Digital Commons Network^™

Examining Sustainable Food Practices In Luxury Gastronomic Restaurants: A Comparison Between Michelin-Starred Restaurants And Luxury Fine Dining Restaurants, Hiran Roy, Thomas Gomes, Vikas Arya

TTRA Canada 2023 Conference

Abstract
Sustainable practices are increasingly promoted in the restaurant sectors. While sustainability in luxury gastronomy restaurants (hereby Michelin-starred and luxury fine dining restaurants) has rarely been explored especially from Vancouver context. Michelin-starred and fine dining restaurants are significant influencers of sustainable food promotion. Therefore, this study explores chefs’ motivations to adopt and promote sustainable food experiences through extrinsic (planet and people) and intrinsic (plate, pleasure, and place) factors. A qualitative approach (semi-structured interview) will be employed to collect data from a sample of Michelin-starred and fine dining restaurants. It is anticipated that this study will be strengthening the existing literature …

2023 Sustainability Report, Madeline Rawson

Sustainability Reports & Plans

Based on the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education's (AASHE) Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) Report (Rated Gold) published February 17, 2023, this report breaks sustainability down into twelve categories and articulates recommended next steps for each topic. Along with these detailed recommendations, there are three overarching steps that UMass Amherst can take to advance sustainability on campus quickly and efficiently. This report was designed and written by Madeline Rawson at GreenerU.

Climate Change And Modern Education: Preparing For A Sustainable Future, Poulomi Chakravarty, Sai Gattupalli, Stephen Mcginty

College of Education Student Publication Series

Climate change is a global phenomenon that has attracted widespread attention in recent decades due to its profound impact on the environment and society. Although climate change is a phenomenon occurring since the inception of Earth, anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel consumption due to industrialization, transportation and domestic usage, deforestation and land use changes due to urbanization have accelerated the process. Climate education has become an important part of modern education as it helps raise awareness of the issue and promote behavior of climate consciousness which leads to climate action in a positive direction. The authors highlight the values …

An In Vitro Comparison Of The Digestibility And Gastrointestinal Fate Of Scallops And Plant-Based Scallop Analogs, Zhiyun Zhang, Dingkui Qin, Kanon Kobata, Jiajia Rao, Jiakai Lu, David Julian Mcclements

Food Science Department Faculty Publication Series

Concerns exist regarding the negative environmental impact and health risks associated with ocean fishing and aquaculture, such as stock depletion, pollution, biodiversity loss, and toxin presence. To address these concerns, plant-based seafood analogs are being developed. Our previous study successfully created plant-based scallop analogs using pea proteins and citrus pectin, resembling real scallops in appearance and texture. This study focuses on comparing the digestive fate of these analogs to real scallops, as it can impact their nutritional properties. Using an in vitro digestion model (INFOGEST), we simulated oral, gastric, and small intestinal conditions. The analysis revealed differences in the microstructure, …

“Trash Talk” - Rethinking The Notion Of Waste, Shivaangi Salhotra

Student Showcase

In the twenty-first century, waste has become a ubiquitous problem. Images of things like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch have ceased to become jarring, and pictures of overflowing landfills and statistics about plastic in the ocean have become so commonplace that they are “memed”. Yet despite increasing awareness and changes in policy, global waste production and its deleterious effects continue to rise. Dominant narratives surrounding waste tend to focus on how individuals can properly dispose of their waste, which, while certainly important, is not the full story. It doesn't question why we produce so much waste in the first place, …

The Oak & The Mailbox: The Social Impacts Of Tree Loss, Madeline D. Fabian

Student Showcase

Last fall, I was strolling through the woods near Sylvan Residential Area and stumbled upon a mysterious mailbox residing about 20 feet away from a marvelous oak tree. Inside, the mailbox held a black-and-white composition notebook containing poetry, artwork, and love stories left by passersby. While reading, I was struck by the soulful connection so many strangers had felt to the large oak tree, and. I began to contemplate the social impacts of trees-- and tree loss. I tracked down the artist who started the notebook and decided to pursue the story for my Narrative Journalism class. I spoke with …

New2u Impact Report: Fostering Sustainability And Student Engagement At Umass, Sarah Welch

Student Showcase

This report presents a cost-benefit analysis of the New2U reuse and waste reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass). Rooted in the university's strategic goals, New2U addresses the environmental impact of landfill waste generated during student move-outs. The program, initiated in 2014, has diverted 80,000 pounds of waste, saving 127 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by redistributing items through a tag sale during move-in.

The Sustainability Of Decarbonizing The Grid: A Multi-Model Decision Analysis Applied To Mexico, Rodrigo Mercado Fernandez, Erin Baker

Publications

Mexico recognizes its vulnerability to the effects of climate change, including sea level rise, increasing average temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events and changes to the hydrological cycle. Because of these concerns Mexico has a vested interest in developing sustainable strategies for mitigating climate change as it develops its electricity grid. In this study, we use a set of sustainability criteria to evaluate a number of model-derived pathways for the electricity grid aimed at meeting Mexico's climate goals. We use a multi-step approach, combining pathways from multiple large scale global models with a detailed electricity model to leverage geographic information …

Urban Greening Techniques In U.S. Cities: Public Welfare Or Social Warfare?, Gwynnevere Klumpenaar

Student Showcase

This paper examines ways in which urban greening techniques, such as rain gardens, parks, micro-mobility measures, etc. might not serve entire communities, even gentrifying them in some cases. It addresses the following research question: how have urban greening techniques excluded marginalized groups from ecological services and gentrified low-income neighborhoods in the United States? Lastly, recommendations for how to improve access to ecological services provided by urban greening techniques are made.

Cooked Nature: What Three Classic Books On The American Lawn Can Tell Us About Our Current Struggle To Mitigate Climate Change, Gregory N. Poelker-Mckee

Student Showcase

My essay, “Cooked Nature: What Three Classic Books on the American Lawn Can Tell Us About Our Current Struggle to Mitigate Climate Change,” attempts to explain the dissonance between our collective desire for sustainability and our inability to reduce our own carbon footprints. Through the history of the American lawn, one can learn how culture and industry have shaped the landscape of our country, and how they continue to shape our lives today.

This paper grew out of my lifelong confusion regarding our lawns. Why do they exist? Why is it often expected that they be perfectly green year-round? Why …

Future Proofing: Changing Tourism Education To Change Business Practices, Maria Della Lucia Ph.D., Frederic Dimanche Ph.D.

TTRA Canada 2021 Conference

Introduction: This paper addresses the TTRA Canada conference sub-theme “Future-Proofing: Learning from Today to Build Back Tomorrow.” The pandemic has accelerated discussion about the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of tourism, social equity, workers’ dignity, as well as the long-term climate crisis. Tourism and the pandemic have led to a series of discussions about whether tourism can indeed be sustainable (e.g., Benjamin et al., 2020). The fact that the tourism industry has been the economic activity that was the most affected by the pandemic feeds this discussion (Della Lucia, Giudici, & Dimanche, 2021) . The sector has shown that it …

One Step Back, Two Steps Forward, One Destination’S Path To Tourism Recovery., Eleanor Anderson

TTRA Canada 2021 Conference

One step back, two steps forward, one destination’s path to tourism recovery.

2021 TTRA Canada Virtual Conference. October 13-15, 2021

Submitted July 21, 2021 Virtual Presentation Length 15 minutes

Keywords: Tourism, Covid-19, Recovery, Destination, Sustainability, Cape Breton

Introduction

Cape Breton Island, on Canada's east coast, has long been lauded by travel media as a tourist destination of choice, including being recently named as the #1 Island in North America by Conde Nast Traveler and the #1 Island in Canada during the 2020 and 2021Travel & Leisure World’s Best Awards.

Cape Breton’s economy is heavily dependent on the employment and revenue …

Methods For Testing The Quality Attributes Of Plant-Based Foods: Meat- And Processed-Meat Analogs, David Julian Mcclements, Jochen Weiss, Amanda J. Kinchla, Alissa A. Nolden, Lutz Grossmann

Food Science Department Faculty Publication Series

The modern food system is seeing a change in consumption patterns provoked by several drivers—including ethical, health, and environmental concerns—that are increasing the sales of meat analog foods. This change is accompanied by increased research and development activities in the area of plant-based meats. The aim of the present review is to describe methods that are being employed by scientists to analyze and characterize the properties of meat alternatives and to propose standardized methods that could be utilized in the future. In particular, methods to determine the proximate composition, microstructure, appearance, textural properties, water-holding properties, cooking resilience, and sensory attributes, …

Application Of Nanotechnology To Improve The Performance Of Biodegradable Biopolymer-Based Packaging Materials, Arezou Khezerlou, Milad Tavassoli, Mahmood Alizadeh Sani, Keyhan Mohammadi, Ali Ehsani, David Julian Mcclements

Food Science Department Faculty Publication Series

There is great interest in developing biodegradable biopolymer-based packaging materials whose functional performance is enhanced by incorporating active compounds into them, such as light blockers, plasticizers, crosslinkers, diffusion blockers, antimicrobials, antioxidants, and sensors. However, many of these compounds are volatile, chemically unstable, water-insoluble, matrix incompatible, or have adverse effects on film properties, which makes them difficult to directly incorporate into the packaging materials. These challenges can often be overcome by encapsulating the active compounds within food-grade nanoparticles, which are then introduced into the packaging materials. The presence of these nanoencapsulated active compounds in biopolymer-based coatings or films can greatly improve …

Environmental Decision-Making, Ezra Markowitz

Sustainability Education Resources

Over the past 30 years, there has been a growing recognition amongst environmental advocates, resource managers, policymakers and researchers that the underlying cause of most environmental, conservation and sustainability issues is human behavior. As NRC and ENVIRSCI majors, you have received extensive technical training in how natural systems operate yet relatively little training when it comes to influencing or understanding how people make environmental decisions that affect those natural systems. Recognizing the fundamental role that human decision-making plays in shaping the environment reveals a new set of tools and approaches for both understanding the challenges we face and confronting those …

Transportation Sustainability, Eleni Christofa

Sustainability Education Resources

An overview of sustainable transportation planning practices and management strategies and policies; current transportation trends; environmental and energy policies; nonmotorized modes (mainly bicycles and pedestrians); public transportation; life-cycle assessment for transportation infrastructure; alternative fuel vehicles; vehicle emission estimation models; demand management strategies (including parking policies, pricing strategies).

Understanding Food And Climate Change: A Systems Perspective, Megan Brockelbank

Sustainability Education Resources

Climate change will profoundly affect our lives in many ways, even down to the very food we eat. Food is essential for survival and our complex food system, and all that depends on it, face a big threat with climate change. Throughout the semester we will explore the links between the food system and our changing climate with an emphasis on systems thinking. In science we tend to segregate, looking at just one part of a system, while systems thinking looks at the whole picture. Using this approach, we will think critically about how to build a more resilient food …

Beyond Green Cars And Goddesses: Gender, The Global Environment, And Sustainability, Kiran Asher

Sustainability Education Resources

Gender, the environment and sustainability are key terms in debates about economic globalization and social justice. While not new, they are reemerging as part of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. This course will introduce students to the perceived and existing links between women, gender, and the global environment as they appear in 21st century discussions about sustainable development. Through readings, lectures and discussions will explore the following questions:  When did the environment and sustainability emerge as key biological and social issues on global agendas?  What are their connections to economic globalization? To colonialism and capitalism?  How did …

Healthy Placemaking - Revitalizing Springfield's Medical District, Allyson Fairweather, Michael Gagnon, Tianyi Guan, James Mealey, Gwendolyn Stoll, Peter Wackernagel

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Healthy Placemaking - Revitalizing Springfield’s Medical District

Healthy Placemaking for the North End Medical District was a community engagement urban design studio for Springfield, MA to propose a new vision for the Medical District as an exemplary model of healthy place-making. WHAT IS HEALTHY PLACE-MAKING? Healthy place-making is a creative process that generates an interconnected mixture of amenities that activate the public realm, creating a livelihood that builds upon sense of place. Urban design strategies consider the ecological relationship between people and the environment in order to provide design interventions that improve the mental, physical, social, and economic wellbeing of …

Springfield's Legacy: A Vision For A Transformative Transit-Oriented Union Station District, Keith Benoit, Nigel Cummings, Caitlan Davis, Kinjal Desai, Marcos Gonzalez, Jiaqi Guo, Anna Kellerman, Olivia Ashjian James, Bryce Lloyd-Hahn, Stephen Mccusker, Chris Ramage, Jessica Schottanes

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This urban design studio developed concepts around equitable transportation Union Station in Springfield, Massachusetts. The work creates a vision for the Union Station District, a revitalized mixed-use walkable neighborhood adjacent to the restored transportation center. It emphasizes reusing the city’s historic street grid in new, forward thinking ways that enhance neighborhood connectivity. The plan creates physical and social networks that bring together diverse groups of residents and visitors. The Union Station District will be a place that offers a range of non-automobile transportation options to residents and visitors and will help transforming an area characterized by vacant lots and empty …

Knitting Together Communities - Designing The Heart Of Six Corners And Old Hill, Samantha Bowman, Ankur Choudhary, Alexandria Connell, Megan Davey, Katina Decoulos, Richard Duhamel, Brooklyn Feng, Ian Finn, Doreen Guan, Sophia Liquori, Connor Moloney, Claudia Namaroff, Emily Noonan, Hunter Proulx, Stephen Rezendes, Maura Robitaille, Vincent Shu, Jaques Skriletz, Frank Sleegers

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Knitting together Communities -Designing the Heart of Six Corners and Old Hill

Knitting Together Communities – Designing the Heart of Six Corners and Old Hill provides a framework to knit together assets and opportunities for creating a strong identity and sense of coherence for a transformative urban district in Springfield, MA. The Senior Urban Design Studio 2019 created six proposals that were searching for design opportunities that enhance the aesthetic quality of the neighborhood and increase services for the wellbeing of the residents. The two neighborhoods are characterized by strong neighborhood leadership through committed residents, community centers and active religious …

Development Of Next-Generation Nutritionally Fortified Plant-Based Milk Substitutes: Structural Design Principles, David Julian Mcclements

Food Science Department Faculty Publication Series

Consumers are increasingly interested in decreasing their dietary intake of animal-based food products, due to health, sustainability, and ethical concerns. For this reason, the food industry is creating new products from plant-based ingredients that simulate many of the physicochemical and sensory attributes associated with animal-derived foods, including milk, eggs, and meat. An understanding of how the ingredient type, amount, and organization influence the desirable physicochemical, sensory, and nutritional attributes of these plant-based foods is required to achieve this goal. A potential problem with plant-based diets is that they lack key micronutrients, such as vitamin B₁₂, vitamin D, calcium, …

Sustainability In Comparative Religious Perspective, Aviva Ben-Ur

Sustainability Education Resources

This course explores how various cultures through time and space have interacted with the natural environment in an effort to achieve material, spiritual, and medical wellbeing. We will closely examine sustainability as reflected in a variety of spiritual traditions (from “animism” to Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, polytheism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and in societies or in social phenomena not necessarily driven by any “religious” system (such as hunter-gatherers, nomads, socialist and communist kibbutzim or Sirius, an intentional community and eco-village in Shutesbury, Massachusetts). The current “greening” philosophy spreading across the U.S.A. and globally has created a campus-wide (and 5-College-wide) thirst …

Sustainable Grape Production, Elsa Petit

Sustainability Education Resources

I am excited for you to join me and your colleague students (Sustainable Food and Farming, Sustainable Horticulture, Mathematics, Food Science, Biology, Individual concentration) on this course in Sustainable Grape Production. The course is fully remote with synchronous meetings offered through Zoom. The industry of cool climate viticulture is growing thanks to newly bred varieties adapted to our local conditions. A number of small, family-run vineyards have been opening in New England. You will learn the principles and practices governing the establishment and management of an organic or sustainable vineyard. You will learn practices such as pruning, grafting, and vineyard …

Pigs And Poultry, Nicole Burton

Sustainability Education Resources

This course provides students with a farmer’s perspective on the management, production and marketing of poultry and pigs on a small farm. This course will address the advantages of having pigs and poultry and will review basic care, processing options, regulations, marketing and finances. The course will be structured around lectures, farm visits, guest lectures and acquiring hands on skills. We will explore different alternative farming systems that utilize animals to enhance their production. At the end of this course, students will be able to utilize pigs and poultry as an integral part of their small farm plan.

Social And Environmental Enterprises, Elizabeth Schmidt

Sustainability Education Resources

Social and Environmental Enterprises examines organizations that place a social mission ahead of or on par with their financial mission. Students in this course take initial steps towards creating a fictional social mission enterprise, using tools such as systems thinking, design thinking, Lean Startup methodologies, impact measurement, and budget development. Once we understand the practical challenges and opportunities of these enterprises, we consider norms and public policies that can help social enterprises succeed--taxation, governance, finance measures, asset locks, and employment rules. We will have several guests over the course of the semester, who will also help us see how these …

Small Farm Husbandry: Cow, Sheep And Goat For Meat Production, Nicole Burton

Sustainability Education Resources

This course provides students with a farmer’s perspective on the sustainable management of cows, sheep and goats on a small farm. The course provides students with a clear understanding of how to think through the planning and management of cows, sheep and goats for meat production. All aspects from purchasing and nutrition to marketing and finances will be addressed. This course also brings awareness to the U.S. meat industry and supports students in becoming educated consumers and producers. Students will walk away with a rudimentary plan on how to incorporate ruminants into their small farm plan.

Governing Knowledge Commons, Charlie Schweik

Sustainability Education Resources

Over the last decade or more, there has been a detectable and growing dissatisfaction among students with the "status quo" in the way the society works. Students have witnessed terrorism, long-term war, a "great recession," the "Occupy" movement, effects of climate change and worse projections to come, and most recently, a global pandemic with a great impact on the economy. Many students are looking for models of hope and alternatives to the status quo on how society at local, regional and global levels might operate to collectively address problems.

In this course, we will review historical and contemporary commons cases. …

Introduction To Oceanography – Honors (Geol 103h), Isla Casteneda

Sustainability Education Resources

A general education course designed to acquaint you with the fascinating features of the nearly 71% of our home planet covered by water. These are broad themes that reflect the spirit and value of the general education curriculum that is a part of your UMass experience. As citizens of our small world, we would argue that everyone should take a course like this! With jet service to almost anywhere in the world, financial markets electronically and politically linked for “real time” transactions 24-7, and global populations striving to live as well as we do here in the U.S., it's important …

Environmental Decision-Making (Nrc 494 Ei), Ezra Markowitz

Sustainability Education Resources

Over the past 30 years, there has been a growing recognition amongst environmental advocates, resource managers, policymakers and researchers that the underlying cause of most environmental, conservation and sustainability issues is human behavior. As NRC and ENVIRSCI majors, you have received extensive technical training in how natural systems operate yet relatively little training when it comes to influencing or understanding how people make environmental decisions that affect those natural systems. Recognizing the fundamental role that human decision-making plays in shaping the environment reveals a new set of tools and approaches for both understanding the challenges we face and confronting those …