Dining facilities are among the most strategic locations where Dartmouth can demonstrate its commitment to sustainability. Typically, these operations process high throughputs of packaging, energy, and biological resources, generate copious amounts of solid and liquid wastes, and involve large infrastructures. In transitioning toward sustainable dining, a logical first step is to eliminate waste, which is of no-use to individuals or the institution, and is financially and ecologically expensive.
But here is the good news. You can join the Sustainable Dining Club and easily reduce your impact. Also, as one dining hall on campus is already proving, the shift to zero-waste is relatively easy and cost-effective.
The Dartmouth Sustainability Office, in collaboration with the student group Sustainable Dartmouth and college officials, spent this past summer revamping Home Plate dining hall with the goal of changing people’s habits from disposability to a more environmentally sound dining experience. Home Plate, located in the south side of Thayer Hall, has the following mission:
"To provide the Dartmouth Community with alternative menu options; including low fat, low cholesterol, low sodium, and high fiber entrees and accompaniments. Emphasis is on quality, freshness, nutrition and appealing presentation."
Now this new initiative—officially launched September 19, 2006—focuses on further boosting Home Plate’s appeal by eliminating many disposables, and initiating a composting program to close the loop between waste and food.
Now at Home Plate almost all of the formerly packaged foods, including milk cartons, condiments and sodas, are served from bulk containers. Disposable tableware has been replaced with reusable. The few packaged items for which no substitutes could be found will be sorted and recycled, and all food waste will be composted and put directly back into the campus landscaping. The goal, quite simply, is to change the diner’s mindset. In the world Dartmouth students will inherit, throwing away a tray-full of trash--usually after no more than thirty minutes of use--will become psychologically difficult. Instead, habits of zero-waste become normal.
To support Home Plate's efforts, Dartmouth Sustainability has launched its "Taste not Waste" campaign, including a new mural and educational displays, table-top tips, and other consciousness-raising opportunities in the dining hall area. Educational and social marketing efforts such as these provide an effective means of embedding concepts such as Cradle to Cradle, in-bodied energy, and ecological footprinting into the everyday dining experience.
