| Overall Rating | Bronze - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 39.53 |
| Liaison | Ellie Perry |
| Submission Date | July 27, 2018 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
California State University, Dominguez Hills
OP-8: Sustainable Dining
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.63 / 2.00 |
Ellie
Perry Sustainability Manager Facilities Services |
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a published sustainable dining policy?:
A brief description of the sustainable dining policy:
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor source food from a campus garden or farm?:
A brief description of the program to source food from a campus garden or farm:
Campus Dining provided a wish list of small quantity herbs and peppers used in their catering operations to the Farm for delivery in the Fall. These crops are current growing at the Campus Urban Farm, and will be donated to Campus Dining when ready to harvest.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a farmers market, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, and/or urban agriculture project, or support such a program in the local community?:
A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:
CSUDH works with Raw Inspiration to host farmer's markets on a regular basis. They most recently organized a farmer's market at CSUDH's 11th Annual Earth Day Festival, and will be launching a weekly farmer's market for the fall semester.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a vegan dining program that makes diverse, complete-protein vegan options available to every member of the campus community at every meal?:
A brief description of the vegan dining program:
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host low impact dining events (e.g. Meatless Mondays)?:
A brief description of the low impact dining events:
CSUDH Campus Dining held several Food Advisory forums for the campus in the spring semester to help revamp its dining offerings to evaluate how to best meet demand for vegan and sustainable foods. They also hosted a vegan daily specials week February 26- March 2, 2018 at all their eateries to help bring awareness to vegan foods.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host sustainability-themed meals (e.g. local harvest dinners)?:
A brief description of the sustainability-themed meals:
Campus Dining supports weekly specials which sometimes feature sustainability themes. 2018 included a vegan meal week, and they featured a sustainable seafood taco stand at Earth Day.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a sustainability-themed food outlet on-site, either independently or in partnership with a contractor or retailer?:
A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor inform customers about low impact food choices and sustainability practices through labeling and signage in dining halls?:
A brief description of the sustainability labeling and signage in dining halls:
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor engage in outreach efforts to support learning and research about sustainable food systems?:
A brief description of the outreach efforts to support learning and research about sustainable food systems:
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have other sustainability-related initiatives (e.g. health and wellness initiatives, making culturally diverse options available)?:
A brief description of the other sustainability-related dining initiatives:
Campus Dining hosts Food Advisory forums that are campus-wide to help collect feedback on making foods more culturally diverse, inclusive, and sustainable.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor participate in a competition or commitment program and/or use a food waste prevention system to track and improve its food management practices?:
A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:
Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented trayless dining (in which trays are removed from or not available in dining halls) and/or modified menus/portions to reduce post-consumer food waste?:
A brief description of the trayless dining or modified menu/portion program:
All dining in the Food Court is trayless.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor donate food that would otherwise go to waste to feed people?:
A brief description of the food donation program:
All campus entities are encouraged to donate unwanted food to the Toro Food Pantry which partners with CalFresh to provide food to food-insecure students.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor divert food materials from the landfill, incinerator or sewer for animal feed or industrial uses (e.g. converting cooking oil to fuel, on-site anaerobic digestion)?:
A brief description of the food materials diversion program:
Used cooking oil is picked up by a vendor for recycling into bio-disesel.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a pre-consumer composting program?:
A brief description of the pre-consumer composting program:
Kitchen scraps and coffee grounds from dining services are picked-up directly for use at the on-site composting system for the Campus Urban Farm.
There is also a commercial organics recycling dumpster that is shared by the campus and the Loker Student Union to accommodate pre-consumer scraps.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a post-consumer composting program?:
A brief description of the post-consumer composting program:
The campus has secured commercial organics recycling services. A pilot service operates post-consumer receptacles in one major building on-campus and is testing effectiveness before campus-wide roll out.
The Campus Urban Farm also offers 24/7 curbside drop-off of post-consumer organics next to its location in a dedicated drop-off bin which is available to the entire campus community.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor utilize reusable service ware for “dine in” meals?:
A brief description of the reusable service ware program:
Cafe 1910 is a restaurant-style eatery that utilizes reusable serviceware. The DH Sports Lounge also uses reusable serviceware for its meals.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor provide reusable and/or third party certified compostable containers and service ware for “to-go” meals (in conjunction with an on-site composting program)?:
A brief description of the compostable containers and service ware:
Compostable to-go containers are provided at Toro Take-Out.
Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor offer discounts or other incentives to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in “to-go” food service operations?:
A brief description of the reusable container discount or incentives program:
There is a 10% discount for all coffee shops on campus to users who bring their own mugs.
Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented other materials management initiatives to minimize waste not covered above (e.g. working with vendors and other entities to reduce waste from food packaging)?:
A brief description of other dining services materials management initiatives:
There are internal measures by campus dining to only order minimum inventory to reduce packaging and food waste.
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.