by Shane Henson — April 9, 2012—Reducing and recycling food waste, as well as choosing to buy food that will produce a smaller carbon footprint, is becoming increasingly important among U.S. colleges and universities seeking to operate more sustainably. Through a partnership with Aramark, a professional services provider to 600 colleges and universities across North America, Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP) is helping to streamline schools’ efforts to quantify the environmental effects related to food on North American college campuses by researching its impact from growing, producing, transporting, preparing and disposal.
Clean Air-Cool Planet recently released a beta version of “CHEFS”— Charting Emissions through Food Services, which is now publicly available online at no cost.
In 2009, 12 U.S. colleges piloted a CHEFS prototype: Arizona State University, Boston University, Grand Valley State University, Furman University, New York University, The Evergreen State College, University of Florida, University of New Hampshire, Vassar College, Wesley College and Yale University. The schools were asked to gather information about the farming methods, geographic source, processing needs and overall supply chain of 100 of the most commonly served menu items on their college campuses. According to the findings:
- The “footprint” of campus dining services is substantial.
- “Food miles”—the distance which food had to travel to reach the campus—is not necessarily the most significant driver of food’s ecological impact.
- Food supply chains are broad and complex.
- “Food miles”—the distance which food had to travel to reach the campus—is not necessarily the most significant driver of food’s ecological impact.
The 2009 CHEFS pilot program confirmed food’s significance to a campus’ carbon footprint. For example, at one of the pilot schools, the annual emissions equivalent from producing only 26 food products (out of an estimated 800 to 1000 purchased), equaled 2.5% of the total annual emissions from campus-wide operations, says CA-CP.
Also, the unique power of the CHEFS tool, especially as its database of products grows, is to highlight the differences between specific food items, says CA-CP. For example, the organization says it now knows that growing and delivering a pound of carrots produces about six times more greenhouse gas emissions than a pound of tomatoes, while onions and potatoes yield the smallest footprints.
Once the CHEFS beta tool has been fully tested, CHEFS will be integrated with CA-CP’s Campus Carbon Calculator, a greenhouse gas calculator used at more than 2,000 educational institutions across North America.
More schools are scheduled to put CHEFS to the test in 2012.
