| Overall Rating | Reporter - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | |
| Liaison | Phil Valko |
| Submission Date | March 6, 2020 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Washington University in St. Louis
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
Reporter |
Clara
Steyer Sustainability Coordinator Office of Sustainability |
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:
Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (expenditures on conventional animal products)? (If data is not available, respond “No”):
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):
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):
Washington University's Strategic Plan for Sustainable Operations sets a series of goals for 8 key areas including food. For food, the goals include sourcing at least 22% local food by 2020 (by dollar spent) and 25% environmentally preferable, humane and fair food by 2020 (by dollar spent).
Bon Appetit, which represents nearly 90% of our dining providers across campuses, has committed to a number of sustainable sourcing practices including:
>> Local Sourcing: Farm to Fork is a companywide initiative requiring chefs to buy at least 20% of their ingredients from small farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and food producers within 150 miles of their kitchens. To become part of the Farm to Fork program, vendors must meet a number of requirements regarding their size (small), their type of ownership (owner-operated), distance to the kicthen (within 150 miles), and annual sales volume ($5 million or less).
>> Seafood: Bon Appetit follows the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch and only chooses species classified "Best Choices" (green) or "Good Alternatives" (yellow).
>> Animal products: Bon Appetit is also committed to buying only rBGH-free milk and yogurt; chicken, turkey, and hamburger from animals raised without the routine use of antibiotics; and cage-free eggs.
> Dairy: hormone free (rBGH or rBST).
> Poultry: chicken and turkey come from animals not given routine, nontherapeutic antibiotics.
> Eggs: Only Certified Humane cage-free shell eggs.
> Ground beef: only from cows raised without antibiotics ever, added growth hormones, or animal byproducts in their feed. Ground beef must be certified from Humane Farm Animal Care.
> Pork: comes from animals never given antibiotics or ractopamine. Also gestation-crate free.
>> Coffee: Most of the University's dining providers are sourcing the large majority of their coffees from Kaldi's coffee. The local roaster runs several sustainability-related programs, including the "Relationship Coffees" that ensures that the coffee production exceeds fair trade practices (https://kaldiscoffee.com/pages/kaldis-relationship-coffee).
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):
A brief description of the methodology used to conduct the inventory, including the timeframe and how representative samples accounted for seasonal variation (if applicable):
The data compiled in the STARS Food and Beverage Purchasing Inventory includes all purchases conducted by the two Bon Appetit accounts on our campuses (Danforth and School of Medicine), for the fiscal year 2019 (spanning from October 2018 to October 2019).
Third Party Verified purchases reflects the "compliant spent" from these accounts towards certified humane eggs and ground beef, and sustainable seafood (data provided directly by BAMCO). It also includes purchases of fair trade coffee.
Regarding Local & Community Based, we included all vendors that are certified "Farm to Fork" by Bon Appetit, as well as other local vendors that meet the AASHE STARS criteria on ownership, size and distance. For this category, we worked closely with our local Bon Appetit accounts to identify Farm to Fork, and non-Farm to Fork vendors that qualify for the criteria.
Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):
Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):
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 | No |
| Convenience stores | Yes | Yes |
| Vending services | Yes | No |
| Concessions | No | No |
A brief description of purchased food and beverage products that have other sustainability attributes not recognized above :
The following purchases are not included in the inventory:
> Dairy: hormone free (rBGH or rBST).
> Poultry: chicken and turkey come from animals not given routine, nontherapeutic antibiotics.
> Pork: comes from animals never given antibiotics or ractopamine. Also gestation-crate free.
Additional percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional products with other sustainability attributes not recognized above (0-100) :
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.