Local and Sustainable
Since 2007, Columbia Dining has made a public commitment to sustainability. Our goal is to try to keep our biological systems diverse and productive through environmental and resource management. From reducing facility and operational impact to developing partnerships with local farms, Dining continues to make strides both large and small.
Facility Improvements
Supporting the Community
Green Menus
Waste Management
Report Card
Kitchen Equipment
We work with Energy Star, a government-backed program helping businesses protect the environment through superior energy efficiency, to develop an energy strategy. All new equipment is manufactured to use the latest energy-saving technology and environmentally safe coolants. We also perform regular preventive maintenance, including cleaning all filters to help the units run cooler and more efficiently. We also use Humitech moisture reducers in the coolers to increase energy efficiency, use less power, maintain cooler units, and increase the useful life of fruit and vegetables.
As a next step, we will look to systematically audit our equipment to replace inefficient, older equipment with new Energy Star-efficient appliances.
Supporting the Community
Food Donation
John Jay Dining Hall donates all un-served food to City Harvest, a non-profit with the mission to end hunger in New York City and the surrounding boroughs. They pick up prepared and perishable food from food service organizations and deliver it to food programs for those in need. They also collect and store non-perishable items for these programs, and individuals, to pick up.
Why City Harvest?
1.6 million New Yorkers currently live in poverty. City Harvest focuses on helping these people of the five boroughs of New York City. City Harvest is New York’s only food rescue organization. They state: “There is enough food in New York City for everyone to have what he or she needs. The challenge is distribution.”
Columbia University is particularly committed to supporting the Morningside Heights neighborhood; the following neighborhood agencies receive support and donations from City Harvest:
- Cluster House - Urban Pathways, 904 Amsterdam Avenue;
- Echo Apartments, 1050 Amsterdam Avenue;
- Praxis Housing Initiatives - Riverside Place 312 W. 109th Street;
- Broadway Community, 601 W. 114th Street;
- Cathedral Kitchen - St. John the Divine, 1045 Amsterdam Avenue;
- The Bridge, 248 W. 108th Street.
How the Partnership Works
Every Friday a staff member in John Jay Dining Hall gathers all the food for donation and puts it in the City Harvest-provided pans. This process takes about one hour. A call is placed to dispatch and a driver comes by later in the afternoon. They are always on time and reliable. Typically we donate about 300 pounds a week of starches, vegetables, and sometimes meat. Last year we donated a total of 10,796 pounds. Since we started working with City Harvest, we have donated a total of 90,668 pounds.
Strawberry Jam
Dining is helping to create sustainable food systems. They have partnered with Hindinger Farm to bring locally grown, processed, and packaged strawberry jam to diners in John Jay Dining Hall.
Green Menus
Apples
All of our apples and fresh apple cider come from Red Jacket Orchards in Geneva, New York.
Honey
Our honey is from Ballard's Honey in Roxbury, NY.
Milk
All milk is distributed by GAF Seelig and comes locally from Clover Farms. Clover Farms has implemented a policy prohibiting the use of synthetic hormones (rBST) by its producers. In addition, the vitamins used in productions are certified GMO free.
Tomatoes
All of the tomatoes served by Columbia Dining are provided by Thomas Colace Company, whose tomato vendors are all audited for Social Accountability. They check each grower for pay practices, as well as supplied living conditions. These farms are audited by independent companies to assure us that their standards are being met. The Thomas Colace Company was involved in getting the workers pay increases in conjunction with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
Read more about this issue.
*43.5% of Dining food expenditures go towards local, organic, or otherwise environmentally preferable food. Honey and apples are purchased through vendors at the local green market. Annually, Dining contracts with a local farmer and canner to make all salsa and strawberry jam. Milk is local and hormone free and liquid eggs are certified humane. Coffee is roasted locally and is fair trade, organic, shade grown, and bird friendly. Tomatoes are also fair trade. All bakery and grab-and-go sandwiches are purchased from local vendors. In addition, 50% of meals served in the dining halls are vegetarian. Meatless Mondays is run every Monday at Ferris Booth Commons.
Waste Management
Food Donation
Dining partners with City Harvest to donate food. Learn more.
Recycling
All our venues recycle paper, bottles, and cans through the Columbia recycling program.
Bottles & Cans
Dining recycles more than 1,000,000 bottles and cans per year. If stuffed into recyclable trash bags and laid out to form a pyramid, the pyramid’s base would be 2,500 feet across and rise to a point 50 feet high.
Cardboard
Dining recycles more than 150,000 cardboard boxes per year, which, stacked into a single pile, would rise 2 miles into the sky. If the boxes were laid end to end, they would create six avenues from the tip of the Bowery to the Bronx.
Oil
Dining partners with The Doe Fund through their Ready, Willing, and Able recourse recovery program in recycling trans fat free cooking oil. Columbia recycles about 4,000 gallons annually and all oil collected is recycled into biodiesel .
Paper Products
All the napkins we use are made completely from recycled materials. These products cost more but we believe the environmental benefit is worth it. We use about 6,600,000 napkins each year.
Trayless at John Jay
Along with many other college campuses across the United States, Columbia removed trays from the dining hall in an effort to decrease our environmental footprint and become more eco-friendly. Based on past plate-scraping events, dining hall users wasted 190-450 lbs of food at every meal, just by taking too much food on their trays.
With the help of John Jay frequenters, Dining now saves 3,000 gallons of water waste each day and at least 50 lbs of food waste at every meal that can be donated to City Harvest. All of these savings are able to happen just by removing trays and forcing diners to think before they make their food choices. So before you stock up on your favorite foods, just take it one plate at a time.
The College Sustainability Report Card
The Sustainable Endowments Institute releases its College Sustainability Report Card each year, which grades 300 leading colleges by looking at campus greening practices and endowment policies.
2011
Columbia scored an overall grade of B+ and the Food & Recycling category received a “B.” Dining spends 36% of its food budget on local products. John Jay dining hall serves sustainably harvested seafood and is trayless. Exclusively fair-trade coffee is served on campus. Food waste audits are conducted monthly, and students’ unwanted items at the end of the year are donated or sold back to students the following fall.
2010
Columbia’s overall grade was a B, as was the score in the Food & Recycling category. Columbia spends 38 percent of its annual food budget on local items. All seafood is purchased in accordance with sustainability guidelines, and coffee is locally roasted, fair trade, and organic. A discount is offered for bringing a reusable mug. All waste cooking oil is converted into biodiesel. Recycling is available for traditional items and electronic waste, and used items are collected for donation during move-out.
2009
Columbia ranked as one of the top Overall College Sustainability Leaders with an "A-," our best score to date. Columbia Dining received an "A" for our use of local, fair trade, and organic products on campus, our partnership with the student group LOAF (Local Organic Agriculture Friends), and our use of biodegradable take-away containers.
2008
Columbia received an overall score of a "B+," with Housing and Dining receiving an "A" for the implementation of Give and Go Green, our recycling efforts, and our integration of fair trade, local, and organic products on campus.
2007
Columbia's Report Card had an overall grade of a "B," with Housing and Dining receiving an "A" for our use of local, fair trade, and organic products on campus, our partnership with the student group LOAF (Local Organic Agriculture Friends), and our donations to City Harvest each week from the leftover food in John Jay Dining Hall.