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An investigation into Bring Your Own Container program

University of British Columbia. Sustainability Office

Alma Mater Society (AMS) intends to implement several of sustainable concepts into the new Student Union Building (SUB) to achieve better sustainability for the entire campus. The Bring Your Own Container (BYOC) concept is one of these new ideas being brought up. A BYOC food outlet does not provide any take-out containers and cups, and customers are required to bring their own containers. The purpose of this report is to investigate, using the triple-bottom line assessment, the feasibility of operating one of the eleven food outlets in the New SUB as a BYOC food outlet. In addition, recommendations on promoting this concept are provided. Triple bottom line refers to decision making that takes into account of economic, environmental, and social impacts. For the economic aspect, monetary gain or loss for both food outlets and customers are considered. For environmental aspect, materials used for producing disposable and reusable containers, life cycles for both kinds of containers and energy consumption for using them are considered. For social aspect, interest of UBC students and UBC Food Services (UBCFS) staff into the BYOC concept, health issue of using disposable and reusable containers, and influence to the society brought by the concept are considered Based on our results, BYOC concept is environmentally feasible with some restrictions; it is partially feasible in terms of social aspect and economically infeasible. Although the results are not optimistic, the BYOC concept is feasible as there is only one food outlet that will be operated with this concept. In terms of educational and testing purpose, this concept is worthwhile to be given a try. In order to promote its feasibility, more discount in the BYOC food outlet and more advisement about it are recommended. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Text

University of British Columbia. APSC 261; UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0108487

Applied Science, Faculty of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/