Sustainability

A vegan diet is healthy for your body and the environment. Not only does it reduce your carbon footprint, but plants require less land, energy, and water to produce the same amount of protein as animals. Try adding some vegan meals into your diet today!

Here are a few of the things we’re doing on campus to manage our environmental performance:

• We have a self-monitoring micro-farm to grow herbs, micro-greens, and lettuces. The micro-farm uses 96% less water, 65% less fertilizer, zero miles of transport, and zero pesticides. We plant, transplant, harvest, and use the greens for dishes in the Marketplace at Doan.
• We put good food to good use by donating to the local non-profit, Hidden Harvest. The mission of Hidden Harvest is to alleviate hunger and reduce food waste in the Great Lakes Bay Region. We also send leftover meals from the Marketplace to the on-campus Cardinal Food Pantry. In 2022, Dining Services donated a fridge to the pantry to house fresh meals beyond the nonperishables.
• Old coffee grounds from Starbucks often make their way to our on-campus Greenhouse. All guests are welcome to ask for old coffee grounds to use for their own composting needs!
• The Cardinal Cafe follows all guidelines set by the brands we house including the packaging we order. Subway, for example, states that most of its packaging is compostable and recyclable. For locations like the C-Store, students are welcome and encouraged to bring a reusable bag for check-out. We give away a few hundred reusable bags each school year for students to use for this purpose specifically.

Promoting planetary health on our path to net zero emissions. Review our Environmental, Social, Governance site for more information!