Campus Program/Process DetailsIn order to facilitate either type waste audit our intern carries out the follow-ing steps:• Sendoutemailstoourstaffthroughlist-servesandcampusgroupsthroughthecampuscommunityservice website to enlist the help of volunteers, including a google doc so volunteers can sign up for shifts when theygettheemail

• Sendoutinstructionsandinforma-tion to said volunteers regarding general overview of what they will be responsible for on their volunteer shift,alongwithameetinglocation

Key Contacts

Overview

In response to the zero waste initiative established by the UCOP The Coffee House

started conducting waste audits of our operation to define a baseline for our diversion rates. Since 2014 we have completed two types of waste audits, a total diversion waste audit, where we weigh all waste from the entire day and contamination audit where we sort through customer trash. From the total diversion waste audits we were able to define a baseline for how much we are diverting from the landfill into our other streams, recycling, pre-consumer compost and post-consumer compost. From our contamination audits we were able to see both what we are currently diverting as well as what our potential diversion rates could be if everybody was sorting their waste accurately. Both audits also gave us insight into where we need to enhance customer and employee education about waste sorting. As a result we have changed signage, changed packaging for certain items and switched over items to be either compostable or recyclable. Although I serve as the sustainability manager I rely heavily on our student intern to facilitate and coordinate these audits. I worked very closely with our current intern and the previous one to develop all the instructions and guidelines I will explain below

SusieHoulden schoulden@ucdavis.edu

Student Training & Resources for Staffing Sustainability

• Emailallstaffthatwillbeimpactedby the waste audit, including instruc-tions on what they will need to do differentlyfortheday

• Putupsignsthroughoutouropera-tionthedayofwithsimilarinforma-tion in case people forget or have further questions

• Throughouteitherwasteauditourinternispresentformostofthedayand responsible for training and an-sweringanyquestionsthatarisefromour volunteers

• Aftereachauditourinterncompliesand records all the data collected and makesnotesofanypotentialchangesthatcanbemadebasedonourfind-ings.

(530) 752-6622https://coffeehouse.ucdavis.edu

Total Diversion Audit

For a successful audit we station vol-unteers in central location near all the waste bins, set up with a large scale. Becauseouroperationhas5differentstreams,(landfill,recycle,cardboard,pre-consumercompost,andpost-con-sumercompost)wedevelopeddiffer-entwaystoaccuratelymeasureeachstreaminthemostefficientmanner.Forbaggedtrashitems,theyweresim-ply weighed and recorded. For waste thatiscollectedinbuckets(ie:veg-etable waste) we weighed the whole bucket,emptiedit,thenweighedtheemptybucketafter.Forlooseitemslikecardboardandmiscellaneousrecyclingwe had a separate bin we could use on thescale.Thebinwaszeroedoutthenthelooseitemswereplacedinthebinto get an accurate weight. We devel-oped a spreadsheet for each separate wastestreamsoourvolunteerscouldeasilyrecordtheirdatainanorganizedmanner.Inordertocaptureallthewastefromanentiredayourwasteauditstartedat7amandendedaround10pm,whichmirroredoperationalhoursforthediningroom.Duringslowertimeswereliedonourstudentmanagerteamtoassistwiththeweigh-ing and recording of the data.

Contamination Waste Audit

Sincewewereinterestedinhoweffec-tive our waste sorting signage was for thecontaminationauditswefocusedonsortingthroughourcustomerwasteandexcludedbackofhousewaste.WeborrowedasortingtablefromtheWasteandReductionOfficeoncampusand used it to sort through each bag takenoutofourdiningroomareafrom10am-6pm.Duringslowertimeswehad two volunteers and during busier timeswehadfourtofive.Fromourcontaminationauditswehavemadeafewbigchangesbasedonourfindings.Theonethatmadethebiggestimpactwasputtingsignsthatcoverourlandfillbin holes that encourage people to takethetimetosorttheirwaste.Thesigns are bright yellow and include data fromourauditsthatshowthataround73%ofwhatendsupinourlandfillbinscanactuallybecomposted.Afteradding these signs to all our bins we saw an 11% decrease in overall weight forlandfillandanincreaseinbothcompostingandrecyclingwithminimalimpactoncontamination.

Program/Process Challenges • Findingenoughvolunteersistough,butwepostonourcampus’commu-nityservicewebsitetoenlistdifferent

clubsaroundcampus.Wehavealsohad success reaching out to fraterni-ties and sororities and we always get adecentnumberofourownem-ployees who are willing to help out throughout the day

• Findinganeffectivewaytomarketourfindingsfromthewasteauditshave been challenging so far signage onourlandfillbinshavebeenthemosteffective

• CoordinatingwiththeWasteandReductionOfficetoscheduletimestoborrowtheirscaleandfiguringouttransportation has been challenging sowetryandpickscheduledateswell in advance.

Program/Process Insights •Wehavemademanychangesopera-

tionally as a result of our waste audits andtheinformationcollected;result-inginmorewastebeingdivertedfromthelandfill–Wehavemadesushicondimentsselfserveandtakenthemoutofthecontainers resulting in a lot less full packetsbeingthrownawayandus-age has gone down as well

–Addingadditionalsignagetoourlandfillbinsencouragingpeopletosort their waste has increased diver-sionawayfromthelandfillby10%

–Wehavefoundcompostablere-placementsforburritowrappersandsandwichbags,twoofourmostpopularitemsthatwere

• Usingemployeesasvolunteersbothengagestheminoursustainabilityef-fortandeducatesthemonhowmuchour operation is doing to divert waste

• Afterconductingonewasteauditwekeepcopiesofallofoursignageandemailsmakingitmucheasiertoconduct the following ones

Key Contacts SusieHoulden schoulden@ucdavis.edu

(530) 752-6622https://coffeehouse.ucdavis.edu