Overall Rating Platinum - expired
Overall Score 86.01
Liaison Patrick McKee
Submission Date March 6, 2020
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Connecticut
IN-10: Sustainable Dining Certification

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Richard Miller
Director
Ofice of Environmental Policy
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Is at least one on-campus dining hall or food service outlet certified by the following organizations? (at least one positive response required):
Yes or No
The Food Recovery Network No
The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) (Two Star or higher) Yes
Green Seal (GS-55 Standard for Restaurants and Food Services) No
Leaders for Environmentally Accountable Foodservice (LEAF) No
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Chain of Custody Certification No
Responsible Epicurean and Agricultural Leadership (REAL) No
An equivalent program approved by AASHE No

A brief description of each certified dining hall or food service outlet, including the year the certification was achieved and/or renewed:
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.

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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).

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.