Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	49.76
Liaison	Aurora Sharrard
Submission Date	Feb. 28, 2018
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

University of Pittsburgh
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	0.53 / 6.00	Nick Goodfellow Sustainability Coordinator Dining Services

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

This credit requires:

A completed STARS Food and Beverage Purchasing Inventory,
An itemized inventory based on output from the Real Food Calculator, or
An alternative inventory that includes for each product:

Product vendor
Product label/brand
Product description
The category in which the product qualifies (Third Party Verified or Local & Community Based)
Information justifying inclusion: the standards met if the product is third party verified; ownership, size, distance, production methods for Local & Community Based products

Part 1

Third Party Verified and Community Based Products

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:

Part 2

Animal Products

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (expenditures on conventional animal products)? (If data is not available, respond “No”):

Yes

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):

Food and Beverage Purchasing Inventory

Required if pursuing either part of the credit:

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):

The food and beverage purchasing program is primarily guided by the Real Food Challenge. Students convinced the University to sign on to the challenge at the largest dining hall in 2015. As of Jan 2018 the University expanded the initiative across campus to serve 25% “real food” by 2025 as part of the new Pitt Sustainability Plan. Chicken products are purchased from a local chicken producer and we’re proud of the product they’re able to provide. As Pennsylvania is one of the largest dairy-producing states, we’re also proud of the milk we purchase from within the state. In the latest Pitt Sustainability Plan we also committed to serving 25% less animal products by 2025. With both commitments we are heading in a “less meat, better meat” direction and looking for opportunities to purchase more sustainable animal products including meat, turkey, fish/seafood, and eggs. We are also working with our local produce distributor to assist us in purchasing more local produce.

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):

Pitt 2018 STARS Food and Beverage Inventory v2.1.3.xlsx

A brief description of the methodology used to conduct the inventory, including the timeframe and how representative samples accounted for seasonal variation (if applicable):

Real Food Challenge students audit two months worth of invoices as representative of the entire year’s worth of food purchases. We work closely with all unit managers to collect invoices and provide them to the students for their audit. Invoices are collected by the Dining Services Sustainability Coordinator who works with the students to ensure all invoices are collected.

If uploading output from the Real Food Calculator, provide:

Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):

0.02

Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):

Required if pursuing either part of the credit:

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	No	No
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	No

Optional Fields

A brief description of purchased food and beverage products that have other sustainability attributes not recognized above :

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Additional percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional products with other sustainability attributes not recognized above (0-100) :

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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:

http://www.pc.pitt.edu/dining/sustainability.php

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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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.