{"id":265606,"date":"2025-09-30T04:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T04:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/265606\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T04:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T04:31:10","slug":"inside-penn-dinings-plan-to-achieve-near-zero-waste-improve-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/265606\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Penn Dining\u2019s plan to achieve \u2018near-zero waste,\u2019 improve sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"11-19-24-csap-open-house-chenyao-liu\"\/
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tAfter launching the Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 4.0 in 2024, Penn Dining has initiated its shift toward \u201cnear-zero waste.\u201d
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Chenyao Liu<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

As Penn Dining initiates several interconnected sustainability initiatives following the 2024 release<\/a> of the University\u2019s Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 4.0, The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with the division about how its team is working to meet its \u201cnear-zero waste\u201d goals.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Every day, Penn Dining serves 12,000 to 15,000 meals across its residential dining, retail, and catering department, with operations ranging from food sourcing and preparation to waste management. Across its vast scale of operations, Penn Dining, the University\u2019s on-campus food service department, and Bon App\u00e9tit, the catering company that partners with Penn, are taking steps to adopt sustainable practices and embrace environmentally friendly policies.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

How Penn Dining collects data and analyzes metrics<\/strong><\/p>\n

One goal laid out in CSAP 4.0 is to \u201c[p]ilot zero-waste operations in at least one residential dining hall and begin a phased transition to require all providers to operate zero-waste residential dining halls.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

In pursuit of this objective<\/a>, Penn Dining is piloting a program at Quaker Kitchen this year that Bon App\u00e9tit Regional Sustainability Coordinator Elise Dudley characterized as striving for \u201cnear-zero waste.” If the plan \u201cgoes well,\u201d the division intends to expand the initiative to other residential dining facilities in the future, according to Penn Dining Associate Director of Operations Thomas MacDonald.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In a statement to the DP, Business Services Director of Communications and External Relations Courtney Dombroski wrote that Penn is interested in expanding the effort to Falk Dining Commons in Steinhardt Hall.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Falk operates under kashrut\u2014Jewish dietary laws that guide how food is prepared and served\u2014we may not be able to fully meet all of the zero-waste guidelines in that space,\u201d Dombroski wrote. \u201cThat said, we are committed to working within those parameters to identify opportunities to reduce waste wherever possible.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n

Dudley expressed optimism regarding the feasibility of all residential dining halls getting to a zero-waste status.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe it\u2019s achievable,\u201d Dudley said to the DP. \u201cWe\u2019re already on track just because of the commitments that we have around waste management on campus.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Penn Sustainability\u2019s Student Eco-Reps \u2014 an environmentally focused leadership cohort of undergraduates \u2014 are working with Bon App\u00e9tit to collect data on food waste at Quaker Kitchen and other dining halls, and to develop solutions to address zero-waste obstacles.\n<\/p>\n

Dudley stated that the team will focus on \u201cbetter understanding post-consumer food waste\u201d by collecting data and then \u201cimplementing some interventions to try to reduce [it].\u201d From there, Dudley said that the Eco-Reps will \u201cdo an inventory of all the other residential dining locations.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Penn participates in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System, an assessment run by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education that tracks sustainability performances at colleges and universities. Penn has a rating of \u201cgold\u201d \u2014 the second-highest category \u2014 according to its STARS report<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

The dining team also meets regularly with Penn Sustainability and campus stakeholders to discuss CSAP 4.0 implementation and goals. It also tracks and reports quarterly purchasing data to Penn Sustainability, which informs their \u201cscope 3 emissions tracking and nitrogen footprint analysis,\u201d according to Dudley.\n<\/p>\n

Plans to leverage data into action<\/strong><\/p>\n

One project under consideration is a Green Fund at Houston Market, a customer-facing compost collection approach modeled after an existing scheme at Joe’s Caf\u00e9. The initiative \u2014 a joint effort between the Undergraduate Assembly and Penn Sustainability \u2014 would be overseen by Bon App\u00e9tit Director of Retail Dining Daniel Wideman.\n<\/p>\n

The Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee \u2014 a group of faculty, staff, and students that advises the President \u2014 also has a single-use plastics subcommittee that is working with different vendors to move away from plastic towards aluminum bottles.\n<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>The transition is underway,\u201d MacDonald told the DP. \u201cIt\u2019s a little hard to get aluminum water bottles at this point in this market. But we can recycle aluminum \u2026 much better than plastic, and that\u2019s a goal that we\u2019re working towards.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Green also discussed Penn Dining\u2019s Green2Go, a reusable to-go box program available to students. Last September, Green2Go partnered<\/a> with the app Reuzzi to increase their container return rate, which has since climbed to 97%.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, we faced challenges with the Green2Go program and receiving back the containers. At times, we ran out of containers and had to switch to using single-use fiber containers,\u201d Green said. \u201c[Since] we instituted the app Reuzzi, we have found a vast reduction of challenges with running out of Green2Go containers.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

In the past year, nearly 13,000 Green2Go container transactions were recorded, with a monthly average of 500 students utilizing the program. The program has prevented 6,588 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a statement from Dombroski.\n<\/p>\n

Penn Sustainability intern and graduate student in environmental studies Jason Klein, who recently led a New Student Orientation program surrounding waste and recycling, said he thought the Green2Go program was still \u201csomething that could be improved.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the students [in the Student Advisory Group for the Environment], when we were talking about Green2Go, [said] they thought it didn\u2019t exist anymore,\u201d Klein said to the DP. \u201cI think that it needs to be marketed more.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

In the future, Penn Dining aims to lower its climate impact on the operations side through efforts such as setting purchasing guidelines for dining equipment and incorporating innovative disposal systems. The decision will follow these climate-friendly strategies in the upcoming 1920 Commons Renovation<\/a> project.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

How food <\/strong>arrives <\/strong>at Penn<\/strong><\/p>\n

A key component of Penn Dining\u2019s waste-reduction efforts is sustainable sourcing, which helps reduce climate impact before food reaches the kitchen.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

One key factor driving decisions on what ingredients to purchase is what is on the menu in a given week, which is driven both by student and guest input and Penn Dining\u2019s \u201cplant-forward menuing\u201d philosophy<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have surveys. A lot of that survey information is used to write the menus, and then we are sourcing things under strict guidelines that Bon App\u00e9tit has created for their food standards,\u201d Green said to the DP.\n<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cmany\u201d of these ingredients come from local farms and purveyors, which must meet certain established thresholds of local vendor sourcing.\n<\/p>\n

The Penn Dining team has also set \u201cpurchasing commitments\u201d that include considerations of humane certifications and fair trade practices.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur kitchen philosophy [is] serving food that\u2019s prepared from scratch \u2026 alive with flavor and nutrition, which we achieve through buying the freshest local ingredients,\u201d Dudley said. \u201cIt\u2019s always our first choice to then source in a socially responsible manner.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Penn Dining\u2019s culinary team practices \u201cplant-forward cooking,\u201d which emphasizes plant-based foods, according to Dombroski. She emphasized that Penn Dining offers plant-based options at every facility, resulting in more than 59% of food purchases in 2025, by weight, being plant-based products.\n<\/p>\n

What happens after plates are scraped<\/strong><\/p>\n

Underlying the two new campus pilot projects is a comprehensive waste-management system designed with sustainability in mind.\n<\/p>\n

According to Waste Not, Bon App\u00e9tit\u2019s internal waste-tracking platform, 92% of food waste was sent to be composted at a local facility operated by Bennett Compost in Northeast Philadelphia, with 7% sent to a landfill and 1% to food recovery. During the 2024-25 academic year, the division stated that it had diverted an average of 21.5 tons of waste per month away from landfill and towards composting.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have a provider on campus that provides us with compost totes,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe fill those totes with compostable food scraps and waste, and they pick up those totes regularly.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Penn\u2019s hierarchy of preferred waste-management methods mirrors the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s Wasted Food Scale<\/a>, with landfill as the \u201clast preference.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Penn\u2019s kitchens also employ a preventative \u201cbatch cooking\u201d method to prevent waste creation. Any leftover food at the end of a day is sealed, labeled, and frozen, according to Green. Bon App\u00e9tit then connects with a food donation source to donate the extra products at the end of each semester.<\/p>\n

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation<\/a> to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.<\/p>\n

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