The path to zero emissions for Ann Arbor food service businesses is becoming clearer thanks to the work of six students at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), who have been working on establishing a roadmap in support of the A2Zero carbon neutrality vision. 

“The core of the project is to make sustainability and sustainable choices within restaurants as accessible as possible,” says Miriam Megdal (MS ’25), one of the students working on the master’s capstone project.

The team’s client, Ann Arbor/Washtenaw 2030 District (AA2030), is part of a network of 24 cities across North America that have committed to reducing building operational emissions, water consumption and transportation greenhouse gas emissions through over 600 million square feet of commercial building space in these participating cities. 

The project “started with just greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and then expanded to include water conservation, food procurement, energy efficiency, employee education and waste reduction,” as the team’s interest moved beyond the initial scope, says Maithilee Kanthi (MS/MBA ’26), another master’s project team member.

To launch the project, the team contacted all of the local bars and restaurants in Ann Arbor to conduct surveys on their sustainability practices and asked if they would be willing to be interviewed. From these interviews and surveys, they found that “a lot of people had a lack of knowledge, time or financial resources to implement different sustainability initiatives,” which framed the basis of their work, says Annika Smuts (MS ’25). Kanthi adds, “It was when we started talking to actual local restaurant owners and managers that we began to develop the tangible actions that people can take.” 

Through the support of the Ann Arbor food scene, they developed an advisory committee of food service business owners who gave their time to review the project materials and give feedback, for which the master’s project team says they are incredibly grateful.

The nearly completed roadmap is divided into three levels to make it accessible for varying levels of sustainability knowledge.

• For those with baseline sustainability knowledge, they provide educational modules and resources.
• For those with moderate knowledge, they provide answers to frequently asked questions.
• For those with a deeper understanding, they provide a comprehensive checklist, including day-to-day operations and long-term goals.

The project emphasizes the inclusion of all local food service businesses from a variety of cuisines and cultural types, making sure equity and representation are a focus. Since the work has been done in partnership with the Ann Arbor Area Sustainable Food Business Coalition, the city is planning to plug the roadmap into their website to reach a wider audience.

The project team is preparing to present their findings and roadmap recommendations to the entirety of the 2030 Districts Network. They say they are excited to be sharing their resources with other cities to widen their scope of impact.

“One thing that I am most proud of in this project is seeing the passion for sustainability that is palpable in this community,” says Megdal. “The goal, of course, is to make sustainability accessible, so if that were to happen one day, if someone were to come to us and say ‘your roadmap made it easy to find a local rebate program so I could buy energy efficient appliances,’ that would be a dream come true.”

The project was advised by Geoff Lewis, research area specialist lead in the SEAS Center for Sustainable Systems. He says he expects the project team’s work to help food service establishments become more sustainable. 

“This project—the fifth SEAS project with AA2030—provides resources to help restaurants make measurable progress in moving towards more sustainable operations, which also puts them more in sync with the Ann Arbor community’s environmental ethic,” says Lewis.  

The other team members are Sarah Bibb (MS ’25), Yaorong Liu (MS ’25) and Zenghongli (Aslan) Zhou (MS ’25).