ATLANTA — Georgia State University is being recognized by national and international organizations for its work to teach sustainable practices and implement them in its overall operations, including in the food service sector.
The National Association of College & University Food Services (NACUFS) on June 3 awarded Georgia State its Gold Sustainability Award in the Waste Reduction category, highlighting PantherDining’s comprehensive program to track and reduce food waste throughout its three student dining halls.
The university earned a Silver rating in May from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) under the group’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), which measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education.
The NACUFS Waste Reduction award recognizes a dining operation’s efforts both in the front of the house and back of the house, including procurement and preparation work.
“Programs who win this award will place an emphasis on reducing single use disposables, recycling and composting, diverting waste, collecting data on waste production and educating consumers on the importance of reducing all waste, including food and other dining related items,” NACUFS said.
PantherDining uses cutting-edge, artificial intelligence-enhanced technology along with more old-fashion techniques — such as on-site hydroponic farming — to reduce and recover food waste and minimize the amount of trash bound for landfills. For example, there are no trash cans in the dining areas of any dining halls. There are also no plastic straws or single-use plates or cups.
Instead, reusable plates and utensils are returned by diners to a conveyor belt system equipped with the Raccoon Eyes tool that automatically scans plates for discarded food waste and calculates its weight and cost. Georgia State was the second university in the country to install the system.
PantherDining Director Suzanne Paltz said since Raccoon Eyes was installed in the university’s largest dining hall early last year, there’s been a 22 percent per-plate reduction in food waste. Raccoon Eyes is now in operation in all Georgia State dining halls.
“The data collected is invaluable for dining halls, as it helps them identify trends and implement the most effective strategies to reduce food waste, such as reducing portions or changing recipes,” Paltz said. “The innovation provides extensive data and graphs on the software dashboard along with recommendations for dining staff.”
PantherDining also converts surplus pre-consumer food into portioned meals for the Panther’s Pantry, which serves Georgia State community members experiencing food insecurity, and post-consumer scraps are ground down and sent to Closed Loop Organics to be composted.
Used cooking oil from PantherDining is picked up by Clean Energy Biofuels to be made into biodiesel.
PantherDining also hosts regular “See the Waste” events aimed at educating students on the quantity and impact of discarded food waste.
AASHE’s STARS program, with more than 1,200 participants in 52 countries, is a framework for publicly reporting comprehensive information related to a college or university’s sustainability performance in five areas: academics, engagement, operations, planning and administration, and innovation and leadership.
It’s open to all institutions of higher education, and is based on credits earned, allowing for both internal comparisons as well as comparisons with similar institutions.
“STARS was developed by the campus sustainability community to provide high standards for recognizing campus sustainability efforts,” said AASHE Executive Director Meghan Fay Zahniser. “Georgia State has demonstrated a substantial commitment to sustainability by achieving a STARS Silver rating and is to be congratulated for their efforts.”
Georgia State scored highly in a number of categories under each performance area, including earning 10.78 points out of a possible 14 for social equity efforts, which rate institutional climate, racial and ethnic diversity, affordability and access, and student success efforts.
In the operations performance area, Georgia State earned a total of 13.68 points out of a possible 20 in areas related to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The university also earned bonus points for having a sustainability projects fund, sustainable practices in its dining operations and a shared mobility program, among other efforts.
Georgia State Sustainability Director Jennifer Wilson said this was only the second year the institution has submitted information for the STARS rating, and that earning Silver is validation of the university community’s efforts.
“I think it establishes that we do have a serious effort underway, and that we have policies, programs and projects in place that are making a difference,” she said. “It also gives us a jumping-off point to identify some areas for improvement and to have those further conversations.”