An Analysis of Resource Consumption in Cafeteria Dish-pits on Dalhousie Campuses

Abstract

The goal of this Greening the Campus research project was to assess the water and energy use in the dishwashing facilities at the four Dalhousie residence cafeterias. Understanding the amount of water and energy used in these areas is crucial to developing reduction strategies which will help to create a more sustainable university campus. Water and energy usage data for this project was collected by both direct measurement and non-probabilistic surveys. Each method of direct measurement was tailored to the different apparatus at each cafeteria. This data was then used to calculate fuel requirements and associated green house gas emission per cafeteria. Due to time restrictions and lack of information, the green house gas calculations were deemed invalid and should be disregarded. It was discovered that Howe Hall cafeteria consumes the most amount of water and uses the most amount of energy. In a week the four cafeterias together consume 152, 965L of water and use 10, 444 kWh of energy. Recommendations to reduce water and energy use were made based upon water and energy use data collected. These reduction methods included behavioural changes as well as product upgrades and infrastructure retrofits.