Acterra’s 2007 Business Environmental Awards Honor
“Green” Business Practices Around the Bay Area

Stanford Dining receives competitive environmental award

PALO ALTO, May 29, 2007 -- Acterra today announced the winners of
the prestigious 2007 Business Environmental Awards, identifying eleven companies and organizations who have demonstrated extraordinary
environmental leadership from among this year’s highly competitive field of Bay Area enterprises. In a sign of the growing corporate “greening” trend that has taken root nationally and is being led by large and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area, the numberof regional applicants competing for Acterra’s coveted Business Environmental Awards more than doubled this year.

Stanford Dining, received the first Acterra Award for Sustainability for its continuous and comprehensive approach toward sustainable business practices. A division of Residential & Dining Enterprises at Stanford University, Stanford Dining serves 18,000 meals a day in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner. Committed to be the best in the industry, Stanford Dining serves healthy, seasonal, organic produce from local farms, including a studentmaintained community garden. Resource use and waste production are minimized by purchasing as much food as possible from farms within a 250-mile radius, and serving meals on reusable tableware which is cleaned with energy- and water-efficient washers. Food waste, paper napkins, and compostable servicewear are composted.

Executive Director of Stanford Dining, Rafi Taherian, and Associate Vice Provost of Residential & Dining Enterprises, Shirley Everett, have infused the organization with their passion for sustainability. All staff members are trained in sustainable practices, and have become active participants and proponents of Stanford Dining’s commitment to sustainability. All regular employees receive full health benefits and are paid a living wage. Stanford Dining has demonstrated that by collaborating with employees, students, customers, farmers, vendors, waste management firms and utilities companies, it can encourage sustainable practices from all its business stakeholders.

According to Norm Ploss, the lead judge for the sustainability category, "The Stanford Dining program gained the edge over a field of very fine and qualified candidates due to its exercise of its multiplier effect potential, its program commitment, and penchant to examine the details of service delivery…They have examined and altered every aspect of dining service delivery: equipment choices, operations recycling, minimization of food and materials waste, timing and number of supplier deliveries, 250-mile preference distance to sustainable
food sources, onsite meetings with farmers, examination of the treatment
of the workers of its suppliers, opportunities for on-site employee
advancement to higher levels, internet visibility...collaboration
and communication, on-campus gardening, and campus-wide [education
programs] with organic-sustainable-fair trade orientations."

During a rigorous three-month judging process which involved
more than 25 regional environmental and sustainability experts, over
50 competitors in Acterra’s Business Environmental Awards showcased
their environmental innovations in six categories including sustainability;
sustainable built environment; environmental & sustainability education;
environmental enterprise; commute and transportation, and
pollution prevention/resource conservation.

Acterra is a Bay Area non-profit with a 37-year history of innovation in bringing people together to address environmental challenges and create local and regional solutions that foster a healthy natural environment. Acterra’s programs offer ways for community members and local businesses to take action against global warming, to restore native habitats, and to educate and cultivate environmental leaders for the future. For more information visit www.acterra.org.

STANFORD CATERING EXECUTIVE CHEF WINS GOLD

LONG BEACH, CA, Tuesday, February 20, 2007 – Stanford Catering Executive Chef, Andrew Mayne, won the American Culinary Federation Gold Medal and took first place in the Culinary Challenge at the National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS) Pacific regional conference at the University of California, Long Beach on Tuesday, February 20, 2007.

Culinary Challenge competitors were given 60 minutes to prepare a dish featuring the ingredient, extra firm tofu. Chef Mayne’s award-winning dish, which he called Tofu For You, was a trio of tofu preparations including tofu napoleon with goat cheese on a bed of Jerusalem artichoke mash with chive oil and tomato coulis; tempura battered tofu with ponzu sauce (citrus-based); and a decadent chocolate tofu mousse. Tofu For You was unanimously voted the winner.

Chef Mayne has been the Stanford Catering chef since 2004 and has over 20 years of experience in the catering industry. A native of New Zealand, Chef Mayne has worked in both England and Australia, and owned his own catering business for five years before coming to Stanford. He will now represent Stanford and the Pacific Region in July at the national NACUFS Culinary Challenge to be held in Seattle.

Stanford Dining is a division of Residential & Dining Enterprises. Executive Director for Stanford Dining, Rafi Taherian said, “We have built an award-winning team to provide our campus community with the best food and service. We are pleased to see that our team continues to receive national recognition.”

With Chef Mayne’s win, Stanford Dining now holds three American Culinary Federation Gold Medals and four First Place finishes in the Culinary Challenge. Chef Raul Lacara, executive chef and general manager of Schwab Executive Center, won the regional Culinary Challenge in 2001 & 2004 and the national award in 2004. Chef Jeff Rosen, student dining quality assurance chef, won the challenge in 2005.