A Food and Energy Undergraduate Class Results in On-Campus Dining Changes
Dr. Charlotte Clark, Assistant Visiting Professor, Duke University Nicholas
School of the Environment, Durham, NC, USA. cclark@duke.edu
Food and Energy is a course designed to teach concepts about the agricultural system and climate change from
peer-reviewed and popular sources, and to apply them to institutional and student intentions and behaviours.
The course has a research designation at Duke, meaning students must explicitly gain knowledge of and
experience in research (my focus is primarily qualitative research). The course also has a service-learning
designation, meaning students must apply their learning in a manner that provides tangible service to a client
during the educational experience. Students in the class are divided into 5-person teams, each of which
researches a question throughout the semester provided typically by an on-campus dining client. Clients are
actively engaged with the teams throughout the course, including project design, data collection and analysis,
and project evaluation. Instructional technology is used to accomplish teamwork, evaluation by the instructional
team, client/team communication, and transparency with the client. In the past two years, 10 of the 14 projects
have continued beyond the class semester, yielding tangible new institutional and/or student behavior(s). The
paragraphs below provide the teams from the past three years, and any outcome from the projects.
Logistically, the class has one lecture format class per week and one class session where students meet in their
teams. At the outset of the semester, each client takes one class period to
describe their question and its relevance to their work, and students rank their
team preferences based on these presentations and their own interest. Clients
meet with their team a month later to learn of the project progress and research
design, and again in another month to hear of initial findings and
recommendations. Clients attend final presentations by each team to the entire
class. I meet individually with teams once to prepare them for their client
design meeting and again in preparation for their client initial findings meeting.
Web-based communication tools are used to keep the teams and client in touch
between meetings. Students must keep reflective journals on their experience.
Spring 2009 Research teams
Composting team
Research question: Should Duke compost any organic food waste on
campus?[Client: Arwen Buchholz, Recycling Coordinator]
Currently, Duke sends all organic food waste to an off-site contractor. The
student team supported this practice generally, but recommended some demonstration composting activities on
campus. The Refectory, an eatery in the Divinity School, now has post-consumer composting available.Local
foods team
Research question: How should Duke reward/award dineries that work to provide local foods to Duke
clientele?[Clients: Tavey Capps, Duke Sustainability Coordinator; Nancy Creamer, Center for Environmental
Farming Systems]
The local foods team generated a draft rubric that could be used to measure which Duke dineries were more
successful at providing local foods to clients. A Nicholas School MEM student, Meghan Giuliano, carried this
forward for her Masters Project. The Great Hall now has a farmstand carrying local produce for purchase for
points, credit, or cash.
To-go team
Research questions: What is the best to-go container to offer for use in Duke dineries? Why are so many people
dining in using to-go containers?[Clients: Andrea Myrick, Green Purchasing Coordinator; Nate Peterson, Bon
Appetit]
This spring, the Great Hall will pilot use of a reusable to-go clamshell that can be returned and washed
repeatedly. In addition, some operational practices changed to reduce use of to-go containers while dining in.
The Loop now also carries the reusable to-go clamshell.
Tray-less team
Research question: Should trays be removed in the Great Hall?[Clients: Tammy Hope, Green Dining
Coordinator; Ryan Phirrman-Powell, Sustainability Outreach Coordinator]
Trays use a significant amount of water and energy in the cleaning process, and often are not needed. The
Marketplace has been trayless for over a year. Although the students found good reason to remove trays from
their study of 3 “trayless Tuesdays” in the Great Hall, at this point this has not been implemented. However, the
trays were repositioned to a less obvious location, which has cut down on their use.
Spring 2010 Research teams
Farm Team
Research question: Should Duke have an on-campus farm?
[Clients: Jim Wulforst, Director Dining Services; Mark
Hough, Campus Landscape Architect]
A number of campuses around the country have on-campus
farms explicitly to supply produce (primarily) to campus
dineries. Bon Appetit was interested in investigating such an
option based on their experience with contracts at other
campuses. Through the research efforts of this team, as of
Spring 2011, the Duke Campus Farm was begun on a 12-acre
plot in Duke Forest, a Farm Advisory Board was established,
and the Office of Sustainability funded a 10-hour per week
Farm Manager for the farm. This manager was one of the students on this team! One of the projects for the class
in Spring 2011 will be to design a marketing plan for the Farm.
Farmstand Team
Research questions: How well is the farmstand working in the Great Hall? [Clients: Nate Peterson, Bon
Appetit; Kellyn Shoecraft, Coordinator, Honey Patch Community Garden]
The Great Hall has instituted a farmstand where clients can purchase local produce primarily from Eastern
Carolina Organics (ECO). Bon Appetit is interested in also featuring produce from Duke’s two community
gardens, the Honey Patch, and the Duke Community Garden. This team identified the steps that would need to
be taken for this to be approved at Duke and students are working on the final of these steps at this time. This is
correlated to the Duke Farm project.
Sustainable Seafood Team
Research question: What is the most sustainable shrimp purchasing choice Duke dineries could make
(recognizing that sustainable choices include consideration of environmental, social, and economic aspects)?
Clients: Kim Gordon and Alexis Rameriz, Walking Fish, and DukeFish]
Volunteers with the Walking Fish initiative, a community-supported fishery organization providing local
seafood to subscribers (similar to produce in a community-supported agriculture organization) wanted a basic
evaluation of the total carbon footprint of shrimp
and clams eaten on campus that are purchased from
traditional markets and from the Walking Fish CSF.
Through a simple Life Cycle Assessment, this team
discovered that the Walking Fish product and a
locally farmed prawn product were the most
environmentally sound manner for Duke to buy
shrimp. The students promoted this to eateries on
campus. Walking Fish is using the materials
produced by the students in some of their marketing
materials this year.
Biodiesel Team
Research question: Should Duke students consider building an on-campus biodiesel refinery to burn Duke’s
waste vegetable oil for use in fleet vehicles?[Clients: Arwen Buchholz, Recycling Coordinator; Casey Roe,
Sustainability Outreach Coordinator]
A number of campuses refine their own waste vegetable oil and use the product in campus fleet vehicles. This
team concluded that Duke students would have an interest in such a venture. In the Fall of 2010, two students
(including one from this team) completed an independent study working with Charlotte Clark and Claudio
Gunsch (engineering). The process of buying and operating a small biodiesel refinery is underway with
facilities.Duke Hospital Dinery Team
Research question: How can Aramark design and operate “greener” dineries in the Duke University Hospital?
[Client: Ed Chan, General Manager, Food Services, Duke University Hospital; Tavey Capps, Sustainability
Coordinator]
Aramark has one major renovation and three new cafeterias coming on line in the next three years in the Duke
University Health System (DUHS). This team suggested that a green eatery be implemented in an open space
in the dining area of the Hospital, and suggested characteristics that would make such an eatery successful. At
this time, Duke Hospital and Aramark have not implemented this plan.
Spring 2011 Research Teams
Duke Campus Farm team
Research question: What will make student involvement with the new Duke Campus Farm vibrant and
sustainable? Client: Emily Sloss, Duke Campus Farm Manager
The Duke Campus Farm is a brand new initiative located on 10 acres of Duke Forest property about 6 miles
from main campus in Durham, NC. With one-acre under production at this point, Farm student leadership
wanted help knowing how best to inform students on campus of the farm’s existence; what types of educational
activities would be of interest and use to students, faculty, and staff; and what kinds of incentives might be most
effective in recruiting students to participate at any level in farm activities. The students interviewed students,
faculty, volunteers, and dining staff; talked to students affiliated with other farms at institutions of higher
education; and conducted a survey of students at Duke. Subsequently, they produced a social marketing plan for
the farm to address these issues. They also worked with a separate team in a markets and management class to
produce a new logo and short recruitment video.
Duke Communications team Might a visit to the DiVE contribute to a change in a student’s food purchasing
intentions on campus? Clients: Paul Grantham, Assistant Vice-President, Communication Services, and Chair,
Communications Subcommittee, Duke Campus Sustainability Committee; Sarah McGowan, Marketing
Manager, Bon Appetit; Rachael Brady, Research scientist, Director, Visualization Technology Group at
Pratt/CIEMAS.
The client wondered whether an experience in the Duke immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) might
contribute to students choices of more environmentally responsible food at Duke. The DiVE is a 6-sided, cavelike, virtual reality theater, and is one of only a handful such facilities in the United States. Using stereoscopic
rear projection, head and hand tracking, and real-time computer graphics, all six surfaces of the cube (walls,
ceiling, floor) are screens onto which computer graphics are displayed. Researchers can walk into the cube, be
surrounded by the display, and interact with virtual objects using handheld wands. DiVE staff worked with this
team to develop an interactive experience in the DiVE where the participant chose various foods in a dining hall
environment and learned the carbon footprint of their virtual choices. They experienced stimuli to encourage or
discourage their choice, and could return foods and choose others. Students recruited Duke undergraduates to be
pilot participants, interviewing them before and after their DiVE experience to make initial assessments of the
use of DiVE for this sort of education and motivation towards behavior change.
The ACARA Challenge team
What might be a socially-minded business to address issues of food or water security in India? Client: David
Schaad, Associate Professor of the Practice, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pratt School, Duke
University
In conjunction with students from a Duke engineering class, three teams of Duke students entered the ACARA
Institute Challenge competition to plan a socially-minded business to address issues of food or water security in
India. Each team contained two students from Food and Energy, two to three students from CE185, Engineering
Sustainable Design and Construction, and students from ITT Roorkee in India. Each team developed a business
plan for a socially-minded business in India to address issues of food security. Although none of these teams
won the competition, they developed interesting plans around (a) a community seed bank for heritage seed
preservation, storage, and use (b) transportation to facilitate better distribution of local crops, and (c) a method
to better collect water for crop irrigation.
The Lakewood Elementary School team
How can Lakewood Elementary School better integrate the community garden with classroom instruction and
the NC Standard Course of Study? Client: Angie Jones, Garden Coordinator, Lakewood Elementary School
Teachers at the nearby Lakewood Elementary School wished to better integrate the garden on school property
into the classrooms. Students on this team learned about the North Carolina standard course of study; observed
students in the classroom and garden, and interviewed teachers, the principal, and the garden coordinator. and
Cornelius Redfearn, the Principal. Subsequently, they developed, piloted, and revised six environmental
exercises for three different classrooms, each tied to the garden and to the NC Standard Course of Study.
The Clean Air-Cool Planet team
How might Clean Air-Cool Planet best accomplish food purchase behavior change on campus when providing
information on life-cycle carbon emissions? Clients: Claire Roby, Carbon Accounting Coordinator, Clean AirCool Planet; Casey Roe, Outreach Coordinator, Sustainable Duke
Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP) is a not-for-profit dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global
warming, and much of their work is with college and university campuses. They recently released a beta version
of a new online tool – Charting Emissions from Food Services (CHEFS), which aims to create a tool like a
Campus Carbon Calculator™-- one that is flexible enough to be used by any campus-based organization (e.g.
schools, hospitals, corporate campuses, museums or camps, or municipal campuses), simple enough for
someone that does not have a degree in industrial ecology, and accurate and relevant enough to truly inform
better decision-making by dining service operators and their patrons. This team helped CA-CP to evaluate a
good way to present this information to consumers. Through observation and interview, students considered
whether food labels in the Duke Great Hall/Marketplace should present CO2e emissions in terms of emissions
per food calorie; per weight, volume, or serving; or per dollar spent. This will inform CA-CP’s future path, and
Duke’s use of the tool on campus.