Starting From Scratch Helps Food Services That Seek Sustainability

College and university food services that take an interest in sustainability quickly realize that they can make some changes easily and fairly cheaply—like buying takeout coffee cups and food containers made from materials that are renewable and recyclable. But other changes—to cooking, ventilation, dishwashing, and waste-disposal equipment, for instance—are major undertakings.

In a new facility, though, sustainability can be designed in. According to The Coloradoan, Colorado State University’s new 700-seat, $16-million Ram’s Horn dining center has sensors in cooking areas that detect how much ventilation is needed at any given time, cutting back not only on the use of high-powered fans but also on the need to heat or cool fresh air being brought into the building to replace what the vents are sucking out. That alone, the newspaper reports, will save $64,000 a year.

The facility also has a pulper designed to grind food waste and cardboard into a pulp that will be composted. And water from the waste stream will be recycled, saving up to 120,000 gallons each month.