Class project greens Brochstein

By Johanna Ohm     11/4/10 7:00pm

Customers familiar with the morning routine at Salento Cafe in the Brochstein Pavilion were served their habitual cup of joe with a distinct change when the "Green the Brochstein" kickoff event took place this past Monday. Baristas dawning green bowler caps and matching scarves advertised coming changes to the Pavilion through the new "Green the Brochstein" initiative, a student-led effort to make the cafe more environmentally conscious. The event, which was organized by a group of members of the class ENST 302: Environmental Issues: Rice Into the Future, was created to gauge consumer demand for more environmentally friendly offerings and organic food items at the cafe. Surveys were created to see if the added expense may be cost-effective in the long run. The event included special promotions such as free samples of a new sandwich, an opportunity to meet the head chef of Salento and discounted coffee for customers who brought their own reusable mugs.

Members of ENST 302, including Martel College junior Shamsa Mangalji, specifically chose Brochstein for their class project because they saw it as an opportune place for testing out the viability of more eco-friendly business practices. Each member of Mangalji's group focused on a particular aspect of energy use at Brochstein and tried to improve efficiency in that area. Baker College sophomore Claire Garney and Brown College freshman Erica Ojong are working on improving packaging for to-go items at the cafe and decreasing electricity usage inside the building, respectively, while Duncan College junior Lila Kerr and McMurtry College junior Wooyoung Hong are considering other aspects of energy use at Brochstein, including reducing the amount of waste that is discarded and making recycling-deposit bins more visible.

Mangalji said her group is learning a lot about integrating environmentally conscious ideas with practicality.

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Although her group had proposed many ideas to improve energy efficiency, Mangalji said not all of them were cost-effective or practical, and most of them will take significant time before being integrated into practice.

Mangalji cites the cost of local versus mass-produced jam as an example of financial barriers that make healthier, local choices difficult to use when a business needs to be concerned about profit. Jam previously used at Salento was $7 per 32-ounce jar, while locally produced jam used in Monday's sandwich samples was $12 per 8-ounce jar. Mangalji was able to negotiate with local suppliers to bring the cost of the jam down to match what Salento would be paying with the larger supplier.

Overall, Mangalji thought the event went well and said that she was particularly excited about having Salento Head Chef Annette Burnam available to talk to customers about the changing menu items and how they hope to offer foods that are healthier for both consumers and the planet.

"What we're putting back into our bodies should also be putting back into our communities," Burnam said.

Burnam realizes that offering new options can be risky.

"People don't like change," she said. "But we need to recognize that change is needed for our environment, for our generation and for generations to come."

She hopes that new offerings emphasizing local and more environmentally friendly choices will be embraced by Rice students and customers at Brochstein and can eventually be expanded to the Salento location in Rice Village.

After talking with Chef Burnam, sampling sandwiches and participating in the day's events, customers were asked to complete a survey asking about their perceptions of environmental practices and their opinions on the current atmosphere at Brochstein. Mangalji said it was mostly older customers who were filling out surveys.

Duncan College sophomore Hannah Bosley, who frequents Salento, had heard of the event but said she was not sure what it was - nor did she have the impression that others did.

"Not many people were talking about it," Bosley said. "I feel like it wasn't well advertised, and I wish I could have heard more about it."

Some students who were aware of the event took "Green the Brochstein" as a snub against the student-run Coffeehouse, whose already green-business practices have gone relatively unlauded.

"I was surprised at the way [some students] reacted," Mangalji said. "We are not trying to downplay Coffeehouse's green achievements with this project. We just want to see what it would take to change practices within [Brochstein] ... and really decrease Brochstein's carbon footprint."

Mangalji said she hopes that the two campus coffee providers can work together in the future on sharing eco-initiatives and helping make campus food options more environmentally responsible.

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