| Overall Rating | Reporter - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | |
| Liaison | V.S. (Raghu) Raghavan |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2018 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Mount Holyoke College
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
Reporter |
Nancy
Apple Director Environmental Health & Safety |
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):
Language in all our RFPs
1) Sustainability: The College is committed to sustainable purchasing practices. Sustainable measures taken in the manufacturing or transportation of the products encompassed by this RFP do have an impact in our decision making process. Please include in detail with your response the sustainability measures implemented by your company relevant to the following:
a. Energy Efficiency (such as ENERGY STAR® designations)
b. Energy Conservation
c. Fleet Vehicles powered with bio diesel
d. Installation of Renewable Energy Sources such as solar and wind
e. Waste Reduction
f. Composting
g. Packaging Reduction
h. Trade-ins/Retrievals/Refurbishment of Used Products
i. Use of Recycled and Recyclable Material (Products, Packaging, Shipping Materials) Responsible Shipping and Transportation Usage
j. Reduced Water Usage
k. Reduced Paper Usage (including e-procurement)
l. Waste/Water Treatment Process
m. Environmentally Friendly Cleaning Chemicals and Refrigerants
n. Procedures to help minimize your company’s eco-footprint
Locally Grown Products: It is the goal of the College to utilize locally grown & produced products and small family farms to the fullest extent possible. The Vendor, in their proposal, is asked to list the New England farmers and their products that the Vendor purchases. The College is also asking the Vendor for their assistance in helping to identify these products at the time of purchase by the College so that we may identify the farm or a group of farms of origin to our customers. The College is also committed to supporting those farmers who engage in sustainable and earth-friendly practices such as reduced pesticide use, integrated pest management, organic farming principles, carbon reduction systems, growth hormone free product and limited antibiotic usage. The College will reserve the right to utilize secondary vendors or suppliers if the College determines that doing so would be in the College’s best interest in order to accomplish these goals
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):
Mount Holyoke used a 2-month representative audit for the Real Food Calculator 2016-17 with October 2016 and February 2017 as sample months. For Third-Party Verified and Local & Community-Based Products purchased outside of these months, spending was divided by 12 and counted once in October and once in February to account for seasonal or bulk local/sustainable spending.
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 | Yes | Yes |
| Dining operations and catering services operated by a contractor | No | No |
| Student-run food/catering services | No | 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 :
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.