Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.78
Liaison Amber Saxton
Submission Date Sept. 1, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

George Mason University
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.49 / 6.00 Mary Liang
Sustainability Analyst
Sustainability
"---" 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:
9.23

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):
35.38

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):

George Mason University does not have a formal sustainable food and beverage purchasing program. Mason's dining vendor has Sodexo's Better Tomorrow Plan which includes 14 commitments in health, community, and planet.


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):

Purchases of food and beverages made in the months of February 2017 and September 2017 were included in the food & beverage inventory; thus only a two-month sample. Since September has a large availability of local produce and February has the smallest availability of local produce, seasonal variability was accounted for by choosing these two months to evaluate. The inventory covered all locations Mason Dining has direct purchasing control and menu creation (all three dining halls and The Rathskeller). The calculations were made by manually sorting through the purchases within the chosen two-month period and calculating totals based on STARS guidelines.


Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):
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Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):
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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) Yes No
Convenience stores Yes 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:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

George Mason University is also a participant of the Healthier Campus Initiatives, an initiative by the Partnership for a Healthier America. The initiative aims to curb obesity by delivering healthier options and promoting more opportunities for physical activity to improve health. Mason has committed to having a nutritionist available to all students as well as more healthy options at each meal, more fruits and vegetables, additional calorie labeling, and more outdoor and indoor physical activity options.

Information is for calendar year 2017.


George Mason University is also a participant of the Healthier Campus Initiatives, an initiative by the Partnership for a Healthier America. The initiative aims to curb obesity by delivering healthier options and promoting more opportunities for physical activity to improve health. Mason has committed to having a nutritionist available to all students as well as more healthy options at each meal, more fruits and vegetables, additional calorie labeling, and more outdoor and indoor physical activity options.

Information is for calendar year 2017.

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.