Campus Dining » Social Responsibility

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Social Responsibility

Stony Brook Campus Dining Services understands that we have a responsibility to identify and address the social and environmental concerns that matter most to our clients, customers, employees, and communities. We focus our resources where we can in order to make a positive impact on our society. We feel it is our responsibility to encourage and act in a way that promotes sustainability on campus, in our community, around the region and throughout the world. Our sustainability efforts tie into our strong community focus and our regard for quality of life.

Click on the following links to find out what Campus Dining Services is doing to make a difference:

[View] our Sustainable Brochure to see all the positive changes we are making around campus

Check out the Red Hot Recycle Travel Mug!

Sustainable Campus Dining

Sustainable Catering

How You Can Help While at Stony Brook. You can help us help the environment in a number of ways

Take only the number of napkins you need per meal.
Take only one cup for each beverage purchase.
Take only the utensils you may need for your meal.
Use reusable totes for carryout.
Join our Recycle Mug Program.
Recycle bottles and cans throughout campus at the designated recycling stations.
Dine in rather than carrying out.

Our Manufacturing Partners

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“Our Commitment to Being a Deeply Responsible Company Contributing positively to our communities and environment is so important to Starbucks that it’s one of the six guiding principles of our mission statement . We work together on a daily basis with partners (employees), suppliers, farmers and others to help create a more sustainable approach to high-quality coffee production, to help build stronger local communities, to minimize our environmental footprint, to create a great workplace, to promote diversity and to be responsive to our customers’ health and wellness needs.”

CSA (Community Shared Agriculture)

Golden Earthworm Organic Farm Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) Program is sponsored by Campus Dining Services. During the months of June through November shareholders pick up farm fresh fruit and certified organic vegetables from the campus each week. The 2008 season is the third season that the program is running.

Click to find our more on Golden Earthworms CSA program

Recycling

Bottles and Cans: As a Campus Dining customer you are always able to recycle your bottles and cans just look for the recycling bins at each of our dining locations. At the Student Activities Center place your bottles and cans on the tray belt and they will be placed in recycling bins for you by the staff.

Cardboard: We recycle all cardboard in all of our dining locations. Look for the cardboard dumpsters in our loading docks, which are emptied on a regular basis.

Fry Oil: Campus Dining uses only Trans-Fat free oil in all of its cooking and all of that oil is recycled and picked up by a company that then turns the oil into biodiesal.

Press Releases

Golden Earthworm

Trim Trax

Sustainable Definitions

Biodegradable: By U.S. government definition, 60 percent to 70 percent of a product’s ingredients must be able to break down and return to the earth within 28 days.
Carbon footprint: A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels as part of the everyday life of an individual or the everyday operations of a business. Calculations can include waste disposal, food grown and eaten, gas to get to work, etc. Calculate yours at Web sites like carbonfootprint.com. See also ecological footprint.
CFL (compact fluorescent lamp): An energy-saving lightbulb that is a replacement for traditional incandescent bulbs that expend much of their energy in heat rather than light.
Closed-loop recycling: Products of better-grade material made from a recycled source, so as ceiling tiles made from aluminum cans.
Compostable: Material that breaks down to become what is effectively dirt. It contains no toxins and can support plant life. Compost piles use a system: green (grass clippings, vegetable and fruit scraps, etc.), brown (dead leaves, straw, and hay, wood), air and water to turn waste into growing medium.
Daylighting: Use of natural light to supplement or replace artificial lighting.
Downcylcing: Product of a lower grade that are made from a recycled source, such as carpet pads from tired.
Eco-friendly: Little or no impact on the native ecosystem. There is no legal definition for eco-friendly.
Eco-savvy: Someone who is environmentally aware.
Ecological footprints: The area of land and water needed to produce the resources to entirely sustain a human population and absorb its waste products with prevailing technology. The concept of an ecological footprint is used as a resource management and community-planning tool.
Flat pack: Goods the end-user assembles. The unfinished products take up less space so more can be shipped- saving fuel and emissions. (Think Ikea’s approach to furniture.)
Greenwashing: When more money and energy is expended on trumpeting eco-friendly practices than in making those commitments a reality. Secondarily, it’s when something is touted as green because of an ingredient, component, etc., but overall, it isn’t. For example, a cleaning product that adds a natural ingredient but still contains toxic chemicals.
Locovore: Someone who tries to eat things that were produced locally, even it means going off the organic reservation. Usually restricted to food sources within 100 miles.
Off-grid living: Doing things without electricity or other artificial power sources. For example, using a clothesline instead of a dryer, solar power or push mower.
Organic: Generally produced according to certain production standards, it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.

Links

Nourishing the Brightest Minds.