Sustainability

Better Tomorrow 2025

We know we can only meaningfully improve lives if we make good decisions. And that means thinking about the needs of tomorrow as well as today. That is why we monitor our progress through our corporate responsibility roadmap, called Better Tomorrow 2025. It gives us, and all those we work with, a shared focus on our long-term future.

Impacting Individuals

Mindful Offerings

Mindful offerings meet stringent nutritional criteria based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Each meal part is limited in calories, has fewer than 30% of calories as fat, fewer than 10 % of calories as saturated fat, and is restricted in sodium, and cholesterol. Chefs in our test kitchen develop recipes to meet these criteria in delicious fashion! Look for the Mindful icon to indulge in the healthy and delicious items offered at each meal.

Simple Servings

Simple Servings is our allergen-safe, dining option for our customers with food allergies, gluten intolerance, or those who prefer delicious, simple foods. The Simple Servings station offers food free from common allergens: peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, wheat, soy, milk products, and eggs.

Vegan Offerings

Vegan offerings contain no meat, fish, eggs, milk or other animal-derived products such as honey. Look for the menu icon to find vegan items daily.

Vegetarian Offerings/Station

Menu items with the vegetarian icon contain no meat, fish or poultry, nor any meat products such as soup base. Our vegetarian offerings meet the needs of lacto-ovo vegetarians, and may include eggs and/or dairy products. Vegan items are also offered for those vegetarians who avoid all animal products.

HUNGER

Servathon

Sodexo Servathon is an essential part of our community service efforts. Sodexo sets aside the month of April for its employees across the nation to join forces to fight hunger in their communities. Employees gain gratifying experiences while developing important team-building skills. Some activities may include fundraisers, canned food drives, donations of surplus food, volunteering at food banks, and signing up for payroll deductions to support Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation.

Food Recovery

To help fight hunger in our local community and reduce the impact of food waste, we donate surplus perishable food to local charities to help people in need.

Impacting Communities

Cage-Free Eggs
All of our eggs are sourced from cage-free hens.

Local Suppliers
We work closely with local produce distributors to maximize the fruits and vegetables purchased from local farms. We also purchase from local dairies and bakeries.

Sustainable Fish and Seafood
100% of fish and seafood sourced and promoted by Sodexo is sustainable. What that means is that we will not source or promote any red listed fish or seafood and all orange listed fish or seafood will respect certain specifications.

Impacting the Environment

LEED CERTIFIED BUILDINGS

California Lutheran University has several LEED Certified Buildings, including Ullman Commons, which particularly focus on achieving maximum points for energy efficiency through efficient heating and cooling design and daylighting. Ullman Commons is certified LEED Silver. Blinds automatially open and close, allowing natural light but also controlling for heat. Windows automatically open to let in fresh air, but also reduce the necessity for air conditioning. Light fixtures turn on and off automatically to utilize natural light. Ullman Commons is the perfect place to dine with sustainability in mind.

SEEd Garden Project

In September 2010, Cal Lutheran established a garden as part of the SEEd Project (Sustainable Edible Education). The garden provides opportunities for students to directly engage in Cal Lutheran's sustainability efforts and supports the nation-wide movement that encourages people to grow and purchase local produce. Campus Dining donates leftover food scraps and coffee grounds from our locations to support the campus SEEd Garden Project.

Recycling Waste Management provides Cal Lutheran's single stream recycling services. Single stream recycling allows our campus to collect all of our recycling goods into a single container. There is no need for sorting or separating, which allows more items to be recycled. On average, recycling rates increase by 30% with this waste system.

Composting Our first priority is to reduce food waste. We compost food waste that is unavoidable which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and can also be used to amend soil thereby increasing drought tolerance, improving soil structure and health and reducing need for water and fertilizers.

Weigh the Waste Periodically throughout the school year, we conduct a Weigh the Waste event to raise awareness about food waste and its impact to our environment and our communities.

Trayless Dining

Cal Lutheran Dining Services went trayless in 2008 resulting in a drastic reduction in food waste and water use in the main dining facility. This is one of the many small efforts to encourage sustainability across our dining location. In addition to trayless dining, Ullman Commons also utilizes washable tableware and silverware to drastically reduce waste in our dining facility.

Xprss Nap

Xprss Nap Dispensers save energy and waste. The napkins are made of 100% recycled paper and the dispenser will encourage customers to take (and waste) less napkins. Energy is saved because less power is used to recycle paper products than to create them from virgin material.

APEX

APEX combines technology and products designed to save water and energy, minimize the impact of products on the environment, and has a built-in method of measuring results.

Bulk Condiments

Individual packets of condiments are useful in some instances, but they result in extra waste. If you are dining on site or you can add the sauce to your item before you leave, please use the bulk dispensers to reduce our waste

Fryer Oil Recycling for Biofuel

French fries to fuel. Indeed, our fryer oil is recycled into biodiesel that is used to power a variety of vehicles - from deliver fleets to farm equipment.

Reusable Service-ware

We offer china dishes in our dining locations. This reduces waste associated with using disposable containers. We also use china at our catered functions on site.

Compostable To Go Ware

ENERGY REDUCTION

On/Off Protocol

To save energy, we only turn our equipment on when it is needed and turn it off as soon as we are done using it for the day.

Energy Star Appliances

ENERGY STAR is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) voluntary program that helps businesses and individuals save money and protect our climate through superior energy efficiency. When replacing equipment we choose Energy Star rated appliances.

Replacing incandescent lights with LED bulbs

Where feasible we have replaced our incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs to reduce our energy consumption.