In this economy, I think all colleges are looking to cut costs. We are already experiencing a sense of conservative spending at Tufts. In addition, one lesson that seems to be emerging is that "green" campus initiatives are really gaining momentum precisely because they can help improve a university's spending efficiency.
One such initiative is trayless dining.
I took the Experimental College's class "Environmental Action: Shifting from Saying to Doing" this past fall. As a class we used the campus as a laboratory for learning about sustainability, and as part of the class requirements we worked on a group project to improve the environmental performance of the university. Trayless dining seemed to be a great place to start. As individuals, we made it a personal challenge to not take a tray ourselves. As the fall semester progressed, we soon became aware that many Tufts students were "going trayless" too and were finding that it was a lot easier than they anticipated.
We initially viewed the initiative as primarily an environmental measure; however, we were discovering that removing trays as a central element of cafeteria dining could open the door to a much broader web of benefits.
The challenge really is quite straightforward. In dining halls that feature all−you−can−eat meals, people tend to put more food on their trays than they actually eat. And why not? When taking an additional food item carries no extra cost to the student, the incentive is to over−consume. The result is that a tremendous quantity of food ends up in the trash. In the past month alone, students wasted nearly six tons of food just at Carmichael Dining Hall. It was this visible display of waste that stirred up our environmentally minded class. In an attempt to find the most feasible design change to reduce food waste on campus, we stumbled upon what many other universities have already implemented — trayless dining policies. According to an Aramark study, San Diego State University reduced annual food costs by about two percent, or $65,000, since it went trayless. Colby College's food waste dropped by one−third on its trayless Thursdays, and the University of Maine at Farmington has saved 46 pounds of food waste per person per year since starting its trayless program in 2007. This data made us think.
As we researched trayless dining initiatives online and spoke to many universities across the nation that have initiated trayless dining, we became more convinced that it would be beneficial to the entire Tufts community to at least try trayless dining. This semester, students from both the student body and from the Tufts Community Union Senate remained interested in seeing how far it might make sense to take the project. Why? I guess it is no secret that we attend a university that prides itself on graduating active citizens who make thoughtful and educated choices. Trayless dining for us represents taking our education and putting it into action.
With this in mind, we have worked to understand the perspective of the student body, the dining hall workers, the administration and even our alumni to see if trayless dining would be as beneficial to Tufts as it has been to many other universities. We found that the dining administration was aware of and interested in exploring the benefits of trayless dining, as it had been watching its peers at other institutions implement the program at their schools. However, Tufts Dining was hesitant to make such a potentially controversial decision without the support of the student body. We have been working closely with Dining to understand potential benefits and pitfalls. We have also assessed student apprehensions and support and have worked to address the concerns of all parties. We found that many students support the effort, and that there are students who are concerned that removing trays takes away their right to choose how they carry their food and that not using a tray will be too inconvenient. This is precisely why we are conducting a pilot program — to see if Tufts students are able to overcome a perceived inconvenience for a potential benefit; to see if not having the choice to have a tray significantly affects one's sense of personal liberty; to examine dining workers' experiences; to review cost savings and to measure the environmental impact of life without trays.
Thus, the 13 day trial period (March 28−April 9) beginning after spring break is our chance to see how much the Tufts community can save and what benefits we might expect to see immediately as well as in the future. We are hypothesizing that by removing trays as a central focus in Carmichael, we will see a decrease in food consumption and waste. We are also keeping track of water use and energy use in case we might see a change in those figures as well. All of these figures will be made available to the student body, and a visual display in Carmichael will chart our progress over the course of the pilot program.
In addition to those already discussed, we believe that in our test period after spring break we will see additional energy and labor savings related to reducing the quantity of food to be cooked. For those of us not moved by the sheer quantity of waste that we can reduce, remember that as we help our dining halls save money on wasteful practices, we can start to see our money come back to us in the form of food variety and quality.
How else will we as students immediately benefit? We will see our money being managed in a more efficient way. Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos noted in an e−mail statement, "we need to do the right thing: reduce our waste. It is our responsibility to give you the best program for what you pay and as big consumers of natural resources we can make a wonderful impact."
We encourage you to check out the Carmichael Dining Hall after it puts its trays away to see how beneficial a simple design feature can be. You might be surprised at how easy it is and how good it makes you feel.
--
Callie Kolbe is a senior majoring in International Relations. She was a student in the fall 2009 Experimental College class, "Environmental Action: Shifting from Saying to Doing."
