Sustainability Standards for Dining Vendors
Georgia Tech has created sustainability standards for third party vendors working on our campus. These standards help us reduce waste, source greener products, and enhance the dining experience.
Local and Community Based and/or Third Party Certified Sustainable Food and Beverage
1. The Permit Holder will work with the Institute to meet Georgia Tech’s commitment to its long-term, 2027 local and community based and/or third party certified sustainable food and beverage goal by prioritizing food and beverage expenditures that meet these characteristics. The Permit Holder will use criteria outlined at the following website https://sustain.gatech.edu/georgia-tech-sustainability-criteria-dining-operations-2 to define and formulate their plan. The Permit Holder may also prioritize expenditures with women and/or minority owned businesses.
2. The Permit Holder is required to label products as applicable with organically certified, locally grown, or third-party certification.
– The Permit Holder is required to track expenditures on products that meet criteria outlined in the AASHE/stars Food and Beverage and Sustainable Dining Services Credits and report on a yearly basis by July 15th to the Sustainability Specialist in Tech Dining.
Food and Packaging Waste Diversion
1. The Permit Holder will recycle all eligible packaging from food preparation (e.g., cardboard delivery boxes, aluminum cans, food packaging).
2. The Permit Holder will utilize products (e.g., plates, bowls, cups, to-go containers) in food service and catering that are compostable. Permit Holder will work with Sustainability Specialist and/or the Office of Campus Sustainability to identify acceptable food service products if compostable options are not available.
The following items are prohibited:
– Styrofoam
– Containers and/or vessels that are made of 2+ materials (e.g., cardboard containers with plastic film windows)
– All materials that cannot be recycled or composted
3. The Permit Holder will implement policies to minimize the use of single use plastics or other materials. For example, the vendor will prioritize the use of bulk condiments.
4. The Permit Holder should work with a campus or other local food pantry to donate as much of their remaining food inventory as feasible, when those inventory items would otherwise have been discarded.