Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 69.54
Liaison Mike Versteege
Submission Date June 30, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Alberta
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.64 / 6.00 Dolores March
General Manager
Hospitality Services, Ancillary Services
"---" 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:
11.90

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):
29.80

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):

ARAMARK PURCHASING POLICY

The university's dining services contractor Aramark is committed to providing foods that are produced and procured in an ecologically and socially responsible manner. To that end, Aramark partners with many different growers, suppliers and distributors to increase the availability of such foods. Some of the key points of Aramark's purchasing policy include:
• Chain of custody certification with the Marine Stewardship Council.
• Commitment to only purchase coffee and tea certified as either organic & Fairtrade, or Rainforest Alliance.
• Commitment to only use cage-free eggs by 2025.
• Commitment to choose seasonal produce sold by local distributors supporting smaller, community-based growers.
• Promotion of local produce, dairy and proteins with "locally grown" identifiers.

AUGUSTANA CAMPUS SUSTAINABLE FOOD POLICY
https://www.ualberta.ca/augustana/services/residence-and-dining/dining

Augustana Campus' dining services has adopted a sustainable food policy, prioritizing the purchase of food produced within 200 km of the City of Camrose.


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):

The inventory reports direct purchases made by the university's primary dining contractor, Aramark, and by the institutional unit, Augustana Campus Dining Services.

TIMEFRAME
The inventory review process included all food purchases from Jan. 1, 2016 through Dec. 31, 2016. The uploaded inventory file includes purchases within that time frame that were deemed sustainable. Each item type is reported once, but represents all purchases made of that item.

DATA COLLECTION NOTES

(1) Data sources

Aramark Higher Education provided the data for Aramark's purchases. Augustana Campus Dining Services provided the data for Augustana's purchases. These raw data were analysed by the sustainability coordinator in charge of this credit in collaboration with the two primary data sources.

(2) Treatment of data for franchises

Aramark manages a number of franchises as part of their contract with the university. The majority of the purchases made for Aramark-managed franchises flow through Aramark. However, in most cases, franchises stipulate specific products that must be purchased, and these dollar amounts were excluded from this inventory. In a small number of cases, a franchise will give Aramark the ability to choose products for that company. Where Aramark has this decision-making ability, the purchases were included in this inventory.

(3) Determining if purchases met STARS Criteria

(a) Aramark maintains an ever-expanding database of source information for the food products they purchase. By collecting data directly from suppliers, they are able to ensure accuracy with respect to both the region the ingredients were grown or raised as well as the location of any further processing. Third-party certifications, such as organic, Fairtrade, MSC, etc. are also regularly tracked.

(b) Augustana Campus' Supervisor of Food Services receives information from their primary distributor's list of local products and combines this with information she collects about directly sourced products from smaller distributors, and for third-party certified products.

(c) Since many products in both inventories only had one or two criteria clearly identified, the sustainability coordinator worked with Aramark and Augustana Campus Dining Services to collect additional information about the ingredients and companies. This was done by both directly contacting suppliers and by researching companies online.

(4) Seasonal Variations in Produce

For most fresh produce, the primary distributor uses different suppliers depending on the time of year. To account for this, only 10% of these purchases were counted as local and community based.


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 Yes Yes
Student-run food/catering services No No
Franchises (e.g. national or global brands) Yes No
Convenience stores Yes Yes
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:

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBLE PARTIES

Lorraine Huntley
Support Services Coordinator
Hospitality Services

Troy Bender, Shilpi Gupta, and Michael Yarymowich
Aramark Higher Education

Lilas Bielopotocky
Supervisor of Food Services
Augustana Campus Dining Services

NOTES

One convenience store operated by the primary dining contractor was included. Convenience stores run by other entities were not included.


ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBLE PARTIES

Lorraine Huntley
Support Services Coordinator
Hospitality Services

Troy Bender, Shilpi Gupta, and Michael Yarymowich
Aramark Higher Education

Lilas Bielopotocky
Supervisor of Food Services
Augustana Campus Dining Services

NOTES

One convenience store operated by the primary dining contractor was included. Convenience stores run by other entities were not included.

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.