The Award
The Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils award is intended to fulfill several short- and long-term objectives:
Short-term Objectives
- To provide active education to local food services to increase awareness of current conservation issues and practices, as well as the resources available (e.g., local composting and recycling services, food banks, local suppliers, etc.) that will help them reduce their waste output.
- To implement an incentive program that promotes ecologically-healthy businesses through campus advertising, coupons, web-space, etc.
- To institute an annual award that ASU will grant to food services on and around campus which demonstrate a commitment to reducing their ecological footprint through different waste reduction strategies.
- To develop a comprehensive set of metrics on which to evaluate sustainability in the food-service industry.
Long-term Objectives
- To engage local businesses in ASU’s sustainability initiative, as demonstrated by a measurable reduction in food-, packaging-, wastewater, and energy-waste by individual food services.
- To increase both community and business awareness of the waste issues associated with the food service industry.
- To develop a more universal set of standards which other universities and organizations may adapt to measure and promote food service sustainability practices across the nation.