About Dining Services

Environmental Responsibility

The department of Dining Services at Williams College is committed to responsible stewardship of our local and global environments. The following is a summary of the most exciting environmental initiatives undertaken recently by Dining Services.

Local and Organic Food

Spent 20 cents per meal on premium local and organic foods, increasing the college's consumption of local and organic food by 30%.
Hired a student summer intern to research and connect with sustainable food producers in the Berkshires.
Replaced all conventional milk with milk from the grass-fed, hormone-free cows of Highlawn Farm in Lee, MA.
Offered local, grass-fed beef hamburgers nightly at Dodd House and Mission Park.
Purchased virtually all of its summer vegetables, and a large proportion of its winter storage vegetables, from a 60-acre family farm located 10 minutes away from the college.
Purchased organic shiitake mushrooms, organic honey, low-spray apples, organic granola, ice cream, and several varieties of cheeses from local purveyors.
Served fair trade coffee in all dining halls purchased from Dean's Beans located in Orange, MA.

Recycling and Waste Reduction

Recycled all used cardboard, paper, metal, plastic, and glass.
Collected roughly 20 tons of food waste from dining halls, to be composted at local farms.
Replaced all plastic and paper service ware (plates, cups, utensils) in use on campus with corn-based, biodegradable products.

Water and Energy Conservation

Installed new garbage disposals in Dodd and Greylock (two of our four dining halls) that reduce water consumption from 1,200 gallons of water to 3 gallons per meal.
Installed an energy efficient ventilation system in Greylock that uses sensors to operate only when demand requires.
Equipped 20 (out of approximately 30) campus vending machines with Vending Miser sensors, which cut both the annual electricity use and CO2 emissions of a vending machine in half.
Purchased an electric vehicle for food deliveries on campus.
Replaced all rinse jet sprayers on campus with low distribution spray heads, saving two gallons of water per minute with an accumulated water savings of over one million gallons annually.
Replacing the Greylock dish machine in the summer of '06, resulting in an annual water savings of 780,000 gallons of water while greatly reducing energy costs of the water needed to be heated.

Sustainability

Visit Sustainability at Williams.

These environmental initiatives are important steps towards campus-wide sustainability, but there is still more we can do. Individually, we can each be more aware of the resources we consume. Collectively, we can strive for better policies that strengthen our community and our environment. As an institution that consistently ranks among the top liberal arts schools in the country, we must continue to pursue excellence and integrity in everything that we do.

Many of our sustainability advances have been made in partnership with the Campus Environmental Advisory Committee, or CEAC. CEAC is a committee of students, faculty and staff that meets monthly to address environmental issues on campus and make recommendations on college operations. For more information, visit the CEAC website at ceac.williams.edu.

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