Sustainability

Here are a few of the things we’re doing on campus to manage our environmental performance:

• Waste Reduction and Diversion:
  Aramark with William and Mary has an extensive composting program consisting of 19 compost bin locations across campus in addition to back of house composting. Compost Locations at William & Mary (arcgis.com)  
  
  Our campus location bins are managed by the dining sustainability program comprised of 18 interns. Our interns move the composts bins to and from their campus locations and pickup locations at dining halls on a rigorous schedule. This used to be done on foot but thanks to a Green Fee Fund awarded to the program by William and Mary’s office of sustainability, we now use a modified electric golf cart.
  
  In 2024, Dining Services with William and Mary diverted 234,868 pounds of food waste from landfills. This is equivalent to 167,931 net pounds of carbon dioxide. 
   
  Wipe Out Waste Events occur once a month to track food waste in the dining halls and determine contributing factors that we can work to eliminate. 
   
  Compost At Home Pick Up Program! We have started a program where students can sign up to have their compost picked up. These students generally live off campus in the campus associated apartments like Ludwell. Students are provided with a 3-gallon compost bucket and compostable liners. Pickup is around 2pm on Sundays and students leave their compost outside their dorm or apartment for dining sustainability interns to pick up with the electric golf cart. Compost is taken back to campus and put in the compost bins. The only stipulation is that students participating need to live within a certain area around campus.

• Outreach and Partnerships:
  Aramark’s Dining Sustainability program maintains a partnership with Waller Mill Elementary school where our interns teach an afterschool sustainability program for students. 
    
  We partner with the Williamsburg Farmers Market to sell tokens that students can buy with their dining dollars. This allows them to buy local produce and support the Williamsburg area farmers and businesses.  
  
  We are now doing Compost Education at the Farmers Market and bring a compost bin with us to discuss composting with the general Williamsburg Community. 
  
  
• Food Insecurity:
  We have held “Stock the Pantry” food drives partnering with William and Mary’s Food For All, a club that strives to alleviate food insecurity on campus. 
  
  
• Sustainable Sourcing:
  William and Mary Dining Services partners with 4P Foods to source locally and sustainably. All chicken served in the dining hall is from local farmers that work with 4P foods. 
  
  We partner with Babylon Micro-Farms to grow sustainable produce in-house with our hydroponic systems.
  
  Take Hydroponics Produce To Go! We have started a new program where students can take produce harvested from the walls to go when they are on their way out of the dining hall. Produce is harvested by interns and packaged in compostable containers for students to take and use at home. We have a wide variety of produce that we harvest and package for students including lettuce, bok choy, cilantro, various microgreens, kale, etc. 
  
  William and Mary Dining Services also serves Cool Food Meals at each of our locations to ensure that we are reducing our overall carbon footprint. 
  
  
• Student Engagement and Sustainability:
  Education TheThe Dining Sustainability program aims to divert and eliminate food waste as well as create awareness and education for composting and other diversion practices. The program holds compost education tabling in which interns will table at various locations across campus the educate the student body about these practices and the resources on campus that aid in these efforts.
  
  The Program holds various events like the Fitwell series over the course of each semester. Successful events include, the sustainability fitwell series, sustainability trivia nights in partnership with the Swem Library, participation in Earth week including but not limited to the William and Mary Office of Sustainability’s Earth Day Bash Celebration, etc.
  
  Campus Gardens: Dining Sustainability has plots in the campus gardens where we grow various herbs and produce. This produce is usually used for educational purposes like our previous fitwell series or for events. 
  
  
• Events!
  Earth Week Events: 
  Paint a Compost Bin (Students tend to respond better/express that they pay more attention to our bins if they are painted or colorful) This event is geared towards responding to this as well as getting the students involved in the painting process. 
   
  Swem Library Trivia Night: This year we partnered with Swem Library again to co-host one of their trivia nights and center it around sustainability for Earth Week. 
   
  Earth Month Wipe Out Waste Events: Increasing number of wipe out wastes for this coming April 
  
  Participated in Earth Day Bash:  
  Dining Sustainability Table: Compost Education and pot a hydroponics marigold or pansy to take home! 
  Dining Services Table: Build your own nut-free trail mix with our Dietitian Becky! 
  Catering provided by Aramark (Everything was compostable as well) 
  Compost Bins for the event were provided by Dining Sustainability 
  
  Campus Cleanup: We have done many of these events, some of which are in partnership with campus organizations. We have one coming up in April for Earth Month that is in partnership with the Law School. 
  
  FARM FEST: Farmers Market/Fall Festival style event with outside vendors from the Williamsburg farmers market. The purpose of the event is to educate the students about local farmers and sustainable agriculture. Yard games, partnered food trucks, and a dwarf cow were also part of the event. 

• Dining Interns on the Streets:
  A video interview style event-ish. This would mainly be used for social media purposes. The interns take the golf cart around campus and ask students questions about sustainability and composting on campus. These are filmed and then put up on Instagram. Most recently we did one for compost education week. 

Promoting planetary health on our path to net zero emissions. Review our Environmental, Social, Governance site for more information!