By: Mande Swisher, University Sustainability Office
“University Dining has made a decision that has not only helped the university, but more importantly, the environment,” says Kimberly Orlowski, Energy Conservation Coordinator for NC State. That decision was to remove trays from the serving line at the three dining halls to help conserve water during the drought of last year.
Although public concerns about continued drought have dwindled, the dining halls are continuing their trayless project. We are just starting to see the actual impact as newly updated statistics come in from the Office of Energy Management. The original estimate of 6,000 gallons of water per week in savings was only a fraction of the amount actually saved. Recently, it has been calculated that over 51,000 gallons of water each week is being saved by this transition.
“Obviously, this has put a huge dent in NC State’s water conservation efforts… as a whole, the university has avoided consuming over 800 million gallons of water since 2001-2002. That is a 44% decrease in water consumption per gross square foot and we are thrilled” says Orlowski.
To put these water savings in perspective, one week without trays saves more water than the average Wake County person uses in one year. The average Wake County resident uses 130 gallons per person per day, which equals to about 47,450 gallons per person per year!
Not only does this cut down on water use, but it also cuts down on food waste. In the type of all-you-can-eat setting that the dining halls offer, people seem to take more food than they can really eat. Without trays, however, they take less and only go back for more if they really want it. Fountain Dining Hall compensated for the loss of the trays by slightly increasing the size of their plates. This still saves water over using trays and does not overly restrict portions. While working to conserve water our University Dining program may have found a solution to the Freshman 15 as well!