Sustainability

Stewards of the environment

Calvin Dining Services employs many strategies to reduce our environmental footprint. Our many programs help us track and lower various types of food waste on campus and ert materials to a variety of locations on and off-campus; this includes the campus food pantry and Food Recovery Network. We pride ourselves on the responsible use of supplies and protecting the natural environment through sustainable practices to enhance ecosystem resilience and human well-being on the Calvin campus.

What we're doing

Green 2 Go Take-Out Dining

We now have Green2go SIDES. It's everything you love about our original container, but in a convenient compact size. It's perfect for soups, salads, soda and much more. All food leaving the dining halls must be in a Green2Go. 

We've reinstituted Green 2 Go, an eco-friendly and reusable food container program for faculty, staff, and students. These containers are made from 100% BPA-free polypropylene and are dishwasher and microwave safe. Click here to view our Green2Go pamphlet.

You may purchase into the Green2Go program for $5 at any checker stand in Knollcrest or Commons dining halls.

Sleeves for Sustainability

Peet’s has started a new sustainability initiative: students can now return their drink sleeves and receive a discount on their next purchase. We’re saving trees by reusing sleeves!

Support Local Farms

Calvin Dining is committed to sourcing food as locally as possible. We make this possible by working with local farms to strengthen our supply chain, building relationships within the community and supporting local business. Click here to view how we support local farms.

Sustainable Sourcing

We remain dedicated to sustainable practices by only utilizing packaging with sustainable profiles, such as compostable plant polymer “plastic” made from corn resin, this allows us to help ert plastic from landfills and oceans.

Food Waste Reduction

Calvin Dining takes food waste very seriously, as it has negative environmental, social, and economic impacts— that’s why we are compelled to fight food wasted with TRASHED, our Top 10 ways to reduce food waste. Click here to view our TRASHED document.

Food Recovery Network

We have a partnership with Food Recovery Network (FRN) to fight food waste and hunger in our community. FRN is a national nonprofit that unites students at colleges and universities by recovering perishable food.

Farmstead

Calvin Dining is a proud member of Farmstead. This organization is committed to buying directly from farmers and embraces the farm to table practices and standards of safe growing conditions such as clean water and lead testing.

Bit-Farms

Calvin Dining is now partnered with Bit-Farms! This local small business is an innovator in smart-farming, allowing us to grow fresh and delicious food right inside Knollcrest dining hall. By partnering with Bit-Farms, we help ensure safe growing conditions, clean water, and sustainably sourced crops.

Menus of change

Partnering with the Culinary Institute of America and Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health, we have been working to create a long-term, practical vision for the integration of optimal nutrition, public health, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility, within the foodservice sector and beyond.

• Protein Flip: Encouraging the consumption of plant-based protein options on campus.
• Sugar Shake-Up: Highlighted options we serve on campus that are low in sugar and very nutritious.
• Get Real with Whole Foods: Promoting Whole foods that are unprocessed or minimally processed foods.

What you can do

• Bring your own silverware: Dining with your own silverware will reduce the amount of disposable silverware needed on campus and help reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the trash.
• Calvin Dining reusable bag: Use a reusable bag to support our efforts to eliminate plastic waste. Reusable bags help reduce the use of single-use plastics on campus.
• Eat less meat: Reducing your meat consumption will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the need for antibiotics used in raising animals.

Local and national sustainability certifications and programs

Calvin Dining is continually increasing its sustainable practices, and a big part of that is obtaining certifications and partnering with national programs that focus on sustainability.

AASHE

An acronym for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. AASHE empowers higher education faculty, administrators, staff, and students to be effective change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation. They work with and for higher education to ensure that our world’s future leaders are motivated and equipped to solve sustainability challenges. As a member, our joint mission is to inspire and catalyze higher education to lead the global sustainability transformation.

Campus Sustainability Week

National Campus Sustainability Week is an initiative focused on educating and advocating for sustainable dining and the environmental benefits of eating more plant-based foods. While acknowledging that industrially producing meat uses large amounts of resources like land, crops, water, and energy while producing a large amount of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases, our menus feature plant-based options while educating and advocating for sustainable dining.

STARS

The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities like Calvin to measure their sustainability performance. The intention is to engage and recognize the full spectrum of higher education institutions, from community colleges to research universities. This system encompasses long-term sustainability goals for already high-achieving institutions, as well as entry points of recognition for institutions that are taking first steps toward sustainability.

Supporting Local Businesses

We are committed to nourishing our community by supporting its people— their businesses, farms, non-profits, and events. As a foodservice provider, we are inspired by the people living and working together to create a sustainable community.

Swipe Out Hunger

Swipe Out Hunger is a national nonprofit committed to ending college student hunger—advising colleges and universities on the design of commonsense and innovative anti-hunger programs. This partnership allows us to implement “The Swipe Drive,” which enables students with extra meal swipes to donate them to their peers. More than meal swipes, our partnership with Swipe Out Hunger is designed to empower Calvin students to combat campus food insecurities and continue to drive the national conversation on student hunger.