Environmental Sustainability Initiatives
Yale Hospitality works in-step with the Yale Office of Sustainability to support Yale Sustainability goals.
Our food waste reduction initiatives encourage guests to make responsible choices: “take what you eat, and eat what you take.” This is summarized in our tagline “erase the waste.”
Yale Hospitality has consistently sought to reduce our environmental impact, beginning with supply chain and procurement practices and reducing the number of deliveries made to campus. Several plans that reduce waste and minimize our carbon impact are currently in practice, including:
- Plant-Based – Yale Hospitality strives to prioritize plant-based dishes. Plant-based agriculture is far less demanding of land and other natural resources than animal production. Moving plant-based proteins to the center of the plate in healthy, delicious, and innovative ways can help influence the way we choose to eat – both present and future.
- Water Stations – by using water stations for large- scale events, Hospitality drastically reduces waste and costs associated with plastic water bottle usage.
- Cooking Oil Filtering Program – by recycling and creating a filtering program for our used cooking oil we have reduced the environmental impact caused to water systems and reduced our greenhouse gas emissions.
- Recycling – learn more about Yale’s robust recycling program since 2010
- Food Rescue Program – supporting communities not only in New Haven, but across Connecticut, we donate upwards of 25,000 pounds of food to local food rescue support partners to distribute to communities such as homeless shelters, food banks, veteran centers, warming stations, and health centers.
- Composting Program – every day, Yale Hospitality prepares and serves more than 16,000 meals across 27 dining locations, supporting the health and well-being of Yale’s students, faculty, employees, and community members. Leveraging AI technology, we measure up to 40,000 tons of compost per year. Central to that mission is a commitment to sustainability, including a robust and continually evolving food-waste and composting program that supports the university’s climate goals and reduces environmental impact.
When it comes to sourcing, as we purchase well over 7,000 different products, it is impractical to monitor every farm and manufacturer directly. We rely on our distributor partners to ensure compliance with sustainable manufacturing practices. We make sustainable manufacturing one of our procurement criteria and expect our food suppliers to demonstrate that they share Yale Hospitality’s sourcing values.
We seek out regionally-based products whenever possible, with partners who possess high standards and embrace our initiatives – including support of fair labor practices and community engagement with a positive and lasting impact.
Yale Hospitality also believes in the value of educating our community about our impact on the preservation and development of our wider foodshed. We have hosted students on visits to surrounding farms during harvest, tap Yale’s maple groves in spring, highlight suppliers with on-campus demonstrations, and collaborate with industry partners to develop better-for-you products. We support creative entrepreneurial activity and have even brought students to see where plate scrapings are bio-digested into electricity.