Trayless dining has swept across college campuses throughout America and is gaining international attention. Tray less dining curtails food waste, promotes healthier eating habits through portion control, and reduces the amount of water and energy consumption used for washing the trays. Going tray less in dining facilities is one way to combat food waste and educate students about its environmental impact.

Project Clean Plate is a program used in conjunction with tray less dining which helps reduce food waste in our resident dining halls and creates awareness among students. Food waste is monitored at the disposal area and an estimate of wasted food is recorded and posted in the servery showing students week-by-week results. The posted results educate students about how much wasted food is thrown out on a daily basis which could be prevented.

Chartwells' approach to social responsibility and sustainability is tied into our overall Balanced U wellness programming. Through a variety of innovative programs and policies, we work closely with the communities we serve to reduce the impact our operations have on the world around us. Our focus on recycling, resource conservation, and waste reduction not only helps us operate more efficiently, but it also lets us ensure that the resources we use today will be available for future generations. Our Balanced U Sustainability approach addresses four basic tenets of sustainable and socially responsible business practices: Eat Green, Build Green, Run Green, and Return Green.

Chartwells' Carbon FoodPrint™ toolkit is a Web-based program designed to engage our managers and clients to work as partners and build an extensive strategy to minimize the carbon footprint of their foodservice operations. The toolkit focuses on four key areas: menu engineering, kitchen services, site equipment, and facilities management.

Trim Trax is a food waste reduction program that is used to track, measure and reduce the amount of kitchen food waste in our facilities on campuses. It is designed to increase operational efficiencies and create awareness about reducing food waste and its environmental impact. This program has been extremely successful to date and is used on all campuses where Chartwells provides food service.