Sustainability on Campus
Hydration Stations
Stay hydrated this academic year by filling up your water bottle at any of these locations for FREE. For more information on TGIF’s hydration stations, please visit The Green Initiative Fund.
UCI Hospitality & Dining is committed to providing sustainable services on campus.
Check out some of the cool stuff we have been doing:
Introducing the Reusable To-Go Program at Mesa, Pippin and Brandywine Commons:
Carbon Foodprints
Help reduce UCI's carbon foodprint at our residential dining locations. Look for our identifiers to make a difference in your carbon foodprint by eating low carbon foodprint entrees!
What can you do to reduce your foodprint?
- Replace red meat & dairy with chicken, fish, or eggs at least one day a week. On average, red meat is 150% more GHG-intensive than chicken or fish.
- Eat lower on the food chain: vegetables, fruits, and grains
- Taste, don’t waste. Reducing your food waste also lowers our carbon footprint
- Buy local and organic foods
RecycleMania
RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over a 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash data which are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. With each week’s reports and rankings, participating schools watch how their results fluctuate against other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more.
Support UCI and your environment by recycling your cardboard, plastic bottles, and cans on campus.
http://www.recyclemaniacs.org/
Fair Trade Certified Coffee
Fair Trade Certified Coffee is always available at the campus Starbucks and Cyber A Café. Cyber A Café is a licensed Java City coffee house.
Fair Trade offers a unique trade model that organizes small farmers into cooperatives and links them with coffee importers. Fair Trade regulations guarantee that farmers receive a minimum price for their coffee, which in turn helps them to afford healthcare, education and housing for their families. Some Fair Trade principles include: fair price, fair and safe labor conditions, protects against child labor, and environmentally sustainable farming methods. Transfair USA is the nonprofit certification organization that manages the rules, membership and certification process of Fair Trade. For more information visit: http://www.transfairusa.org/
To learn more about sustainable coffee practices by Starbucks, please visit their website at:www.starbucks.com/aboutus/origins.asp
To learn more about sustainable coffee practices by Java City, please visit their website at: www.javacity.com/ecogrounds.php
Organic Eggs, the Sustainable Choice
Dining proudly serves 100% organic eggs at the following locations:
- BC's Food Court
- Organic Greens to Go
- Brandywine Commons
- Cafe Med Food Court
- Mesa Commons
- Pippin Commons
- Phoenix Food Court
- Quiznos
Organic eggs are produced from free-range hens that are allowed to roam freely outside a poultry barn, rather than housed in battery cages.
Raising hens in a free-range environment is considered to be a more humane treatment of animals and the optimal practice in poultry farming, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Free-range hens are assured a better quality of life because they have the freedom to roam around and partake in natural activities, such as scratching and dust bathing as needed.
Organic egg production is the only type of egg farming regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA has set strict standards for eggs to be classified as "organic", which include:
- free-range hens
- a natural product
- no antibodies
- no hormones.
In addition, organic egg farming contributes to sustainable farming practices by producing less environmental pollution than battery-cage farming.
America’s Second Harvest
America's Second Harvest is the nation’s largest charitable hunger relief organization. It is made up of more than 200 local food bank organizations throughout the United States. UCI Dining works with America’s Second Harvest to donate left over baked goods to the local community. These left over baked goods are comprised mostly of different breads and are collected from Pippin, Mesa, and Brandywine Commons. To ensure that a sustainable balance is made between preparing just the right amount of food and having a minimal amount left over, our knowledgeable food service managers estimate the amount of diners expected for each meal service. This estimation is based on dining traffic and food consumption trends.
To learn more about America's Second Harvest, please visit their website at: http://www.secondharvest.com
Biodegradable Plates and To-Go Containers
UCI Dining is constantly looking for ways to engage in sustainable food service practices. We are proud to announce that as of Spring 2007, we will begin to phase in the use of biodegradable plates and to-go containers at all retail dining locations. We expect all retail dining locations to be using these products by the end of the Spring 2007 quarter. Biodegradable products offer many benefits to the environment. The biodegradable products we will be using are made out of bamboo, which takes only 6 months to grow back, while a tree would take 60 years to grow back. Other product benefits include: product breaks down and can be used to fertilize land, no harmful materials leaching into the ground or landfills, and doesn’t exploit the natural environment or disturb the ecological system.
UCI Dining Leads by Example and Encourages Recycling
At all retail dining locations recycle bins are available to dispose of your recyclable items, such as glass and plastic bottles. At the dining commons all service ware is reusable, resulting in no waste of plates, cups, or utensils. The UCI Recycling and Waste Management website provides helpful guidelines. The information provided below is from their website, which can be found at: http://snap.uci.edu/viewXmlFile.jsp?resourceID=1448.
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Do Recycle |
Do Not Recycle |
- aluminum cans
- steel and tin cans (ie. soup cans)
- mixed paper
- glass beverage containers
- type 1 & 2 plastic beverage containers (ie. bottled water and sodas)
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- garbage
- plastic bags
- yogurt cups
- milk jugs
- foil
- styrofoam
- candy wrappers
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Save a Cup, Save the Environment
- BC's Food Court
- Cafe Med Food Court
- C3 Express
- Cyber A Cafe
- Java City Kiosk
- Zot N' Go
- POD @ Pippin Dining Commons