The University of Colorado Boulder has earned the #1 spot in a sustainability scorecard for its climate-friendly, plant-based menu offerings in its dining halls.

The Humane Society of the United States ranked CU Boulder first place out of 39 institutions in its 2025 College and University Protein Sustainability Scorecard. CU Boulder was the only participating university that had more than 50% plant-based menu offerings, and the university plans to increase it to 75% this year.

“We’re really excited to be getting that recognition and seeing that we are a leader in our sector of colleges and universities for plant-based dining,” said Eliah Golden, CU Boulder associate director for residential dining and culinary operations.

Golden said plant-based dining has been a focus at CU Boulder for the last decade. The goal isn’t to take away or limit meat, rather it’s to add vegetables and plant-based food and make it more available to everyone.

“It’s really about putting the spotlight on those ingredients in equal measure to what we do that might be meat based,” Golden said. “If you walk around our dining centers, there’s a full array of options for everybody, and we really like to highlight the amazing produce that is grown in Boulder County. We work with local farms and food hubs and lots of local producers where we can highlight what Boulder County has to offer and that’s something that’s really exciting and inspirational to us in our menus.”

CU Boulder Dining Services has 318 full-time team members and 600 students who serve 3.5 million meals every year. The university sources meat and produce from local farmers and producers, tracks its greenhouse gas emissions, minimizes waste and grows some of its greens right on campus.Brian Frazier is the general manager of Village Center Dining hall on campus. The dining hall includes a greenhouse that grows food including strawberries, kale, mizuna, arugula, basil, peppers and tomatoes.

When standing at the salad bar in the Village Center Dining, there’s a clear view of the plants growing in tall, white towers in the greenhouse that’s visible through large glass windows. When it’s harvested, the food grown in the greenhouse only has to travel a few feet to be served to students.

“We actually serve the greens in our greenhouse in our salad bar,” Frazier said, adding, “It’s literally farm to table which is really cool.”

CU Boulder is part of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, or MCURC. It uses research and data-backed philosophies to promote healthy, sustainable and delicious food in universities, and incrementally in last decade, CU Boulder has been applying those practices to their menus.

For example, one practice the university adopted is blending its burgers with 20% mushroom. The long-standing practice at CU results in a flavor rich, nutrient-dense burger while reducing red meat purchases by 20% for each burger. It tastes good, promotes cost savings, benefits the environment and is healthier for students.

“We are serving our students multiple times a day all throughout their college career,” Golden said. “It really is a responsibility of ours to offer fresh, healthy, nutritionally dense, beautifully prepared, delicious cuisine for them. This will only help them in their academic pursuits and shape their palates for when they move forward and beyond after their experience at CU.”

Freshman Nina Menozzi frequently eats in the dining halls at CU Boulder. She especially loves the breakfast and the salad bar, which she said has a lot of different options.

“You can get a kind of homecooked or homestyle meal when you’re away from home, which is nice,” Menozzi said, adding, “There’s such a variety that you can definitely find a balance between healthier stuff and also enjoyable, indulgent (food.)”

She said her friends all feel the same way.

“We all agree, we’re lucky to have such nice food facilities because a lot of other colleges don’t have as wide variety and as high quality (food),” Menozzi said.

Golden said the menu becomes more exciting with the addition of plant-based food, offering diverse options and varying textures, colors and flavors. They offer everything from pizza and burgers to cauliflower chickpea or tofu curry to burritos and tacos to gyros and falafel.

“We really want to make our menus colorful, fresh and fantastic for all,” Golden said.