Sustainability @

PLU Dining & Culinary Services

PLU recognizes the importance of sustainability, so much so that it is integrated into the University mission statement, "to educate students for lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership and care - for other persons, for their communities and for the earth." It is the responsibility of not only the students, but the faculty and staff as well, to become conscious of their effects on the environment and to help us make strides in becoming a sustainable campus community.

We are focusing resources towards cutting down to zero-waste through the Green Tray Program, helping students organize their waste as trash, compost or recycling. The program is helping the University Center and all of the PLU campus become a home for green dining. In addition to the Green Tray Program, Dining & Culinary Services is also focusing efforts towards organic purchasing decisions for products such as eggs milk as well as specific meats such as chicken and beef.

We are continually finding new ways to improve our sustainability efforts. The main area we focus on are:

Minimizing our Environmental Impact

• Composting & reducing the amount of waste we send to the landfill.
• Recycling plastic packaging & wrappers, tin/aluminum cans and foil, mixed paper, and corrugated cardboard.
• Choosing disposable containers that are made with post-consumer waste and that are compostable.
• Bottled water is not sold in any of our campus restaurants as a result of the student-run initiative in 2011.
• We don't just throw away the used fryer oil, in the effort to reduce our carbon footprint we sell it to Standard Biodiesel. They create renewable diesel, a clean fuel source derived from vegetable oil, animal fats, waste vegetable oil, and microalgae oil.

Purchasing Initiatives

• We have continual conversations with our suppliers about the distance food travels to get to us.
• Our of our shell and liquid eggs are sourced from Steibrs Farms in Yelm, WA.
• Chicken breast, used in all chicken salads at Good Things, served on the salad bar and pizzas at Aglio is sourced from Draper Valley Farms, Mt. Vernon, WA. They provide free-range chicken that was locally raised and that has been humanely raised while being fed a 100% vegetarian diet.
• All of the milk used in The Commons is rBGH free. The milk is also produced locally, from either Smith Brothers Farms in the Kent Valley or Darigold which has always been a proud NW dairy producer.
• We purchase our seafood in accordance with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guidelines for sustainability.
• Along with trans-fat free oil in the fryers, heart-healthy olive and canola oils are used in everyday cooking. We also utilize specialty oils like sesame oil for many of our cultural dishes.