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Green and Sustainable Intiatives

Sustainability and Green Initiatives


The definition of “eating right” has been steadily evolving to include encouraging people to make food choices that are good for the planet too. MIT Campus Dining has committed to several projects that help lessen the environmental impact of food operations across the Institute. Some projects include:

  • Offering Eco-Friendly Food Choices - House Dining Rooms (Baker House, Simmons Hall, McCormick Hall and Next House) offer meal options that are locally grown, produced through sustainable agricultural practices, and that have a lower carbon footprint. Chefs use seafood from sustainable fisheries, hormone-free meats, cage-free eggs and locally grown fruits and vegetables to prepare their nightly menus. Low carbon menu items are also available. Dishes in House Dining Rooms are marked to help diners make educated food choices. The Clover Food Truck, which serves vegan and vegetarian cuisine, also uses locally-sourced ingredients.
  • Moving toward eco-friendly packaging where possible-- Next House Dining offers reusable "Tupperware" style containers for takeout. Students can purchase a plastic container that is traded in to be washed with each use, eliminating the use of some Styrofoam.
  • Energy savings - Food service equipment that needs replacement is evaluated for energy efficiency and improved whenever possible. For example, infrared technology is now used in some locations to adjust exhaust fan speeds based on smoke and grease particle density, this cuts back on energy waste and also saves on utilities.
  • “SAVE”-ing, where ever possible. Campus Dining and the student group SAVE (an acronym for “Share A Vital Earth,” SAVE is a part of Sustainability@MIT) have teamed up to reduce the number of paper cups MIT sends to landfills every year. MIT Campus Dining venues offer a 10-cent discount to any customer who uses a standard-size reusable mug instead of taking a disposable cup for coffee or tea purchases on campus.
  • Green kitchen practices -- Campus venues employ batch cooking and made-to-order food to cut down on waste from leftovers which if sent to landfills can produce a high carbon emissions. Some vendors have programs for food donations when leftovers can be offered safely to food shelters. Pre-consumer (or "kitchen") waste is composted.
  • Planning for the future - Plans for future dining operations recognize the need to prepare for environmentally responsible practices from their first day of operations. Sloan and W1 dining projects, for example, are being designed for primarily china and glassware service, which will help cut down on paper waste. These new facilities will also allow diners to compost food waste (currently only pre-consumer, or kitchen, waste is composted). Additionally, all Campus Dining vendor contracts incorporate terms and conditions requiring operators to collaborate and comply with Institute waste and recycling initiatives as well as requirements to turn equipment off when not in use to save energy.
  • And more... Campus Dining participates in “Earth Day at MIT” and is active in other greening efforts including providing used vegetable oil to Biodiesel@MIT (a student group working to convert the oil into Biodiesel fuel which will be used to fuel campus vehicles), supporting an on-campus Community Support of Agriculture (CSA) program and bringing educational events and programs to the campus.