HDH SUSTAINABILITY ANNUAL REPORT ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018
Sustainability isn t the work of one person or group it is the responsibility of every student and staff member on campus. The Housing Dining Hospitality (HDH) sustainability team at UC San Diego helps guide and educate staff, Residential Life colleagues, and students that live and eat on campus. HERE ARE HIGHLIGHTS FROM ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018 HDH Sustainability Annual Report 1
The HDH EcoNauts The EcoNauts are HDH s team of student sustainability advocates. They work to educate students and staff on topics to reduce environmental impacts including water conservation, sustainable eating, sustainable transportation, proper waste sorting and more. Additionally, they assist with sustainability projects within HDH and on campus. Three EcoNauts graduated and joined the ranks of Econaut Alumni Samantha Forrest, Nina Joshi, and Charles Adams. In September 2017, Natalia Hernandez, Shannon Lee, Christy Schlutius, and Mayuri Kathrotia joined the returning EcoNauts Elena Estrada, Heer Amin, Narayan Okuma, and Dante Webster. Educational Programs and Student Outreach This year, the EcoNauts held 75 educational programs, reaching over 1,700 students. These programs include campus-wide, college and Resident Advisor (RA) events. ecogrounds Fair Trade coffee and tea tastings were featured at over 30 events, reaching approximately 650 students. The EcoNauts conducted two large-scale waste audits on UC San Diego s Library Walk during Earth Month. Results found that on average, trash is composed of about 50 percent recyclables. HDH Sustainability Annual Report 2
Academic Year 2017/2018 Successes Reduced Plastic Use and Waste in Dining Dining moved plastic straws behind the registers midway through the year and saw an overall use reduction of more than 100,000 straws. End-toend, that s enough to circle campus loop almost three times! In spring quarter, 64 Degrees began offering reusable china, resulting in an overall reduction of single-use plastics by 47 percent. This equates to more than 17,000 plates and 22,500 cups! By removing the napkin caddies from tables, over 1 million napkins have been saved since 2016. A forward-thinking student manager at Earl s Market implemented a 10-cent charge for paper bags, aligning with the California state law. As a result, we saved more than 100,000 single-use paper bags. Back-of-House Food Scrap Recycling HDH composted 141 tons of preconsumer food scraps from the kitchens in its dining facilities, bringing the total food scrap diversion to over 1,700 tons since the program started in 2010. Tiny Bin Tim (TBT) In winter quarter, the EcoNauts composted over 130 pounds of post-consumer food scrap from Roots through the pilot program Tiny Bin Tim. In spring quarter, over 103 pounds of food scrap were composted. The EcoNauts sorted through and removed any and all contaminants from the food scraps. There were relatively few items found, many of which were non-compostable napkins. Throughout the pilot program, the EcoNauts interviewed students at Roots for helpful feedback to improve the program, signage and education. Based on their input, HDH is enhancing signage to encourage more active and engaging TBT participation for the 2018-2019 academic year. Sixth Week Swaps The remaining clothing items is donated to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) or given to Homeless Impact, a UC San Diego InterVarsity group that serves the local homeless. This year, Warren, Marshall, Revelle, Muir, Sixth, and The Village participated in Swaps. With the help of 22 RAs and 289 attendees, the EcoNauts donated more than 310 pounds of clothing to those in need. (This weight does not include the clothing that attendees took with them to reuse/exchange.) Shadow Boxes The EcoNauts created 36 shadow boxes for the dining halls to show students proper waste sorting procedures. The boxes sit at each Landfill/Recycling station and have physical samples of the items found in that specific dining hall. RA Incentive Program Warren College received the Residential Life Sustainability Award for holding the most educational sustainability events with the EcoNauts throughout the year. DAV Donation Competition Revelle College won the DAV Donation Drive competition by donating the most items during weeks seven through eight of move outs. Green Office Certification The Village Gallery (includes the EcoNaut and HDH sustainability manager offices) received Platinumlevel Green Office Certification (GOC) from the UC San Diego Sustainability Resource Center. The GOC program encourages campus offices to conserve resources by providing recognition to those who implement and improve their sustainable practices. The office received the highest level certification based on categories such as energy conservation, sustainable participation, eco-friendly purchasing and waste disposal. HDH Sustainability Annual Report 3
On-Campus Partnerships Inter-Sustainability Council The EcoNauts represent HDH Sustainability on the university s Inter-Sustainability Council, which brings together the various sustainability organizations, groups and departments on campus in bi-weekly meetings for increased communication and collaboration. Food Recovery Network Through our partnership with UC San Diego s Food Recovery Network (FRN), approximately 2,350 pounds of consumable, but not sellable, food was recovered from HDH dining locations and delivered to those in need. To date, HDH has donated more than 8,100 pounds of food to FRN. Triton Food Pantry The HDH Markets hosted the annual move-out food donation drive to collect non-perishable foods. These donations benefitted the on-campus Triton Food Pantry, serving students who face food insecurity. Approximately 4,000 pounds of food items were donated by on-campus residents. Ellie s Garden - Tiny Bin Tim The EcoNauts have partnered with Ellie s Garden at Eleanor Roosevelt College to compost the food scraps collected through the Tiny Bin Tim pilot post-consumer food scrap program at Roots. College ResLife Offices The EcoNauts have partnered with college Residential Life (ResLife) offices to create the Green Outlet Program, so residents can dispose of electronic-waste and other non-conventional recyclable items in their college. University Centers Sustainability The Econauts partnered with University Centers Sustainability to host a large-scale, interactive waste audit in front of Geisel Library over two days in recognition of Earth Month. John Muir College The first Green Grant funded reusable coffee mugs for the Muirstock concert festival. The mugs encourage students to reduce their use of single-use paper coffee cups. A Green Grant was also awarded to Muir College residents to install two solar umbrellas in the Muir quad. These allow students to enjoy the outdoors, while charging their electronics with a renewable source of energy! Community Partnerships The City of San Diego HDH has an ongoing partnership with the City of San Diego for our Back-of-House Food Scrap composting program. Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank HDH and the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank host the oncampus Tritons Rock Hunger food drive. More than 600 pounds of nonperishable foods were collected on campus and donated to the San Diego Food Bank, providing over 500 meals to those in need. Disabled American Veterans Through our partnership with the Disabled American Veterans, 38 tons of items, including clothing, furniture, electronics and appliances, were donated by undergraduate residents during move outs, an increase of 7 tons from last year. HDH Sustainability Annual Report 4
Sustainable Foods In the 2017-2018 academic year, we made improvements to our sustainable food tracking and reporting. Sustainable Product Category Money Spent We have redefined our campus definition of local to be 250 miles or less from campus to align with the UC Office of the President and UC System definitions (previously, we used 500 miles as our campus criteria). We have made improvements to our tracking and reporting systems, allowing greater accuracy when flagging sustainable products, and minimizing crossover when products fall into multiple categories (for example, both locally grown and organic). These changes also come from working extensively with our vendors. Overall, 19 percent of our total food purchases were from sustainable sources. While this is just 1 percent shy of the 20 percent sustainable food products by the year 2020 goal, because of our changes and more accurate reporting data, we are able to make greater strides forward. We are highly optimistic that we will reach the 20 percent goal before 2020. Locally Grown $693,105 Locally Raised, Handled, and Distributed $485,349 Fair-Trade Certified $212,222 USDA Organic $989,453 Cage Free $274,946 Seafood Watch Guide Best Choices $287,207 Total Sustainable Sourced $2,942,282 Total Food Purchased $15,880,640 HDH Sustainability Annual Report 5
HDH Hydration Locations Hydration Locations promote reuse by providing residents convenient stations to refill their reusable water bottle with free, clean and fresh drinking water. This year, HDH installed four new Hydration Locations in residential and dining areas. Currently, there are 78 Hydration Locations on campus, with more being added all the time. Impact By our estimates, the Hydration Locations prevented the use of more than 710,000 single-use water bottles. Producing and recycling water bottles is very energy and water intensive. This sustainability effort saves about 200 barrels of oil, and 180,000 gallons of water! Note: Some Hydration Locations do not measure the equivalent bottles diverted. Thus, the actual diversion is likely even higher than our estimates. Waste Audits Think before you toss! The EcoNauts conduct weekly audits of waste collected in the various residential areas on campus. Samples of approximately 10 bags of trash are taken from the landfill dumpsters, and the EcoNauts sort through and separate out all recyclable material. In fall quarter, 50 percent of the trash sampled was recyclable material. This decreased to 45 percent in winter quarter, and rose up slightly to 48 percent in spring quarter. Further improvements are being made to metrics and procedures of the waste audits for the 2018-2019 academic year. Fun Fact! Did you know, by recycling one more plastic bottle, you save enough energy to power your laptop for 25 minutes? JOIN THE MOVEMENT TO ZERO IN ON ZERO WASTE! hdh.ucsd.edu/sustainability HDH Sustainability Annual Report 6