnership with the Food Recovery Network (FRN). UC San Diego follows a weekly schedule to ensure that perishable foods, primarily from the markets operated by Dining Services, are collected, recovered, and consumed versus composted.  


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:

Housing *Dining*Hospitality 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:

Beginning in the Fall of 2023 and in compliance with SB 1383, UCSD Dining-Restaurants and Markets, implemented pre and post-consumer composting through our campus waste hauler, EDCO. Each HDH restaurant and market has both front and back of house composting available. Each residential community has compost bins or dumpsters available in central trash collection areas. There is universal waste sorting signage displayed to educate and promote proper waste sorting.  

In addition to creating universal campus-wide waste sorting signage, HDH Sustainability is creating restaurant-specific waste sorting signage to improve sorting, composting, and waste diversion in each restaurant. These efforts will be supported by modeling campaigns on social media to educate, show, and encourage proper waste sorting.  

Additionally, pre-consumer waste composting continues to be available at each Campus Community Garden. University Centers, Santorini, Taco Villa, Lemongrass, and Starbucks participate in the pre-consumer composting program.  


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:

In Fall 2023, Housing *Dining*Hospitality implemented post-consumer composting in all restaurants, markets, and residential communities. Organics recycling for composting is collected on campus and sent straight to EDCO’s anerobic digester in Escondido. The anerobic digester (AD) can divert campus food waste, compostable AD approved serve ware, paper towels, and green waste generated through our onsite landscape team. 

The North Torrey Pines Living Learning Neighborhood (NTPLLN) has its own anaerobic digester that turns pre-consumer food waste from Sixth College Restaurants into renewable biogas and liquid fertilizer. NTPLLN opened in Fall 2020 and has an anaerobic digestor which is not yet fully operational. More about the North Torrey Pines Anaerobic Digester: https://hdhsustainability.ucsd.edu/what-we-do/anaerobic-digester.html  


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*Hospitality uses reusable service ware for all “dine in” meals.  


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 manages the Triton2Go Mobile Ordering App and Reusable Container Program (https://hdhdining.ucsd.edu/triton2go/). As of Spring 2023, over 945,000 to-go containers have been diverted from the landfill through the Triton2Go reusable container program since its launch in 2020. 


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; $0.10 discounts for mugs and $0.99 discount for reusable bottles. 


Optional Fields

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

Noteworthy sustainable food services policies and programs as of 2024: 

  • Sustainable Procurement Process: HDH Procurement Team shares sustainable purchasing requirements with vendors in advance. New items are not added or purchased unless sustainability criteria is met. This process is a model for other UC campuses. It has led to 27.4% of all purchases being designated as sustainable and 40% of all food purchases being plant-based.  

  • Rooted in Flavor: HDH Dining's initiative inspired by Menus of Change. Rooted in Flavor calls for a decrease in pork and red meat, increase in sustainable seafood, increase in seasonal offering, increase in multigrains, etc. 

  • Vegetarian/Vegan Options: At least 25% of each restaurants menu is vegetarian or vegan. Overall 55% of Dining's overall menu offerings are vegetarian or vegan. 
     


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:

Points of contact for credit information:  

  • Andy Hattala, Sustainability Coordinator, Housing*Dining*Hospitality 

  • Megan Fox, Director Residential Experience, Housing*Dining*Hospitality 

  • Justin Martinez, Business Analyst Manager, Housing*Dining*Hospitality 

  • John Payne, Associate Director of University Centers, University Centers 

  • Cindy Penning, Lease Administrator, University Centers 

  • Xandria Romei, Sustainability Assistant, University Centers 

 


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.