University Dining Services
http://www.dining.umn.edu
612-626-7626
 
 

SUSTAINABILITY

University Dining Services has a deep respect for and commitment to protecting and improving the environment. We work to reduce our environmental footprint while delivering exceptional food service at the University of Minnesota. Throughout our department, we develop and implement long-term environmental stewardship programs and policies within the areas of sustainable food procurement, energy and water conservation, waste stream management and community relationships. We call these programs and policies Green Thread as they weave throughout our business operations everyday.

What's New

October is Fair Trade Month - published Sunday, September 30, 2012

We're hosting Fair Trade coffee events at Java City cafes in October. UDS offers fair trade coffee in all food courts, residential restaurants and coffee cafes on campus. Buying fair trade promotes healthier working conditions and greater economic incentive for coffee producers.

 
Arboretum Restaurant First Certified Green Restaurant® in MN - published Thursday, May 24, 2012

If green is what you're seeking in a restaurant, go no farther than the Arboretum Restaurant at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minnesota. In May 2012, the Green Restaurant Association designated the Arboretum Restaurant as a Certified Green Restaurant®, identifying it as one of the most eco-friendly restaurants in the Twin Cities and the only such certified food court in the state of Minnesota.

Arboretum Restaurant scored 237.84 points and a three-star rating from the association. To qualify for certification, the Green Restaurant Association requires applicants to accumulate at least 100 points across seven environmental standards: water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable furnishings and building materials, sustainable food, energy, disposables, and chemical and pollution reduction. For more information about Green Restaurant Certification, visit www.dinegreen.com.

 
The Power of Blue Cleaning - published Thursday, May 24, 2012

ActivION Ionizor imageUniversity Dining Services utilizes ActiveION Ionator blue cleaning devices in our six residential restaurants, four food courts, Bistro West Restaurant and Nolte Restaurant. ActiveION Ionators change regular tap water, through an electrical charge, into a powerful cleaning agent that replaces general purpose cleaners. Ionators are 99.9% effective in killing and eliminating dirt from dining room surfaces, while diverting chemicals from the waste stream and providing a safe environment for employees and customers. To learn more, visit activeion.com

 

 

 

 

UDS Green Facts
 

 

This HTML container includes a DIV element (the "content set") below, that is not displayed to the user, where you can place the content that you wish to have 'rotated' within the user's page view. The changeMedia function will swap the children found in this DIV, one at a time [including any elements/text enclosed by it], with the first child element [and its children] from another DIV (the "viewer"). Both DIVs require unique IDs which are passed [as strings] to the changeMedia method that controls the rotation. Typically, the viewer DIV is injected before this module via the advanced settings of this component (as a module header), along with the Javascript control (as a module footer) to invoke it .

 

One way to assure that the media/element block(s) you wish to rotate are inserted within the mediaSet DIV is to toggle on the "Show Blocks" mode (using the toolbar button near the '?' icon) which then represents the block containers in the editor. Note: Children that are text elements are ignored. Any text to be rotated must be enclosed within (a child of) an HTML element (making it a grandchild, not a child). That is why the "Add Content Here..." text is not seen by the user.

Hint: If you want more than one item visible to the user at a time, youn can "seed" the viewer DIV by adding the number of items you want displayed into that DIV. For example, if you place 3 images into the viewer DIV and 5 more into the set DIV, the images will be rotated one at a time... moving thru the viewer like a train. The left most image will be removed as a new image is added to the right side, effectivley shifting all the images to the left, one at a time.

Green French Fries? You bet! University Dining Services recycles used fryer oil in dining locations. When possible, fryer oil is recycled into bio-diesel products.
Join our team! UDS employs "Green Team" student employees who help educate the campus community about our environmental programs and practices.
UDS offers at least one fair trade coffee in each dining location on campus.
University Catering purchases foods from University of Minnesota's Cheese Lab, Meat Lab and Student Cornercopia Farms.
UDS is a charter member of Heartland Food Network, a non-profit organization that works to increase the availability and variety of local foods in Minnesota.
Four of UDS' cafes on campus offer 100% sustainable coffees and espresso drinks - Food for Thought Cafe, Java City at Essentials Market, Hay Loft Cafe and CityKid Java Cafe.
35% of packaging used in University Dining Services locations is biodegrable, breaking down in compost piles in approximately 45 days.
CityKid Java Cafe, located in Carlson School of Management, serves as a living learning lab for high school youth from south Minneapolis non-profit organization Urban Ventures and University of Minnesota students by providing hands-on work experience and mentoring opportunities.
UDS purchased 187,375 pounds of local produce in 2008.
UDS collects, on average, 30 tons of compostable material from dining locations each month.
Each month, UDS hosts ‘Farm Stand’ in residential restaurants to highlight sustainable programming in campus dining locations.

Upcoming Events


March 2013: National Nutrition Month

March 4-8, 2013: UDS' Nutrition Week Events

April 22, 2013: Earth Day, Local foods meal at Residential Restaurants