University of Connecticut
IN-10: Sustainable Dining Certification

As of 2017, all eight of our residential dining units have been approved as Certified Green Restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association: Buckley Dining Hall – 3 star – 2014 Gelfenbien Commons – 3 star – 2015 McMahon Dining Hall – 3 star – 2016 North Campus Dining Hall – 3 star – 2017 Northwest Marketplace – 3 star – 2017 Putnam Dining Hall – 3 star – 2016 Rome Commons at South – 3 star – 2016 Whitney Dining Hall – 2 star – 2015 These dining halls all received exemplary scores due to their accomplishments in a number of environmental categories, including water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable durable good & building materials, sustainable food, energy, reusables & environmentally preferable disposables and chemical & pollution reduction. Putnam Dining Hall underwent a recent renovation, earning a LEED Silver rating for its building interior, and featuring a “Living Wall” of herbs and partnership with Quantum Biopower, a renewable energy and digestion facility to divert food waste. Notable features in the other dining halls include LED lighting, vegetarian and vegan main dishes, locally sourced food, high efficiency sprayers, and Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) products.

https://today.uconn.edu/2017/03/uconn-among-first-universities-gain-green-rating-dining-halls/ UConn is among the first (if not the first) of public universities in the U.S. to achieve green restaurant certification at all of its campus dining halls. To our knowledge, Harvard and Rice have done the same, but are private universities. Two of the eight dining halls were renovated in the past 3 - 4 years, and both achieved LEED certification (McMahon Dining was LEED Gold certified and received a State of CT Power of Change Award for energy efficiency in public buildings; Putnam Dining was renovated in 2017 and is LEED Silver registered).