Sustainability

At RISD Dining Services, we’ve made sustainability a core value. We understand that in retail, one of our key responsibilities is to develop awareness among our customers, inform their buying decisions and promote socially and environmentally responsible consumption. In response, we worked with two graphic design students to develop the green check mark feature that identifies our green practices to our customers.

Committed to having a positive presence in the local community, RISD Dining + Catering developed the C.A.R.E.S program (Community, Action/Awareness, Recycling, Environment and Sustainability). We use this program as a means of making thoughtful decisions and promoting open dialogue. Examples are:

Community 

• Commitment to purchasing local food, which cuts down on energy consumption and stimulates the local economy
• Maintain a strong relationship with Farm Fresh RI, which enables us to purchase much of our produce locally throughout the year and receive these items through their market mobile
• Purchase all milk from Rhody Fresh Milk, a local cooperative that ensures we are getting fresh milk produced by local farms that do not use artificial growth hormones. By doing so, we also support Rhode Island’s dairy farmers, and helping to preserve local farms, pastures and open spaces for generations to come.
• Support community-minded initiatives on campus – water and soup seminars, fundraisers for local and global causes
• Support the Rhode Island Food Bank
• Support Amos House (a local soup kitchen/homeless shelter), Genesis Center (adult education) and Farm Fresh RI with an internship/mentor program

Action/Awareness 

• Reduce. Our bottled water purchases by at least 70% (2400 cases annually) over the past 2 years.
• Strengthen our ties to local communities by utilizing local businesses and services whenever possible.
• Use a selection criterion for all contracted vendors partially based on their environmental practices and record.
• Consider environmental factors when purchasing new or replacement equipment.
• Organize many special events that feature a local component. Example: our 100 mile Thanksgiving meal, emphasizing ingredients that come from within a 100 mile radius.
• Use accurate menu forecasting from our food management software to match food production to usage.
• Promote Natural Meats – We offer hamburgers made of beef from humanely raised cows fed a vegetarian diet with no additional antibiotics beef and all chicken used in our premier entrées is from free-roaming, all natural fowl.
• Promote Fair Trade – Fair Trade products are certified to ensure that producers in developing countries work in safe conditions and receive a living wage. Fair Trade, organic coffee roasted by a regional roaster is available in all dining venues.
• Work with student groups and take part in Earth Day collaborations
• Use social media to expose food/environmental concerns

Recycling 

• RISD Dining partners with Waste Management to recycle cardboard, tin, glass and plastic.
• Help reduce waste by looking for recycling bins in all RISD facilities and by taking only the amount of food you can eat.
• RISD won “Recycle Mania” in its first year for bottles and cans.
• Employs a student sustainability coordinator.
• Send fry oil to Newport Biodiesel to create a clean burning biodiesel to heat homes and power vehicles throughout Rhode Island.

Environment 

• Use EcoLogic cleaning chemicals which meet the 42 standards created by Green Seal Inc., a nonprofit environmental group that began certifying cleaning products as Earth-friendly in 2000. To earn and use the Green Seal logo, cleansers must be biodegradable, sold in recycled packaging, and free of chlorine, carcinogens, harmful vapors and other toxins that could hurt people or aquatic life.
• Partnering with PF trading to have compostable items hauled to local wind-row farm.
• Purchase Energy Star equipment.
• The bottled water we sell is ‘harvested’ sustainably from a local source and the bottles are bio-degradable.
• Use biodegradable to-go bags and trash bags.
• To-go boxes are made from post-consumer recycled paper and are compostable.
• To-go beverage cups are compostable and recyclable.
• Many of our paper products are made from recycled material that is unbleached and dioxin-free.
• Our linen supplier, Falvey, has been a charter member of the Laundry Environmental Stewardship Program since its inception in 1999.

Sustainability 

• Purchase local and organic hand-grown fruit year round.
• Purchase sustainably grown/harvested canned beans.
• Organic foods are served in The Met and Portfolio. Whole wheat pasta, legumes, whole grains, and tofu, soy milk, all granolas and tomato products.
• Watermark sources local or organic ingredients and serves seasonal locavore salads.
• Catering serves organic Chilean wine as their house pour.
• Utilize biodegradable service ware at catered events.
• Adhere to NOAA Fish Watch guidelines for choosing sustainably harvested seafood.