The University of Massachusetts boasts one of the leading dining operations in the US: UMass Dining. For two years, they have worked with My Emissions to measure, reduce and communicate their carbon emissions.
In this case study, we explain how UMass Dining has successfully:
- Automatically measured emissions for 4,000+ recipes.
- First US University / College to add carbon labels to menus.
- Reduced total emissions by 3.59%, saving more than 413tCO2e.
Award-Winning Food Service Provider & Sustainability Leader
The University of Massachusetts Amherst boasts one of the largest and respected university food service programmes in the United States: UMass Dining.
UMass Dining was once again crowned No.1 on the Princeton Review’s list of Best Campus Food in 2024 – for an eighth consecutive year, with four large ‘Dining Commons’ serving 24,305 students on a meal plan.
Serving 5.5 million meals every year, UMass also has long invested heavily in sustainability, winning a raft of environmental and sustainability awards with its campus designed as a “living laboratory for engaging in sustainable solutions”.
With a commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2032, UMass was keen to choose forward-thinking food suppliers with solid sustainability credentials. In 2022, they turned to My Emissions to look at the food they serve.
Measuring emissions & adding carbon ratings to menus
UMass Dining approached My Emissions in early 2022 to help measure and reduce its carbon emissions.
In an initial pilot, we measured emissions for a handful of recipes, which was then added to menus at one Dining Commons. This made UMass Dining the first college or university in the United States to include carbon footprints on dishes they serve that have been independently analyzed and rated.
With thousands of recipes served each year, we needed to find a technical solution to automate the process.
We therefore developed an integration with UMass Dining’s food management software: Foodpro. This meant we could now measure emissions and add them to UMass’ digital menus automatically.
By Autumn 2022, we had completed the integration, and carbon ratings were added to food served at all four of UMass’ dining halls. In total, My Emissions has now assessed and carbon labelled over 4,000 individual dishes for UMass Dining.
Seeing impact: reducing food emissions by 3.59%, saving 413 tCO2e
To measure the impact of our initiative, My Emissions has been collecting both consumption and purchasing data for 2 years. With this, we can calculate the impact of our carbon ratings.
Using this data, we calculated that UMass Dining reduced its total carbon emissions by 3.59% in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23, saving over 413 tCO2e.
That’s the same as driving from New York to San Francisco and back over 230 times.
Along side this, we’ve seen the emissions per diner decreased by 2.21% and the average carbon intensity of food (emissions / kg) decreased by 9.79%, both across the same time span.
“The carbon reduction UMass has achieved is nothing short of remarkable,” said Matthew Isaacs, Co-Founder of My Emissions.
“As one of the largest University Dining operations in the US, they are showing institutions how they can use carbon labelling to achieve a real emissions reduction. UMass is used to leading the way, and with the changes they’re already making this academic year I’m excited to see what reduction they can achieve this year.”
Identifying Significant Carbon Savings With Spare Food®
With two years of carbon assessments under their belt, UMass could easily identify emissions hotspots in its menus, enabling its culinary team to focus on plant-forward dishes and integrate low carbon ingredients into its menus.
My Emissions’ data highlighted beef as a high-carbon ingredient. This prompted UMass to identify Spare Starter, a low carbon plant alternative which could be combined with beef dishes to reduce carbon emissions.
For 2024/25, UMass is now switching to a blend of 70% locally-sourced beef and 30% Spare Starter for all bulk beef recipes, such as Tacos and Shepherd’s Pies, served at its Hampshire Commons.
The carbon reduction impact is significant. For example: using the Spare Starter blended with beef filling reduces the carbon intensity of its beef tacos dish by a massive 29%.
Similarly, switching to the Spare blend over a year (based on 2023/24 academic year figures) at the Hampshire Dining Commons would save 12.96 tonnes CO2e.
This is equivalent to driving coast-to-coast across the US (NYC to San Francisco) an incredible 13 times.
And, if the Spare blend change was adopted across all ground beef dishes at all four of UMass’ Dining Commons the emissions savings would total an enormous 174.54 tonnes CO2e – the equivalent to driving around the world 21 times.
Deeper Analysis and Tracking in 2024/25
With a current average ingredient carbon rated B and the average dish rated C, UMass Dining is making great progress to its Net-Zero goals.
UMass Dining continues to work with My Emissions in 2024/25, with all menus continuing to show carbon labels. We are now regularly engaging with UMass’ culinary team to deliver insights and identify more ways to reduce emissions.
UMass continues to drive awareness towards food emissions, with a renewed awareness campaign scheduled for early 2025.
My Emissions is an amazing organization to work with! We started from scratch to launch a carbon rating system for the largest, most awarded self-operated collegiate dining program in the United States (…)
After almost 3 years, My Emissions has analysed thousands of ingredients and thousands of recipes for us.
They worked with us to integrate our system to get the information they need for the analysis and it has been a wonderful process of continuing to refine the analysis, respond to new inquiries, and support our efforts to engage and communicate with our culinary team, students, and play a key role in the larger campus efforts toward carbon neutrality.
We are seeing the results in carbon reduction through multiple measures. We are using the analysis to make decisions about our menu and recipes as well as making everyday climate action easy.
I look forward to the continued partnership with My Emissions to help us reach our carbon reduction goals.
Kathy Wicks, MPH, Director of Sustainability Dining Services/Auxiliary Enterprises, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Want to reduce your menu’s emissions?
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With our new AI Recipe Generator, you can now get instant calculations, which you can use to reduce emissions and display carbon labels. It’s already being used by other University institutions, including Western University (Toronto), Durham University (UK), and Downing College (Cambridge, UK).
