This credit recognizes institutions that are supporting sustainable food systems and minimizing the impacts of their dining service operations. An institution can operate its dining services sustainably through its procurement policies and decisions, by preventing food waste and diverting food materials from the waste stream, by making low impact dining options available, and by educating its customers about more sustainable options and practices.
Definition: Complete-protein vegan options
Recognizing that variety is a critical component of a nutritionally sound vegan diet, a “complete protein” vegan option must include, at minimum, two or more of the following food types: soy, whole grains, nuts and seeds, legumes.
This metric is looking at whether the institution offers diverse, complete-protein vegan dining options at all meals in at least one dining facility on campus:
For WikiRate researchers:
Institutions who report to the STARS program are listed on the STARS Participants & Reports website.
Use the institution Index, CTRL F, or Command F to search for the institution you want to research
By clicking on the hyperlinked name of the institution, you will be redirected to the page where all their STARS reports are listed. You can select either the most recent report, or one of the older reports to start tracking their performance over time.
NB: While the values in the reports might apply to different points in time (performance year, baseline year, most recent, etc.), the submission date of the report should be listed as the “year” on WikiRate. This is to ensure that reports of the same submission year can be compared. Any time specific information for the individual values should be included in the comment to that specific metric value.
To narrow down your search, navigate the reports’ index using the Reporting Category - Operations - and Credit Category - Dining Services - to finally select the Credit Title: Low Impact Dining.
You should now be on the report page that discloses whether the institution offers diverse, complete-protein vegan dining options at all meals in at least one dining facility on campus. To locate the exact value you can search the page using CTRL F or Command F with keywords like vegan, dining options, and responsible dining.
Always check the metric question and methodology for the unit of measure or currency - researchers may need to carry out calculations or conversions before entering the final metric value
Add comments to include details of simple or complex calculations or conversions made to determine the metric value and document any relevant contextual information, like:
a brief description of the vegan dining program, including availability, sample menus, signage and any promotional activities (e.g. “Meatless Mondays”)
a brief description of other efforts the institution has made to reduce the impact of its animal-derived food purchases
the website URL where information about the vegan dining program is available
Further guidance on how to research values is available here, including detailed guidance on adding, editing and checking metric values.