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Sustainability

A Sustainable Dining PRESENT and FUTURE at Princeton
For Smitha Haneef, executive director of Campus Dining
at Princeton University in New Jersey, and her team, procure — food and non-food — follows our sustainability
sustainability is a quintessential part of their operations. guidelines. It could be one of these five things: Fair Trade;
humanely treated; local; organic; socially responsible. Oceans
“It is a part of our DNA and how we operate in our day- come into play, as well.”
to-day living,” she said. “For us, it is not a dialogue outside of
what we do, it is part of the very genesis of our efforts grounded Along the same lines, the school has begun thinking about
around sustainability. It is more from the agriculture to plate the diversity of suppliers, primarily minority suppliers. “That
and back again. It is a holistic internal and external process.” will be part of how we think about sustainability,” she said.
“It is about if we are supporting the sustenance of the local
The school recently released its “Campus Vision for the economy, the sustenance of minority suppliers. What might
Future of Dining,” with sustainability woven throughout. The we do differently to support these businesses? In multiple
school also named a sustainability manager, Sarah Bavuso. ways, we are trying to rethink what a holistic approach to
“We first have crafted our vision, which is in support of all sustainability in food systems would look like and all of the
students and their health and well-being in curricular, co- platforms we need to be thinking about.”
curricular and extra-curricular activities,” said Haneef. “As
part of this vision, every member of my functional team will Educating and engaging students is another important as-
be thinking about wellness, sustainability, culinary excellence pect of the vision. “This is where the campus dining vision
and diversity in how we approach and implement our vision.” comes to life,” said Haneef. “One of our vision statements
is ‘Campus Dining being at the nexus of academics and ad-
One of the themes of the vision is what the program means ministration.’ We do believe that at Princeton our students
when it refers to sustainability and what those clarifying defi- are highly interested in environmental impact. Where that
nitions are. “For us it is about individual sustenance: what intersects with food, our team can provide that subject matter
is good for you from a human-health standpoint and what is expertise, both to our students, and we have also begun work
good for the earth from a planet-health standpoint,” she said. with our faculty members.”
“Both pieces are integral to our sustainability dialogue — they
are not separate from each other, they are embedded. That is The executive director has teamed with faculty to present to
the core part: How do we think about sustainability? How do several classes. “One was ‘Investigating an Ethical Approach
we have the dialogue — always keeping in mind the health of to Sustainability: Food Systems,’” she said. “I presented what
the human being and the health of the planet?” our approach to food systems is at Princeton, and how we have
worked with students in thinking through what those focus
One of the key ways Campus Dining does that is by looking areas look like. Another was ‘Designing Sustainable Systems:
at its procurement practices. “We look at it by line item, by Rethinking Food and Water.’This is a class that brings engineer-
ingredient, whether it holds true to our definitions, to iden- ing, architecture, environment and energy together. This was the
second year that I
tify the percentage presented on the
of sustainable and future of food and
conventional prod- water systems. The
ucts that come into students, as part
our department,” of their curricular
said Haneef. work, think about
programs that fos-
“Close to 60 ter that innovative
percent of our
product that we

In its efforts to minimize waste and maximize the usage
of product, Princeton calculated how much pre-consumer
waste it produced by weighing it. Instead of throwing them
away, the pineapple cores were used to flavor spa water.

16 | OCTOBER 2016 ON-CAMPUS HOSPITALITY