Community members attend the Somerset Community College 2012 celebration. Photo credit Somerset Community College 2012 Earth Day Celebration.

At Somerset Community College in Somerset, Kentucky, the Earth Day celebration has grown to include over 750 college students and community members in 2012, up from just 100 participants in 2005. The 2012 celebration included a farmers market, resources about solar panels and electric vehicles, as well as free compact fluorescent light bulbs and reusable grocery bags for attendees. Somerset CC comments, “at the heart of the event is the aim to educate the community about sustainability, which includes caring for the environment and reducing the amount of energy and natural resources consumed.”

Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts challenged students to a “Top Sustainability Chef” competition as part of their Earth Week 2012 schedule. Three students crafted dishes using all organic ingredients, including the “not-so-secret clean food ingredient,” organic mushrooms, in 30 minutes for judges including a “clean food” cookbook author. “Top Sustainability Chef” participants produced Thai chicken curry, asparagus and mushrooms and raw corn and avocado soup during lunchtime in one of Bridgewater’s dining halls, thus promoting organic and local foods to over 300 passersby.

UNH SEAC will celebrate the 20th annual Solarfest, a solar-powered music and arts festival this year. Photo credit Abigail Gronberg.

And now for a personal favorite! This year, the University of New Hampshire’s Student Environmental Action Coalition will host the 20^th annual Solarfest—an all-day, solar-powered music festival in Durham, New Hampshire. Each year around Earth Day, the Sunweaver solar bus rolls up to UNH with its 800 watt solar array, providing power for nonstop music from 11 am to sunset for thousands of students and community members. Solarfest is a way for students to unwind before finals and to culminate a typically jam-packed Earth Week. The event also features local cuisine, artists and businesses, student organizations and community environmental resources.

How are YOU celebrating Earth Day? Earth Week, Earth Month, Earth Year, Earth Century…Earth Millennium?! Comment below, and share photos of your events with Campus Ecology on facebook throughout the month of April.

More Earth Day resources:

• My favorite collection of photos from across the nation on Earth Day 1970
• Watch Earth Week 1970, a CBS News special with Walter Cronkite, in 15 parts on YouTube (I promise this is just as awesome as it sounds)
• Search the NWF Campus Ecology Campus Sustainability Case Study Database for Earth Day and other “green” events at colleges and universities

Raised-bed gardens at Pine Middle School, Reno, Nevada

Mike Ismari, a science teacher at Pine Middle School, is one of the strong forces behind this comprehensive program that started with the construction of fourteen planter boxes and a group of local boy scouts earning Eagle Scout badges. Students have also played a significant role through the Pine Middle School Garden Club, earning community service hours that can often translate into college scholarship opportunities through the local 4-H club.

Science teacher Mike Ismari and a colleague in the garden

Garden Club members have gained multiple life skills from participating in this program, such as:

• Tool use, from simple hand tools used to create birdhouses to power tools for building raised beds.
• Food growing and processing, including dehydrating and baking.
• Communication, through presentations to grant boards and the press.
• Math/economics as they market and sell their local produce.

Mike and his students have worked hard to expand this effort to other local schools, too, including the Smithridge Elementary school which is right across the road from Pine Middle School. Middle school students are now working with elementary students to teach them how to garden, grow and process food. Mike’s dream is to have a school garden at every Reno school – providing great opportunities for students to replace grass and asphalt with productive green spaces and teach students and the greater community about the value of working the land.

Pine Middle School is also working to address other key sustainability issues at their school, including reducing their energy use and working to use renewable energy sources such as solar panels. They are presently participating in a program with National Wildlife Federation through a grant from Wells Fargo. “Building Green Schools from the Inside Out” seeks to work with schools to reduce their carbon footprint. In September, Pine students were inspired and motivated by a presentation from the Alliance for Climate Education and are now utilizing NWF’s Eco-Schools USA program and Cool School Challenge to assess their current carbon footprint and determine ways to reduce their environmental impacts.

One of the most frequently asked questions about the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball is, “Do I have to eat before the Ball?” Well there is an easy response: “Come hungry!”  The evening will feature epicurean delights from Wolfgang Puck Catering. Yes, the Chef who built Spago and made it the hottest Hollywood celebrity destination provides the in-house catering for the Newseum, where his delectable D.C. restaurant, The Source, also resides. Attendees can expect the highest quality gourmet food from the catering kitchen, which is overseen by Executive Chef Tom Blundell. There will be gourmet food, drink and dessert offerings throughout the night, and even a delectable nibble for guests to take home at the end of the night. Chef Blundell has created a menu for the Green Ball that reflects the commitment and values of the green community to eat local, sustainable and organic foods while providing a signature gourmet flare.

Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone, one of the delectable dishes in store for guests at the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball.

A Sustainable, Organic and Local Menu

The menu will feature vegetarian and vegan options as well as regional cuisine. Incredibly, 98% of the ingredients on the menu were procured from within 300 miles. This is truly a menu that pays homage to and celebrates local, organic and sustainable food.

Signature dishes include Wolfgang Puck Kobe beef sliders, Sesame Miso Cones with Carolina Yellow Fin Tuna Tartar, and a Charcuterie and Cheese bar.  The cheeses come from family owned farms and co-ops and use all organic ingredients. The fish, procured from ProFish, is MSC Chain of Custody certified, which is a comprehensive traceability program that tracks seafood from the point of sale back to an MSC-certified fishery.

There will also be a variety of vegan and vegetarian food offerings, including Locally Grown Organic Vegetable Crudités, Butternut Squash Shooters with Apple, and Vegetable Sushi Rolls with Soy Wasabi Drizzle. The evening culminates with scrumptious desserts around 11 pm, which will include Assorted Cheesecake and Truffle Lollipops, S’mores Parfaits, Mango pudding and Vanilla Bean Pudding Shots,and mini Chocolate Decadence Cakes & Cheesecakes.

Since the nibbles were so gourmet, we knew we had to create libations to match. If you need hydration after rocking out to will.i.am., grab one of the many featured flavors of Honest Tea, delivered in their Honest Tea-branded hybrid Saturn Vue. Feeling particularly patriotic? Reach for President Obama’s favorite flavor, Black Forrest Berry.

Looking for a libation with a bit more zing? Sip the Green Ball’s signature cocktail, the OM-Bama, created by professional mixologist Natalie Bovis (aka the Liquid Muse), author of Edible Cocktails: Garden to Glass. Natalie crafted the OM-Bama using a host of unique ingredients and OM (which stands for Organic Mixology) Cocktail, a new product that is bursting on to the market and into the hands of eco-minded consumers. See if you can identify the secret ingredient!

Looking for a sophisticated sip?  Check out our featured wine from New York’s Hunt County Vineyards. Not only do they use sustainable farming practices and compost residual harvest to make soil, but the heating and the cooling for the warehouse, tasting room, and production facility is generated with eight geothermal wells and a vertical-axis wind turbine.

Still hungry at the end of the night? Stonyfield Farms has shipped over frozen yogurt treats, including their chocolate dipped frozen yogurt bars. All food waste and waste from food prep activities will be composted, and all unused food will be used by the Newseum.   It is going to be a delicious night!

If you haven’t purchased your 2013 Green Inaugural Ball tickets, purchase them soon before the event sells out.
Heading to the Green Ball? Don’t forget to tweet using the #GreenBall2013 hashtag.

Shelley Cohen is Chair of the Greening Committee for the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball. Ms. Cohen is an urban eco-mom with eighteen years of experience in environment and energy-related fields. She currently serves as a Senior Project Developer for Ameresco where she specializes in developing renewable energy and energy conservation projects, and is responsible for developing over 15MWs of renewable energy. Prior employment included jobs with EPA, the White House, and the office of Senator Joseph Lieberman (CT). Ms. Cohen’s green home includes eco-friendly materials, 12kw of solar PV, a cool roof, rain barrel, organic garden, and has been featured in local and national media. Ms. Cohen serves on the board of the National Wildlife Federation, and in 2012 was trained as a Climate Leader through the Climate Reality Project.

Student delegates at the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action Civics & Conservation Summit in March with Governor Sean Parnell. (Photo courtesy of AYEA)

The theme for the Civics & Conservation Summit was “Local Food & Wild Salmon,” but its purpose went far beyond that.

During the training, delegates worked on talking to media; talking to elected officials; how to read a bill; and how to impact decisions leaders make about the environment. They also honed their public speaking skills through skits and group presentations.

The students had a chance to meet Governor Sean Parnell and honor AYEA’s Legislators of the Year (State Senators Gary Stevens (R-Kodiak), Hollis French (D-Anchorage) and Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage)), but the most important aspect of the summit was the time student delegates spent advocating for some issues vital to the future of the state’s natural resources.

See a few of the delegates in the video below talking about their reasons for loving Wild Alaskan salmon, or listen to this story by Juneau’s KTOO “Young Conservationists learn about legislative process.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Some issues on AYEA’s docket, from AYEA Program Manager Megan McBride:

• Senate Bill 3 – An Act providing for state funding for school lunch and breakfast. Alaska is one of just a few states that don’t provide any state funding to match federal funds. For several years, AYEA teens have been advocating for more local Alaskan food to be served in schools. Two years ago, AYEA advocated for the Farm to School Bill that facilitates locally grown products to be served in Alaskan schools. Given the tight budget school food is on, however, it’s been hard to make progress since that bill has passed.
• Madeline Rafferty (Age 17, Fairbanks): “This bill is essential in providing healthier meals to students all across the state by incorporating locally grown and caught food in school lunches. Not only would this improve the quality of school lunches, but it would support the local businesses providing this food. It is well known that eating a healthy breakfast increases academic performance and doing so will raise test scores.”

• House Bill 100 – The bill outlaws growing or cultivating genetically engineered fish in the state. GE salmon has been a topic at the federal level after a company submitted a request for a permit to grow and sell GE salmon in the US. Alaska’s federal delegation – Senators Murkowski (R) and Begich (D) and Representative Young (R)- have all sponsored or signed on to legislation to ban GE salmon in the US. Alaska’s state legislators are on the same page, and AYEA teens are behind them!
• Hunter Doan, Youth Trainer (Age 15, Seward): “If one of these GMO fish were to escape in to the wild, it would be disastrous to the ecosystem. GMO fish are bred to grow faster and eat more than wild fish. Since they eat so much, they would eat all of the wild salmon’s food. If House Bill 100 passes, it will prevent big fish farming companies from coming in and taking the jobs of local commercial fisherman.”

• Senate Bill 152 – The bill mandates legislative approval for mining operation that could affect water in or flowing into or over the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve. It is intended to slow down or stall the Pebble Mine project, and for good reason—Bristol Bay is Alaska’s richest commercial fishery and “one of America’s most spectacular places.” The region’s pure waters, healthy habitat and breathtaking wilderness setting generate millions of dollars for the local economy, attract trophy salmon and trout anglers from all over the world, and support the centuries-old subsistence lifestyle of Alaska Natives—all jeopardized by mining operations
• Bill Sponsor Sen. French: “[I]t’s an important conversation starter. It’s important for them to know that they have people in the building who are willing to advance ideas that may not always get there. But you have to have the dialog, you have to have the debate, and so I’m proud to be a part of that.”
• Read more: Yes on 152 Juneau Empire Letter to the Editor by Mariah Savoie (Age 15, Anchorage)

• Senate Bill 27 – The bill would phase out the use, sale and manufacture of products containing toxic flame retardant chemicals (PBDEs, which are used in furniture and household appliances and may actually make fires more deadly). Though Alaska has very little chemical manufacturing in-state, these chemicals concentrate in the arctic through a process of bioaccumulation and Alaska ends up with disproportionately high amounts.
• Bill sponsor Sen. Wielechowski: “They knew what they were talking about. They had done a lot of research […] They asked me some very pointed questions about it, which showed they really had been studying it.”
• Rowan Heinemann (Age 17, Fairbanks) summed it up nicely: “We know the risks that PBDEs present, and now we have a chance to protect ourselves and future generations from these hazardous materials.”
• Read more: Ban PBDEs Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Letter to the Editor by Youth Trainer Emily Brease (Age 18, Healy)

The 1.5.0 cafe at the University of North Carolina serves food sourced locally, including grass-fed beef, cage-free eggs, organic produce and sustainably-harvested seafood. (UNC)

Sometimes, the grass is really greener in your own backyard. Since Campus Ecology ran its first case studies on local and sustainable food back in 2003 (see St. Bonaventure and Warren Wilson College), the phenomenon has blossomed, due to increased awareness and the popularity of fresh, local food among students.

In fall 2003, Western Washington University (WWU) began to explore opportunities to purchase foods locally by partnering with Bellwood Acres Apples. Located in the same county, Bellwood affords WWU the opportunity to sell apples and fresh pressed apple cider during apple season from early fall through early winter. According to director of business development, Lisa Philbrook, “Over the last two to three school years we’ve made local purchasing a focused effort with everything from liquid dairy and ice cream, to donuts, to a wide range of vegetables, to sushi, to packaged cookies, and more.”

There is no standardized definition for what counts as “local,” but the school attempts to purchase from the closest supplier available, whether that be within their own Whatcom County, their neighboring Skagit County, within the state of Washington, or neighboring states when necessary.

However, the bigger issue is that colleges and universities require large quantities of foods to accommodate their students and dining locations. “In order to serve items in our dining locations on campus, we generally need a very large volume of any given item,” Philbrook says. “Some small farmers or producers may not immediately be able to meet our volume needs -so we are working to plan ahead with them to meet our needs as they are able.”

Philbrook also mentions insurance policies can prove challenging for small farmers who may be willing to sell produce. “The University has insurance requirements to protect the safety of the campus community, so some small growers and producers may not be able to meet this requirement on their own. That’s where working with a distributor or a cooperative of some sort can be of benefit.”  She explains that since all vendors must have liability insurance, some farmers have joined larger groups such as Grow Washington, a worker-managed cooperative organization which is able to arrange for insurance coverage and makes smaller farms viable food sources for WWU.

WWU accredits its success largely to striving to build strong relationships with local farmers and co-ops and dedicating acreage for upcoming growing seasons. Philbrook also notes that “Communicating to our ‘customers’ on campus which items are coming from local vendors through a wide range of types of signage and marketing communication efforts,” has been instrumental. 

“Year by year we’ve tried to grow our program with local vendors; it’s a progressive effort. Take it one step at a time,” Philbrook advises. “We’ve been able to make progress and we’re really excited about that.”

On the east coast, UNC Chapel Hill shines as a leader in the movement toward local purchasing. The university has been increasingly involved in sustainable practices in past years, including programs to compost, reduce water wastage, and go trayless in dining halls. More recently, UNC began to focus on purchasing products locally. In 2009, approximately 20.7 percent of foods purchased at UNC were locally grown, raised, or processed.

“It’s our goal to purchase locally whenever possible,” says R.J. LaPorte, marketing coordinator of Dining Services. In the event an item cannot be purchased locally, the university tries to purchase organic, fair trade, or otherwise environmentally-conscientious products. UNC’s latest initiative is a retail endeavor known as 1.5.0.- a campus eatery that features locally-sourced food including grass-fed beef, cage-free eggs, organic produce and sustainably-harvested seafood. The name stands for the Carolina Dining Services’ definition of “local purchasing,” which includes items purchased within a 150 mile radius.

Before implementing their own local foods program, however, colleges and universities should be aware of other logistical challenges including delivery, price, and community support of local foods. Since local foods potentially come from a variety of sources rather than from one distributor, communication and coordination of deliveries can be challenging. Additionally, while local foods are not necessarily more expensive than other foods, organics can cost 20 to 30 percent more and grass-fed beef can cost around 75 percent more than regular products, according to Scott Myers, director of Food and Vending. This may prove another challenge for facilities hoping to incorporate these types of foods.

UNC is lucky to be amidst a community of what Myers terms “sustainably-minded” people who support local food purchasing, making the implementation of such endeavors as 1.5.0. easier. LaPorte and Myers also attribute some of the programs’ success to free advertising through listservs of environmental student groups and networks, and several student articles highlighting local food purchasing in UNC’s newspaper. Additionally, UNC’s dining facilities label foods that are purchased locally and offer farmers markets and “green specials,” where meals are produced from locally-purchased products. These efforts in dining halls serve to spread awareness about local foods and help students make a connection between locally-purchased products and great quality and taste.

LaPorte and Myers advise other schools interested in initiating local foods programs to arrange a meeting with a group of administrators and other key faculty, staff, and students to plan and set clear goals for the program. They suggest starting small-not with a retail endeavor such as 1.5.0., but by offering local foods in salad bars at the diner to begin to increase awareness and support, and to take small steps from there. 

According to LaPorte, “Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  They are happy to see a fresh, local, and chef produced food option located in an in-line retail dining location.”

The hope is that this movement will prevent students from being able to fill their trays with food that would end up uneaten and thrown in the garbage. Ideally, not only will trayless dining reduce wasted food, but energy and water will be saved by not having to wash trays.

According to Jonathan Bloom, journalist and creator of Wasted Food, there are over 30 colleges and universities that offered trayless dining halls, or have at least tried it, in the last year. Bloom’s list includes schools ranging from Luther College in Iowa (2,500 students) to the University of Florida (51,000 students and the second-largest university in the country).

“I think traylessness is a real no-brainer,” says Bloom. “It requires little to no extra money and not much of a change in the student’s lifestyle. All it asks is that students make two trips to get food instead of one.”

In the United States, more than 25% of food produced for consumption goes to waste, and food leftovers are the largest component, by weight, of the waste stream in the United States. As food decomposes in landfills, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In fact, landfills are the largest human-related source of methane in the United States and responsible for 34% of methane emissions overall.

Although trayless dining is a relatively new concept, one landmark study on the effort, produced by ARAMARK Higher Education, was released in July 2008. The study examined 186,000 meals at 25 colleges and universities and found that on trayless dining days, food waste was reduced by 25% to 30% per person, or about one-quarter to one-half pound of food per person per day.

The study also sought to identify the water and energy savings resulting from removing trays from dining halls, although found it difficult to generalize the water consumption savings due to the high number of variables, such as dishwashing systems and water-flow rates. ARAMARK did determine, however, that washing one tray requires at least one-third to one-half gallon of water. In a recent Boston Globe article, the University of Florida estimates that it will save 470,000 gallons of water annually through trayless dining.

The ARAMARK study could not confidently determine energy consumption and cost savings due to an even greater number of variables, such as regional and local utility rates, institutional fuel mix and operating practices. However, the study did highlight case studies for two specific universities, the University of Maine at Farmington and Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. The University of Maine estimated saving $57,000 a year with trayless dining, while Grand Valley State University estimated an economic savings of $79,000 and a 540-pound reduction in dish detergent and sanitizer waste.

It may appear that trayless dining is a “golden egg” in food, energy and water reduction, but it has been met with some student resistance. “There are a couple of arguments I’ve heard against trayless dining,” says Bloom. “It’s the ‘I paid for this so I should be able to take as much as I want’ argument and ‘If the university is going to save a bunch of money on this program, why won’t I see any of it?’” In response to the first argument, Bloom chuckles because “students can still take as much food as they want. They just have to do it in a couple trips.”

The argument for what to do with the perceived saved money is trickier to solve. “I don’t think universities will lower their food prices for students,” says Bloom, “but they might invest the money into buying more locally-produced foods.” As the cost of dining out is 4% higher than one year ago, finding ways for universities to save money on food may just mean slowing the rise in costs passed down to students.

Still, students have found ways to show their disgust and frustration with trayless dining. A Wall Street Journal report  found that students at Colby College in Maine resorted to using their chairs as improvised trays on trayless dining days, and the school’s “woodsmen team” made the effort to craft their own wooden trays to use.

At Luther College in Iowa, food waste was reduced by 8.4% during a week-long trial of trayless dining. However, many students voiced their concerns over the credibility, mission and practice of the program. Luther College Dining Services provided comment cards to the students during the trial to gauge their receptivity. Some of the negative comments read, “This is freaking stupid,” and “I will burn a tire for every day I didn’t have a tray.” Some students purposely dumped food on the floors for the kitchen staff to clean up. About a week after the trial period ended, the college hosted an open forum to discuss trayless dining and its future on campus, but only about 25 students were present and most already favored removing trays. College officials thought the low forum attendance reflected that students had already begun to accept the idea of trayless dining.

Some students find it legitimately difficult to balance their meals, especially bowls of soup, in their arms. And some concerns have been raised over food safety when students have to leave their food unattended on the table to go back for a drink.

Even with the occasional instances of deliberate waste, dirty tables and disgruntled diners, the ARAMARK study found that a large majority of students across the United States favor trayless dining. In the study, ARAMARK surveyed more than 92,000 students, faculty and staff at 300 institutions in the United States (most of which have never even tried trayless dining), and they found that 79% of respondents indicate “Yes” when asked if “they would accept the removal of trays in an effort to reduce waste on campus.” ARAMARK also estimates that 50 to 60% of its 500 campus partners are expected to try the trayless dining program in the 2008-2009 academic year.

At Virginia Tech, the trayless program eventually created a full-time job for one student. In 2007, Andy Sarjahani was a student at Virginia Tech working on his dietetic internship. For his final project before graduation, he designed a study that looked at food waste in one of the campus dining halls. “There are 11 dining halls on campus,” says Sarjahani, “and two of them are ‘all you can eat.’ I chose to study one of them, D2, since it was the largest, serving over 2,500 students a day.” For a week, Sarjahani and other volunteers measured food waste when students used trays. “We found an average of 1,200 pounds of food being wasted a day at D2, 41% from ‘over-production’ and 59% from student waste.”

When Sarjahani conducted another food audit several weeks later, this time during a trayless dining week, he found that food waste was reduced by 29.6%, even though the average number of students being served went up to 2,800 a day.

After Sarjahani graduated, Virginia Tech hired him as the campus Sustainability Coordinator. Today, both of the university’s “all you can eat” dining halls are trayless all year, but interestingly, that doesn’t fully satisfy Sarjahani.

“It’s borderline greenwashing,” says Sarjahani. “Traylessness is a step in the right direction, but trays aren’t the problem. The problem is ‘all you can eat.’” Sarjahani looks at the 41% of food waste from over-production (down to 38% during the test trayless week) as the real culprit. “Why are they producing so much food?” he asks. “It’s because of a flawed rating system.”

Sarjahani is referencing Virginia Tech’s high rating in “Best Campus Food” by the Princeton Review (#3 in 2009). “The rating is based on quality, quantity and service,” Sarjahani explains, “but they don’t look at waste. The dining hall will make a new large pepperoni pizza 10 minutes before lunch ends, even if there’s three pieces left of another, just in case one student walks in looking for hot pepperoni pizza. The idea is that the last person in line should have the same food options as the first person in line.”

With so many universities and colleges expected to implement trayless dining options, questions like the one Sarjahani raises may work their way to the forefront, but the evidence is already showing that trayless dining halls are reducing waste and saving money, energy and water. ARAMARK suggests that universities interested in testing a trayless dining program launch a trial day or week during periods of heightened environmental awareness, such as Earth Week in April or Campus Sustainability Day in October. If a university wants to implement a full-time trayless dining hall, ARAMARK suggests starting it at the beginning of fall semester, when first-year students and transfers are most likely to immediately accept the idea since they have no previous experience with trays on campus.

See More:

US Wastes Half Its Food: Food Navigator

Students Take a Crash Course in Trayless Dining 101: Minneapolis Star Tribune

More College Cafeterias Dump Food Trays: USA Today

Dining Halls Go Trayless: Collegiate Times