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Ecoversity
What is Sodexo’s policy as a multinational company on environmental and ethical issues?
In 2003 Sodexo issued a formal sustainable development strategy, backed by a commitment to attaining specific objectives set for each of its stakeholders.
Sodexo’s senior management signed the Ethical Principles and Sustainable Development Contract and is committed to communicating and respecting the ethical principles and its sustainable development values for its employees. The Contact has been translated into 14 languages.
Sodexo has joined international organisations that reflect its values and its commitment to corporate citizenship. It joined the UN Global Compact in 2003 which is a framework for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. As the world's largest, global corporate citizenship initiative, the Global Compact is first and foremost concerned with exhibiting and building the social legitimacy of business and markets. Visit unglobalcompact.org
Sodexo is proud of its many achievements and for being recognised as a responsible global business. For the third consecutive year in the UK Sodexo has been named as one of Business in the Community's (BITC) Top 100 ‘Companies that Count’, in a list comprised of the top performing companies from BITC’s Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index, the UK’s leading benchmark for responsible business practice.
Globally, following Sodexo’s inclusion for the third consecutive year in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, Sodexo has gained three-fold recognition in Sustainable Asset Management’s (SAM) 2008 "Sustainability Yearbook," which identifies companies that combine economic performance with sustainability, among the world's 2,500 largest corporations. Within its industry sector, Sodexo was distinguished as:
• SAM Worldwide Supersector Leader 2008, which recognises a company’s economic, environmental and social success factors;
• SAM Gold Class 2008, which identifies the best performers among the Supersector
Leaders;
• SAM Sector Mover 2008, for the progress made in sustainable development and the strong momentum achieved across the sector.
Only 10 companies in the world received all three distinctions in the 2008 report, highlighting both
Sodexo’s own performance as well as its influence on its industry sector.
Sodexo has been a member of the FTSE4Good Index since its creation in 2001, the selection criteria for which includes working towards environmental sustainability, developing positive relationships with stakeholders, and upholding and supporting universal human rights. FTSE4Good is a financial index series that is designed to identify and facilitate investment in companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards. Companies in the FTSE4Good index series are doing more to manage their social, ethical and environmental impacts, and are better positioned to capitalise on the benefits of responsible business practice.
How can a multinational company like Sodexo have a positive impact on the planet?
Sodexo recognises its responsibility to the environment and strives to achieve environmental best practice. Sodexo is not a major direct polluter. Its greatest impact is through its use of fuel, energy, its consumption of water and the waste associated with its businesses.
In these areas Sodexo is working to reduce its impact. For example Sodexo is working closely with its primary distributors to simplify and strengthen the supply chain. Through consolidation between January and December 2007 the number of deliveries to Sodexo sites was reduced by over 100,000, over 360,000 road miles and 400 tonnes of CO2 compared with the previous year.
In addition, at Bradford University, through an energy management programme early results have shown a 15% saving of energy usage.
Sodexo employees on our campus are clearly working hard to try and meet the environmental needs of their customers, what barriers do they face working for a multinational company in this scenario?
Working for Sodexo provides a huge resource to its employees at Bradford University. Sodexo recognises its responsibility to the environment and strives to achieve environmental best practice. This is a global, national and local issue for Sodexo. Sodexo employs an environmental manager and has a published environmental policy. In pursuit of its business goals it adheres to the following principles:
What is Sodexo doing in Bradford regarding reduce, reuse, recycle and Fairtrade?
Sodexo has been working with Bradford University on this area and contributes to Bradford’s Recycling Steering group.
Sodexo has, to date, introduced a campus-wide recycling scheme for paper, aluminium, glass, and plastics.
Following a pilot scheme in early 2007 the University, on advice, from Sodexo, invested £7,000 to install recycling banks at all catering outlets on the campus which has resulted in a population of 17,000 customers who visit the facilities now recycling all paper, plastics, aluminium and glass.
Sodexo has also introduced a scheme where all coffee grounds from its outlets are included into the Bradford compost scheme which is for distribution amongst the estate. Previously the coffee outlets were producing 100kg of waste every week.
Sodexo is currently working with the University and a third party (TEG), on the recycling of food waste into compost across the business; the key principals of this scheme will deliver the following benefits.
Sodexo is currently trialling a Biodiesel project, which involves the recycling of waste oil for use within the university fleet. The University has received funding for a bio-diesel converter, and together with Sodexo, are currently working on recycling all waste oil produced through the kitchens. The aim is for the bio-diesel to be recycled through the University fleet of vans. Sodexo has consulted with its environmental manager to ensure all appropriate legislation is adhered to.
The Student’s Union have a boycott on all Nestle products [such as polo sweets, kit Kat chocolate bar] in their outlets. This boycott was called for by students yet Sodexo continue to sell Nestle products and ignore students’ wishes, why is this?
We have asked Nestle for a response to this question.
What is Sodexo policy regarding local food sourcing at Bradford University?
Sodexo’s sustainable procurement policy was developed in line with the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) guidelines, which considers local to mean produce sourced in the UK. Sodexo has taken this a step further with a strategy to source products on a regional basis, with a focus on provenance.
Not every product can be grown locally, there is a limited range and, even then, certain produce will not be available all year round. Admittedly you could possibly get tomatoes locally all year round however it may be more environmentally friendly to ship naturally grown tomatoes from Spain than using large amounts of energy necessary to power hot houses in the UK.
Why does coffee with principles sell the same fair trade and unfair trade products such as tea at the same price? Why not sell only the fair trade product if there is one available?
It has always been our policy to offer choice to our customers, realistically Fairtrade tea can be more expensive than wider known brands, however we have made it a policy to reduce the price of Fairtrade tea to at least the equivalent of other brands.
How does Sodexo morally justify its position working in an educational?
institution while also being part of the Asylum detention system in the UK [Sodexo own Kalyx who run Harmondsworth Detention Centre, criticised as having the worst conditions seen in a detention centre by Anne Owers, chief inspector of prisons] which has held one of our student’s illegally?
Sodexo’s Corrections Facilities activity operates under stringent ethical principles and operates only in Democratic countries that do not have the death penalty, where its staff is not required to carry firearms and where the ultimate goal of incarceration is prisoner rehabilitation.
The Chief Inspector’s Report referred to is over 18 months old and, following a recent inspection, a new report will be available soon.
Kalyx welcomed the Chief Inspector's Report and took seriously its recommendations. An action plan was immediately drawn up and implemented to ensure improvements were made at once.
Following the inspection, Kalyx took on board the Report's recommendations and re-structured its management team to accomplish all of the changes sought by the Chief Inspector.
Harmondsworth now has a regime that is much more flexible while still taking fully into account the security needs of the establishment and ensuring that detainees are treated with dignity and humanity.
Kalyx believes the new report will reflect the changes and improvements that it has made.
What is the response from Sodexo regarding the student and lecturer boycott of them on the campus of SOAS [School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London] due to Sodexo’s involvement in Harmondsworth detention centre?
Sodexo is aware of the concerns of some students at SOAS and is continuing to liaise with the relevant parties at the campus to provide information regarding Harmondsworth Detention Centre. In a recent survey conducted by Sodexo at the campus the results were very positive.
If you have a response to this article or would lke to pass comment on food & drink issues at the University of Bradford please contact us at ecoversity@bradford.ac.uk
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