For many of us, the new year is a time for resolutions and open reflections on the broader impacts of our choices. For millions of eager high school seniors in the U.S., it’s also a time to begin making one of the biggest decisions of their lives to date: which college to attend. While tuition costs and curriculums are certainly influential factors in making this decision, so are campus amenities such as student clubs, athletic programs and dining halls. Enter our new College and University Protein Sustainability Scorecard, designed to help students navigate this choice by showing which institutions are making progress in expanding plant-based dining options and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Our food systems have an enormous impact on animals and the environment. According to the United Nations, one-third of all human-created greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the production of food, with the majority of these emissions attributed to animal agriculture. The industry that raises nearly 9 billion land animals for food each year in the U.S. alone is also responsible for widespread pollution, biodiversity loss and antibiotic resistance. While organic products or locally sourced goods are often touted as the quickest ways to reduce our diet’s climate footprint, they pale in comparison to the impact of shifting menus at major dining operations away from meat and other animal products.
Today’s rising college students are part of Gen Z, a generation comprised of globally conscious changemakers who are very vocal about their commitment to sustainable practices and their insistence that large institutions, such as the universities they attend, do the same. One of the growing ways students are looking to have a more positive impact on the world around them is by reevaluating what’s on their plates.
