Recycling/Composting
In fiscal year 2008, Housing & Dining Services:
- Recycled the cardboard, plastic, and aluminum packaging associated with its products to the tune of 168 tons of cardboard and 107 tons of commingled items.
- Collected pre- and post-consumer food waste and composted in excess of 183 tons.
- Collected approximately 2,200 gallons of cooking oil for biodiesel use.
Water Conservation
Through grants from Sustainable CU, Dining Services has been able to install filtered water stations outside all grab-n-go operations for customer use.
As renovations of different dining centers occur, energy-saving dish machines are being installed, which use on average 30 percent less water than the older ones.
Most of the refrigeration equipment in the dining operations has been converted from a water-cooled compressor to either air-cooled or enclosed glycol-loop cooled.
Green Cleaning Supplies
Dining Services utilizes Green Seal or equivalent cleaning chemicals whenever possible. Additionally, new echo-friendly products from various vendors are continually investigated and tested by the department.
Resource Utilization
Grab-n-go operations now package most of their items in recyclable containers.
EnergyStar-rated equipment is being researched and installed whenever possible.
Dining Services is currently conducting energy and water conservation audits to determine additional viable steps to decrease the use of these valuable resources.
Dining Services administration uses only recycled paper.
