University Crossing dining facility becomes second on campus to earn distinction
11/28/2016
By Ed Brennen
Crossroads Café at University Crossing has been recognized as a “3 Star Certified Green Restaurant” by the Green Restaurant Association, a national nonprofit organization that provides benchmarks for restaurants to become more environmentally responsible.
Crossroads Café is the university’s second “3 Star” dining facility; earlier this year the South Campus Dining Commons at the McGauvran Center received the distinction. There are just 39 restaurants across the state certified as “3 Star.”
Rich Lemoine, executive director of Administrative Services, Environmental & Emergency Management, credits the support and collaboration of many different university offices — including Planning, Project Management, Facilities, University Dining (managed by Aramark), Sustainability and the University Crossing design team — for making the achievement possible.
“Thanks to everyone’s hard work, our vision and strategic goal to be a leader in sustainability continues,” Lemoine says.
The GRA evaluates restaurants and awards “GreenPoints” for dozens of environmentally friendly steps across seven categories: water efficiency; waste reduction and recycling; sustainable durable goods and building materials; sustainable food; energy; reusable and environmentally preferable disposables; and chemical and pollution reduction.
A restaurant must receive 80 points to achieve the baseline “Level 1” status, 100 points to be certified “2 Star,” 175 points to be deemed “3 Star” and 300 points to receive the highest status of “4 Star” (of which there are only three in the state).
Crossroads Café received 234.05 points for completing 70 steps. It received the most points (60.90) in the energy category, followed closely by waste (57.92).