Columbia Presents Case Study at Anniversary Event for Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge

At its first anniversary event, the NYC Mayor's Office of Food Policy invited representatives from Columbia Dining and the Office of Sustainability to speak about the significant strides taken to reduce food-related carbon emissions in its first complete year of PPCC participation.

Vicki Dunn, Assistant Vice President for Columbia Dining, and Samreen Afzal, Director of Analytics for the Office of Sustainability, represented Columbia onstage, detailing year one's accomplishments and challenges. 

Columbia Dining, in partnership with the Office of Sustainability, cut emissions from food procurement by 1.59% while managing a 1.01% increase in food procurement volume due to increased Student Meal Plan enrollment. The team accomplished this by adopting innovative strategies like reducing beef procurement, expanding plant-based menu options, and implementing an oat milk default.

Afzal also spoke about how she and Office of Sustainability intern Vanshika Kishore developed a sophisticated automated tool which uses a "dictionary" of keywords to categorize food items automatically, streamlining data management and reducing errors. The tool's intelligent design allows it to learn and improve with each use, becoming more adept at categorization over time.

Other year-one PPCC signatories also presented their wins and challenges, and new signatories had an opportunity to introduce themselves. The formal presentation was followed by plant-based appetizers and networking, in which new and old signatories shared ideas to achieve their PPCC goals. 

Columbia seeks to achieve a 25% reduction in food-related emissions by 2030.