Greenhouse Gas Impact of Food: Deliberate Dining at Duke University

Studies estimate that 37% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are from the food system with food production accounting for 25% of all GHG emissions. In order to reduce the impact of the food eaten at Duke University, Duke Dining proposed this project with the goal of answering the following questions:

• How can Duke measure the greenhouse gas emissions from the Marketplace's dining menus using available purchasing data?
• How can Duke communicate this information to encourage behavioral change in Duke students, specifically first-year stutdents?

The main recommendations from this project include:

• Estimate the emissions of the Marketplace dining hall by using GHG estimation tools like SIMAP or Eaternity
• Incentivize Duke first-year students to use the food carbon emissions calculator to estimate their individual emissions
• Develop informative posters on the emissions impact of various meals and post them in the Marketplace