Let’s say you’re a food service provider like Sodexo (bear with me). In the name of sustainability, you remove trays from a university dining hall. Then you save about $25K through avoided food waste and water/energy use.
Should you:
a.) Apply those savings to next year’s meal plan fees?
b.) Donate the savings to a local food bank?
c.) Serve more beef, the food with a gigantic carbon footprint (via steak night and French dip sandwiches)?
Unless they forgot the adjectives ‘local’ or ‘grass-fed’ in the description of the steak served at Whitworth University, I wouldn’t choose ‘c.’
I’m not usually such a wet blanket (I just play one on the Web), and I do eat beef. But this just seems like the wrong move, given Sodexo’s environmental posturing and talk of sustainability. It’s like giving up gained ground.
It’s a great that Sodexo has removed trays at Whitworth. I just think they should keep moving in that direction.
And I should point out that the Sodexo Foundation does some wonderful things, (including fund one of my favorites, The Campus Kitchens Project). I’d just rather see them divert the saved money to that cause.
Comments
3 responses to “Department of Split Hairs”
It does seem like a better option than wasting food, but not nearly as good an option as the others you suggested. I’d be inclined towards option A, or an increase in the salaries or their workers, or something along those lines.
Jon,
You may be splitting hairs here, but I think it’s good to follow up on what big companies that are riding the “green train” to fame are doing with their follow through. It really doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me to hear of increased beef purchases with trayless savings, because my impression of the corporate motivation behind taking part in green initiatives has a lot to do with pleasing the customers. What better way to please a student population so proud of itself for “greening” up it’s campus, then to celebrate with some delicious greasy beef tips? Perhaps once there’s a hole in the o-zone over Washington State, there will be a greater consideration of the follow through with “green” savings.
Peace and Love,
Dan
P.S. I use quotation marks around the word “green” because, as far as I can tell, it really doesn’t mean what many people think it means. Something “green” afterall, isn’t necessarily any more high-minded; something “sustainable” isn’t necessarily something more conscionable (is an electric car sustainable, or is it public transportation–or a bicycle, or hiking boots?); something local isn’t necessarily more wholesome.
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