In a week, about 5,500 pounds of compostable waste results from food preparation in the kitchens of Northwestern’s dining halls, according to a Sodexo study. The hope, said Julie Cahillane, manager of recycling and refuse at NU, is that someday it won’t just be thrown away.
With the green trend en vogue, Food Services has tried to follow suit, said Anne Vanosdol, associate director of Food Services at NU, citing a number of examples making NU dining halls more sustainable.
“We have tried to become more responsible with what we do in the dining halls and in the kitchens,” she said.
For kitchens, Vanosdol said the main focus is on using appliances that have high ENERGY STAR ratings. In the dining halls, one such change was the removal of trays from all campus dining halls except Allison Hall. According to NU’s Web site, washing one tray uses 1.5 kilowatts of energy and one-fourth of a gallon of water.
All dining hall fabrics, including the drapes and the fabric on the chairs, are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified (LEED) , Vanosdol said. Carpeting tiles are recyclable and made from recycled material.
Doris Timmen, the general manager for resident dining at Sodexo, came to work at NU two years ago.
“When I came here on campus there were already a whole number of eco-friendly things in place such as cardboard and can recycling in various areas,” she said.
Timmen, who said she loves to drink water, said her favorite change was the addition of filtered water stations in each dining hall. She said water is “a very healthy and very eco-friendly drinking alternative to the sodas and juices and milks that we have out there.”
“Every time the Coca-Cola truck or Pepsi truck comes on campus obviously increases the carbon footprint,” she said. “(Filtered water) doesn’t. It’s healthy, it has zero calories, and it’s very economical. I always encourage students to bring mugs or water bottles to refill from the water stations.”
Timmen also mentioned a pulper that was installed in the Elder dining hall a year and a half ago. According to the nuCuisine Web site, the pulper is designed to reduce the volume of food waste by up to 80 percent.
“This may be the first step in taking a more composting approach,” Timmen said.Illinois passed a law in August 2009 allowing for the establishment of commercial food waste composting. Cahillane said food waste compost creates “fantastically nutrient-rich” soil.
“Ideally, in the future it will allow Northwestern to collect compost food waste,” she said. “This would allow us to divert some of our waste and allow Northwestern to be more sustainable.”
The most important component of being green is staying up-to-date with the latest, most efficient technology, Vanosdol said. For example, she said new lighting was installed in dining halls 18 months ago, but they again replaced the lighting just four weeks ago with funds from a federal grant for upgrades in efficiency.
“We never think we’re done,” Vanosdol said. “We always try to make it better.”[email protected]
