Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 50.03
Liaison Mike Evans
Submission Date May 28, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Williams College
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.79 / 6.00 Mike Evans
Assistant Director
Zilkha Center
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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:
15

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):
38

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):

For the last several years, Williams College has focused on increasing the amount of sustainable food that is purchased and served on campus. These changes have come from trainings in plant based meals from the Humane Society's Forward Food trainings and from a commitment to reducing industrial beef by 50%. Students have completed the Real Food Calculator and are using the product inventories to target specific products that have more sustainable alternatives in a similar price range.

The future of the sustainable food and beverage purchasing program promises to be a hybrid of sustainable purchasing, which often increases budget expenditure, and ecologically-conscious eating habits, which does not necessarily constitute a budget increase and could very well lower costs.


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):

C-BORD, the menu management software used by Williams Dining, tracks all food items (ingredients) individually. In 2014, C-BORD introduced a sustainability tracking component, which Williams Dining has now fully implemented in cooperation with the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives. Food items are tagged according to over 30 sustainability attributes, as outlined by the Real Food Guide of the Real Food Challenge (http://www.realfoodchallenge.org/sites/g/files/g809971/f/201403/Real%20Food%20Guide%20Version%201.0%20March%202014_0.pdf). As new items are added to the database, the manager of the sustainable food program evaluates them individually according to these sustainability criteria and tags them as such. This system allows for real-time reports on sustainability purchasing overall, as well as in reference to specific product attributes.


Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):
1

Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):
14

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 Yes Yes
Dining operations and catering services operated by a contractor Yes Yes
Student-run food/catering services Yes No
Franchises (e.g. national or global brands) No No
Convenience stores No No
Vending services Yes No
Concessions Yes No

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:
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.