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Is University Doing Enough? Essay

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In recent years, Harvard, and other colleges, has improved its dining halls to become more sustainable and green. This change is in part due to the ever-growing attention on sustainability; there is a growing population of students who want to understand from where their food came, the impact of the university on the environment, and ways to reduce waste. Because of this popular topic, universities around the United States have turned to sustainable practices within their dining halls. Some efforts include recycling programs, food composts, tray-less dining, locally-sourced food, and much more. As a participating institution, Harvard has implemented some of these efforts. But, as a leader of colleges, is Harvard doing enough? Could there be obvious, easy efforts that Harvard is missing out on? Looking at other prestigious colleges with higher sustainability rankings, two main efforts seem to be missing from Harvard’s repertoire of efforts: student knowledge through multiple campaigns and tray-less dining. Using a survey of Harvard students that eat at Annenberg, a freshman dining hall on campus, students seem to understand that something is missing. With all the efforts that Harvard has done to create a sustainable, green dining hall experience, the student-viewed reality sees a lack of these efforts; therefore, Harvard can take multiple measures, including campaigns to make students more knowledgeable about Harvard University Dining Services’s efforts and efforts like

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