FoodPrint

PSU Food Services has partnered with Energy and Sustainability Policy students Joyce Arpon and Tiffany Wilson as part of their sustainability initiatives to determine the carbon footprint for menu items.

Our Project Story

Joyce and Tiffany narrowed down an extensive commodities list to a mutually agreeable review of meats and vegetables. The meat and vegetable categories were selected for the initial assessment due to the relatively high CO2 emissions and amount of on-campus food waste, respectively. Other food categories are backlogged for future phases due to time constraints. 

Much research was conducted in reviewing calculators and databases. The ultimate determination was that the dataFIELD database was the most meaningful and extensive for the Foodprint project. This research for this database was conducted by Dr. Martin Heller with the University of Michigan to look at the impact of U.S. dietary choices on greenhouse gas emissions.

Food Systems and the Environment

Food systems emissions have been rising significantly and now account for approximately 26% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.

Livestock/fisheries, crop production and land use are the three primary sources of emissions from food productions

The food carbon emissions data may be used by PSU Food Services to make purchasing decisions and create marketing materials. PSU Food Services can also use the data to help support climate goal conversations and reduced carbon emissions by using ingredient alternatives.

Project Deliverables

• ESP Capstone Project Agreement
• Presentation Video (from MS Teams)
• Alternative: Presentation Video (from Zoom Cloud)
• Presentation Deck
• FoodPrint Carbon Emissions Spreadsheet
• Literature Review

Supplemental Materials

• dataFIELD spreadsheet
• dataFIELD documentation
• dataFIELD Supporting Literature Article with Supplemental Material