(Credit: Pixabay)This fall, over 300 colleges and universities will introduce carbon labeling to their dining halls, indicating which recipes have lower relative social and environmental impacts based on eight factors such as GHG emissions, water usage, land use, soil biodiversity, and labor conditions. Chartwells, in partnership with HowGood, will introduce this labeling at campuses across the country.
Chartwells is helping its partner campuses achieve their net-zero goals by integrating HowGood's impact data into its dining menus nationwide. HowGood has researched the ecological and social impact of over 33,000 ingredients in the food system and will use the data to identify which recipes from Chartwells have the best relative impact compared to conventional food.
HowGood has worked with major food brands like Chipotle to evaluate every recipe across eight key impact metrics, all of which are built scientifically from over 550 data sources and certifications.
The eight impact metrics include:
Chartwells recipes will be rated based on the 8 impact metrics chosen. The labeling will be displayed on dining hall menus and digital signage at Chartwells partner campuses nationwide starting this fall semester.
Other schools have been working to improve their carbon footprints in various ways. Smith College recently broke ground on a geothermal campus energy project that will lower the college’s carbon emissions by 90%, allowing Smith to become carbon neutral by 2030. Several school systems and a Florida community are implementing an energy conservation platform to help them become more efficient as well as help to reduce costs.
