Food
Fall/Spring 2009 Initiatives
Recycle Mug Program
Composting all food waste from dining halls! GT Dining will be working with GreenCo, a composting company to reduce waste in the dining halls. All food wastes will be composted instead of put into a land fill.
GT Dining has made it a goal and a top priority to reduce our carbon footprint by 26%.
Recycling Pizza Boxes in Pandini's
Pandini's customers need look no further than the top of the trash bins to recycle their cardboard boxes. The idea with the specialized space on top of the trash bins is that students will realize that their cardboard can be recycled immediately and that it doesn’t always have to be thrown away.
Pandini's estimates it is recycling 250 pizza boxes a week.
"One trick is to remove the pizza from them as soon as possible, so the box does not absorb moisure or oil. Carboard must be clean to be recycled,” said Dori Martin, marketing manager, GT Dining.
Biodegradable Containers
Many GT Dining customers are “carry-out” customers and need containers to carry their food. This year GT Dining changed its soup cups, lids and Freshens cups to biodegradable items. If these items end up in landfills, they will naturally and easily decompose in the earth.
GT Dining is already going a step further into the biodegradable realm. GT Dining has removed all styrofoam cups from GT Dining locations.
"GT Dining managers are always trying to find the most sustainable ways to maintain our facilities. We all have taken Sustainability 101 & 201 through Sodexo and are dedicated to keeping up with new information on the topic,” said Dori Martin, marketing manager, GT Dining.
All of the containers for Freshens are Eco-Containers. In a compost pile, they will totally decompose in 10 weeks.
GT Dining Increases Education and Awareness
Sustainability news and information areas have been setup in dining halls and in the Food Court. Sustainability Trivia takes place in each of the dining halls once a month to raise sustainability awareness among the students
Junior's Grill replaces styrofoam cups
Junior's Grill, long a tradition on Georgia Tech's campus, has moved away from styrofoam cups as a green initiative. more.....
GT Dining Recycled Napkins Save Trees
GT Dining uses napkins made of recycled paper products. Energy is saved because less power is used to recycle paper products than to create them from virgin material. In addition, new napkin dispensers result in 25-50% fewer paper napkins being used since they dispense a single napkin at a time. Each ton of 100% post consumer recycled paper that displaces virgin fiber paper saves 7,000 gallons of water, 4,100 kiowatt hous of electricity and prevents 60 pounds of pollutants from entering the atmosphere.
GT Dining prevents paper waste by putting napkins in dispensers vs in open baskets, which saves an average of 70.61 trees per year. All napkins used in GT Dining locations are made from recycled material.
Student Center Expands Beverage Container Recycling
Georgia Tech's Student Center has expanded its recycling of beverage containers. To increase the visibility of beverage container reycling, the Student Center has placed more recycling containers in more locations on campus. Kim Harringon, Associate Director of Operations at the Student Center, wanted to make it easier for students and visitors to the Student Center to recycle their beverage containers. To do this, she brought in more recycling containers and placed them in more locations.
Trayless Dining Halls
On Monday, November 12, 2007, Dining Halls at Georgia Tech went trayless in an effort to save water. Estimates are that 3,000 trays per day were washed prior to the changes. This is saving 15,000 gallons of water a week. Georgia Tech thanks everyone for this water conservation effort. See Auxiliary Service's article about this. See the student newspaper's article about this.
Student Involvement
GT Dining has started an internal sustainability committee that is responsible for developing sustainability initiatives within dining services, and overseeing the implementation of those initiatives. Initially, the team wants to promote to the Georgia Tech campus and beyond the current programs that are in place that seek to make us sustainable. Going forward we want to develop relationships with campus students and student organizations to ensure that our efforts are inclusive with the campus and supported by the students, faculty and staff. We are currently working with Students Organizing for Sustainability, Georgia Tech Sustainable Food Projects (who sponsor the Campus Supported Agriculture program), the Student Center, and Georgia Tech's Office of Environmental Stewardship.
Biofuel from Used Oil
GT Dining collects used cooking oil from all our kitchens, including both dining halls, and WOW, filters, the used oil, making it cleaner and purer, and then transports it off campus to be converted to fiodiesel fuel. Other eating establishments on campus also contribute thier used cooking oil to the program. The biofuel is then used on campus as a B10 or B20 mix.
Voluntary Composting
Grounds for Growth, a program implemented at Seattle's Best Coffee, reduces water waste by giving away used coffee grounds for mulching in gardens.
Administration Offices across campus can implement voluntary composting, giving their used coffee grounds to farmers in their buildings. Two floors in the Budget Departments accumulated approximately 2 quarts of grounds each week. The worms thrive on these grounds and enrich the garden soil.
Percent of organic, locally produced and or fair trade foods on campus
Georgia Tech has been serving local foods for over 100 years. Since 2004, 40% of Georgia Tech Dining Services produce has been locally produced. Organic food options currently comprise over 5% of the food offered on campus. We make a significant commitment to local and sustainably grown food in Georgia in order to provide needed support for Georgia farmers and local economies.
Georgia Tech has signed the Atlanta Local Food Initiative (ALFI) to encourage local, organic food initiatives in Atlanta. Georgia Tech has a policy of purchasing local and organic whenever cost neutral options for doing so are known and available to us in a reasonable manner. What this means is that we are now purchasing more local and organic foods than anyone else from one of the largest local and organic distributors in Georgia. Georgia Tech has a policy of offering nutritious food on campus and to work with students to identify which food they want to have offered.
Organic food is available in both EastSide and WestSide Markets. Organic food is moving into the dining halls and other food retail locations, on a case by case basis, and is now available at all meals and most venues. For example, we recently purchased a very large quantity of organic Vidalia onions. They were included in food offered in the dining halls. When dishes are all organic, we will label them as such. Otherwise, we are increasingly including organic food into campus but it may not always be "front page news".
Community Supported Agriculture
Campus Supported Agriculture has come to Georgia Tech. Organic, locally grown produce is delivered each Wednesday to campus. Orders are placed via the internet.
Fair Trade
Fair trade coffee is available on campus at Georgia Tech at five of our Retail Dining locations. Fair Trade raises incomes and living standards for small coffee farmers overseas while helping to protect the environment. Fair Trade doesn't provide aid or charity, but instead promotes self-reliance and equality for farmers who are disadvantaged under present trading conditions.
Fair Trade practices include:
-
Paying farming families a fair price for their harvests that provides them a decent, living wage.
-
Helping small farmers gain access to needed loans for working capital.
-
Establishing direct, long-term trading relationships between buyers and farmers.
Vegan and Vegetarian
-
Vegan meals are available in both Dining Halls. To know if an item is vegan or vegetarian, look for the cling labels on the glass above the item.
Vegetarian meals are available daily across campus. A booklet has been developed which lists the vegan and vegetarian options by location on campus.Vegan and Vegetarian food available on campus.
If you are have special food requests, including additional vegan options, talk to the Dining Hall Manager. They are happy to accomodate you but need to understand your needs and preferences.
Vegetarian food is available daily in Food Court in Student Center. If you don't see it, ask the staff for it, they can tell you if they have already sold out of it that day or the display case just needs to be refilled.
In Season
One aspect of local and/or organic that is easy to miss, is that not all foods are available year round. Georgia Tech has been featuring posters to show which foods are "in season". These posters change frequently. Similarly, the food items featured on the menus include "in season" fruit and vegetables. Even if students don't see the posters, they can look at the menu to see what food is locally in season. A booklet from Georgia Organics also includes the list of In Season Foods by month, in Georgia.
<
In season foods chart from Georgia Organics
Recycled Food Containers for takeout, utensils, etc, % eliminate Styrofoam:
-
Fort Howard, our largest contracted supplier of paper, napkins, tissue and towels, uses recycled fiber exclusively in the manufacturing process.
-
Mobil Chemical, our primary contracted source for plastic can liners, uses from 30% to 90% recycled materials in their plastic liners.
-
Sweetheart Cup, Solo Cup, Amoco, Dart and Mobil all use pre-recycled material in the manufacture of foam plates, bowls and food containers.
-
Apex Ecolab chemicals used: reduces plastic waste, natural gas, water and energy.
-
Recycling, through its Move-out program contributes to local food banks (their numbers are under recycling).
-
Georgia Tech's Food Services donated 150 lbs of food to Atlanta Food Bank during the 2008-2009 school year.
-
Also as a food service provider, Sodexo believes it's their responsibility to be a leader in fighting to end hunger in America. This is the mission of the Sodexo Foundation and our STOP Hunger campaign - www.helpstophunger.org. Since its founding in 1999, the Sodexho Foundation has made more than $9.2 million in grants and donated approximately $9 million in-kind to fight hunger.
-
Sodexo nation wide, sought to collect 393,000 cans of food to be donated to local charities, via their "Cans Across America" program. .
-
Sodexo and Georgia Tech have partnered on a Country Kitchen program. Food is donated to local charities. "Campus Kitchens at Georgia Tech" program. .
Georgia Tech's Food Services has eliminated all of the styrofoam and other non-recyclable takeout containers from campus.
Donations to food banks, etc
Even the Vending Machines are getting healthier
College and working long hours go together. No matter what our intentions, there comes a time when the only food available is from a vending machine. But even the vending machines on campus are promoting more sustainable food practices.
Listening and Involving
Many of you may have noticed that there is more of an effort to reach out for feedback and to communicate. One of the big reasons for this renewed outreach is Dori Martin, marketing manager, GT Dining. Dori is shown here, during her first week in this job, asking for feedback.
Other Sustainable Practices of Food Services-
Water Use Reduction Program
In the fall of 2007, GT Dining introduced a tray-less initiative in its residential dining operations. At Brittain and Woodruff Dining Halls, meal plan participants were asked to support the conservation of water by foregoing the use of a tray. This initiative was publicized via postings in the dining halls, websites (www.gatechdining.com, www.importantstuff.com), and periodicals (The Technique campus newspaper). One of the most important elements of the program was to educate participants on the anticipated effectiveness of going tray-less. The dining halls save 3,000 gallons of water daily by not having to wash the trays. Also, the drought in the state of Georgia was an important factor in the tray-less initiative. The GT Dining water conservation campaign included facts on the levels of Lake Lanier, and statewide efforts championed by governor Sonny Perdue to help preserve our water supply.
-
Full trucks, single delivery to safe on transportation greenhouse gases and costs.
-
Energy Star products
Reach-in freezers
17
Reach-in coolers
97
Walk-in freezers
9
Walk-in coolers
12
Office equipment
98% since 2003
-
Videoconferencing instead of travel, when possible and appropriate
-
Cardboard recycling is estimated at 119 tons for FY2008
GT Dining Administrative Offices use 30% post-consumer recycled paper. The office uses approximately 1-2 bins per week of paper. Each bin is 2.5 cubic feet, saving that much landfill space by recycling. The office now scans approximately 600 pages per week that were previously copied and mailed. Just by scanning alone, the office saves one half (1/2) case of paper per week.
-
Steam cleaning- 57% less water consumption and runoff vs. hot water pressure washing. A steam cleaner has a smaller pump and motor, since it only needs to produce 100 to 250 PSI, not 2,000 to 4,000 PSI as with a hot water washer. The steam cleaner will increase the effectiveness of chemicals, significantly reducing chemical consumption and costs.
-
One-step delivery- Our main food provider delivers to all of our various locations saving on gas and fumes to the environment.
-
Faucet aerators- aerators restrict the flow of water, compressing it into a higher-pressure discharge than regular faucets. They also introduce air bubbles into the water, making it feel like there is a larger water flow. They reduce water flow by about 50 percent or more, saving around 25 to 40 percent on the hot and cold water running out of each faucet.
-
Low flow sprayers-dishroom. This piece of plumbing reduces the amount of water flowing by up to 50 percent, but increases its velocity so it feels the same.
-
Education awareness programs includes Sodexo staff. Managers complete Sustainability 101 and 102, online courses offered by Sodexo. Employees have been educated about sustainability and going forward, all new employees will be required to take training.
-
SodexoCares.com is a meeting place for employees, customers, and community members to learn and share their experiences about Sodexo's new initiatives, community involvement, and great stories about our people. Sodexo is working to STOP hunger, promote sustainable business practices, be a responsible corporate citizen and a great place to work. www.sodexhocares.com/sustainability/
-
In the GT Dining Administrative Office, 30% post-consumer recycled paper is now used. The office recycles approximately 1-2 bins per week of paper. Each bin is 2.5 cubic feet, saving that much landfill space by recycling. The office now scans approximately 600 pages per week that were previously copied and mailed. Just by scanning along, the office saves 1/2 case of paper per week.
-
A new Recycle Mug Program sarted Fall, 2009.
GT Dining is working with GreenCo Environmental , a composting company, to reduce waste in the dining halls. All food waste will be composted, instead of put into a landfill, and returned to campus to be used as fertilizer.
-
GT Dining removed all styrofoam cups from all locations.
Future GoalsGT Dining has made it a goal and a top priority to reduce its energy by 26% in the future. This effort is targeted for calendar year 2010.
-