These 7 Colleges Are Making Plant-Based Dining the New Norm This Fall

As the leaves change this fall, so do menus at universities nationwide — with plant-based foods rising to the top. Meanwhile, the Better Food Foundation (BFF) has teamed up with the research team at Faunalytics to release a deep dive report into the peer-reviewed science behind DefaultVeg — the simple idea of making plant-based foods the default choice, with the option to request meat and dairy products — and how it’s transforming dining at scale. We explain how to put defaults and other behavioral “nudges” into action to shift food choices rapidly, cut meat and dairy’s environmental impacts, and reduce carbon emissions by 23.6% to 43.7%!

Here’s our digest of DefaultVeg shifts sweeping college campuses this semester:

Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA

Working as a DefaultVeg Ambassador with BFF and the New Roots Institute, student Abbie Crawford helped campus dining staff relocate the plant-based food options from a secluded room into the main cafeteria, making these options available for all students to enjoy.

New York University

Students Lucy Whitney and Morgan Greenlaw, DefaultVeg Ambassadors also supported by New Roots Institute, have continued to collect commitments for plant-based defaults on campus. Through their work, nine new campus organizations and departments will serve plant-based meals as the default option (with the choice to opt in for animal products) at events and catering:

• Animal Welfare Collective
• Anthropozine
• The Community Agriculture Project @ NYU
• Effective Altruism NYU
• The Future Fashion Group
• The Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program
• NYU Environmental Law Journal
• Stern Center for Sustainable Business
• The Wild Animal Welfare Program

Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands

After switching to plant-based defaults for on-campus catering with BFF’s support in 2021, the university now offers oatmilk as the default creamer at coffee corners across campus. For every latte switched from dairy to oat, they’re saving approximately two showers’ worth of water! And the impacts add up: Per liter of dairy switched to oatmilk, a cafe saves almost 600 L of water (nearly 10 showers’ worth) and 2.25 kg CO2eq of emissions.

Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles, CA

For the launch of the Partnership for Academic Leadership in Sustainability (PALS) Summit in October, Otis offered plant-based food by default in the registration form, which led to 100% plant-based food at the event.

University of San Diego

After successfully piloting an oatmilk default at Aromas Cafe for the last two spring semesters with the support of BFF and New Roots Institute, students with the university’s Changemaker HUB worked to remove the oatmilk upcharge permanently across campus — making sustainable coffee more accessible to all students.

Cornell University in Ithaca, NY

Jessica Cohen, supported by New Roots Institute, achieved not only the removal of the upcharge for plant-based milks but also the dairy default for all cafes on campus. Now, every time students order coffee, they’re asked what milk they want, rather than dairy being automatically provided. This change is particularly noteworthy at Cornell because the campus hosts its own dairy farm, complete with a Dairy Bar that serves more than 1 million pounds of milk per year. Dropping the dairy default will have a major impact: With this simple shift, one cafe in Portland reported a 12% decrease in drinks’ carbon emissions.

“We are keeping our planet green, one sip at a time.”

-Meng-Wei Hsu, Cornell’s Head of Retail Dining

University of California, Berkeley

In partnership with the Plant Futures Challenge Lab, DefaultVeg Ambassador Amber Cheng, alongside students Melania Gomez Rodriguez, Luiza Skowronski Flynn, and Giana Joann Medina, worked with the leadership of of BEACN to make their events plant-based by default. BEACN is UC Berkeley’s premier student-run environmental and strategy consulting group, and this step will help them put their sustainability values into action with food. UC Berkeley is also making waves with a new commitment to make at least 50 percent of its entree offerings plant-based by 2027, in partnership with the Humane Society of the United States.

If you’re ready to bring this plant-based momentum to your school this fall, contact us or sign up for our DefaultVeg Student Ambassador Program to unlock resources, tools, training, and 1-on-1 support. And if you’ve come across an exciting example of any plant-based default in practice, submit it to us via this form to be featured in the next roundup!