Westminster Dining Sustainability Initiatives
Your campus dining team is dedicated to sustainability. We know we can all work together to make a positive impact right here at Westminster College. We have implemented the following programs specific to Westminster College.
While your Sodexo team works hard behind the scenes, they also count on student engagement and enthusiasm to spread the word about what you're doing together on your campus. We encourage you to work with your local management team to continue to innovate and improve sustainability efforts in your community.
Trayless Dining
Westminster Dining has been trayless for the past several years; by eliminating the trays it has been highly effective in reducing food waste and saving thousands of gallons of water.
Xpressnap® Napkin Dispensers
Westminster College dining cares about the environment, that’s why you will find these environmental Xpressnap® napkin dispensers in Galbreath Dining, WE Express "Proudly Serve" Starbucks, Meal Swipe Express and TUB Food Court. The napkins are made of 100% recycled paper and the dispensers will encourage customers to take a few napkins Energy is saved because less power is used to recycle paper products.
Local Suppliers
Our local food distributor provide us fresh fruits and vegetables from several local farms including Dawson's Orchard (Lawrence County, PA), Wexford Farms (Allegheny County, PA) , Spring Valley Garden (Butler County, PA), Harvest Valley (Butler County, PA), Yarnick Farms (Indiana County, PA) and Brenckle Farms (Butler County, PA). We also purchase from local dairies too.
Recycling
On campus, we recycle the following items: aluminum, glass, cardboard, plastic and paper.
Reusable Cup
Bring your own reusable cup to when you purchase a coffee or a fountain drink on campus. You will receive a discount the TUB Food Court and WE Express Starbucks. (pre-Covid)
Composting
Food waste in landfills creates methane, a greenhouse gas which is 21x more potent than CO2 (www.epa.gov). All the non-edible waste is being composted at all our dining locations. Then the non-edible waste is taken to Westminster's Field Station to begin the composing process and later the compost is use at Westminster's community garden.
Recycling Fryer Oil into Biofuel
Our fryer oil is recycled into bio-diesel that is used to power a variety of vehicles from delivery fleets to farm equipment.
Weight the Waste
Did you know that 40% of the food produced in our county is wasted? Once a semester, we conduct a Weigh the Waste challenge. During this time, we weigh all the uneaten food which has been brought back to the dish room. We charge the findings on a daily basis and share the results at the end of the week. By doing this it brings awareness to the guests about food waste and its impact to our environment. We hold frequent campaigns in which we compare our results (and hopefully see our waste decline).
Waste Watch Reuse
Fall 2019, we relaunched the green reusable container program. It is designed to reduce waste and help achieve Sodexo's Better Tomorrow commitments by replacing single-use disposable food contains with reusable containers.
Lean Path
LeanPath is a kitchen waste tracking system in which records and tracks all the food waste from our kitchens. This helps us to identify and change practices which result in food waste.
Sustainable Fish and Seafood
We are committed to serving sustainable seafood and fish.
Bulk Condiments
We use bulk condiment dispensers at our dining locations to reduce the waste than using individual packets.
Double Sided Printing
We use recycled paper and print on both sides whenever possible.
Natural Light
The large windows at our dining room allows us to enjoy a tremendous amount of natural light while dining. Natural lighting not only provides a more comfortable environment it also reduces our energy usage b allowing us to turn off the lights.
On/Off Protocol
Another way to save energy is we only turn on the equipment when we need then turn them off as soon as we done using them for the day.
