Award Categories
The NACUFS Sustainability Awards recognize and honor member institutions that have successfully demonstrated a measurable reduction in their dining program’s environmental impact in the following major operational categories:
- Procurement Practices
Goal: Dining services modify traditional purchasing protocols to increase the sustainability of its purchasing decisions and protect the environment by purchasing from local and other producers who support and practice sustainability.
- Energy and Water Conservation
Goal: Dining services monitors energy and/or potable water usage in the various facilities of the department and enacts energy/water conservation practices in each area to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and potable water consumption.
- Waste Management
Goal: Dining services staff minimize waste sent to landfills and waste water systems by diverting biodegradable waste to composting (or other landfill deferred systems), whenever possible, and by maximizing recycling efforts throughout the department.
- Materials and Resources
Goal: Dining services carefully evaluates materials and resources for construction and renovation projects, reusing existing structures and furnishing where appropriate and utilizing new materials consisting of recycled, regional and rapidly renewable content.
- Outreach and Education
Goal: Dining services provides useful information to students, faculty, staff and visitors regarding sustainability and the sustainable business practices of the dining services department.
A gold, silver, and bronze award will be awarded in each category. These annual award winners will be recognized at the NACUFS national conference and featured on the NACUFS website.
Grand Prize: NACUFS Award for Excellence in Sustainable Dining
One grand prize winner will be selected from among the category winners to receive the NACUFS Award for Excellence in Sustainable Dining. In addition to being a category winner, this grand prize award winner will have modeled exemplary excellence in the pursuit of a sustainable dining practice, resulting in a significantly reduced environmental impact and providing a best practice model for the NACUFS membership.