Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils, Arizona State University

Type: Program

Status: Ongoing

Source File: http://servingsustainability.asu.edu/

Description:

Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils is Arizona State University’s award program for ecologically healthy food services. The mission of Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils is to provide a comprehensive mechanism for recognizing food services that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to sustainability goals such as waste reduction, pollution management, and energy efficiency. By providing local food services with strategies and resources for minimizing their waste output and recognizing exemplary programs, the Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils program seeks to:

• Reduce ASU’s ecological footprint;
• Contribute to an environmentally and economically healthy community; and
• Encourage businesses on and near campus to become leaders in sustainability.

This award program is designed not only to recognize exemplary food services, but also to educate both businesses and the general public about the best practices and resources available for creating a healthy, sustainable food service industry.

The Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils project is made possible by a grant from the National Wildlife Federation.

The Award

The Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils award is intended to fulfill several short- and long-term objectives:

Short-term Objectives

• To provide active education to local food services to increase awareness of current conservation issues and practices, as well as the resources available (e.g., local composting and recycling services, food banks, local suppliers, etc.) that will help them reduce their waste output.
• To implement an incentive program that promotes ecologically-healthy businesses through campus advertising, coupons, web-space, etc.
• To institute an annual award that ASU will grant to food services on and around campus which demonstrate a commitment to reducing their ecological footprint through different waste reduction strategies.
• To develop a comprehensive set of metrics on which to evaluate sustainability in the food-service industry.

Long-term Objectives

• To engage local businesses in ASU’s sustainability initiative, as demonstrated by a measurable reduction in food-, packaging-, wastewater, and energy-waste by individual food services.
• To increase both community and business awareness of the waste issues associated with the food service industry.
• To develop a more universal set of standards which other universities and organizations may adapt to measure and promote food service sustainability practices across the nation.