The action follows a long-term engagement of 5 years, during which Sodexo has been working with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to develop an industry-leading methodology to calculate carbon emissions within the group’s entire supply chain.
The company has strengthened its plan to reduce emissions by 34% by 2020 by reducing food waste, increasing deployment of its energy efficiency interventions and integrating low-carbon renewable energy sources into the company’s energy management offers.
Sodexo’s program is based on measurements done last year in 14 countries and pilot programs at 5,000 client sites. The plan includes working with its 10,000+ suppliers around the world to reach the marketplace with more environmentally responsible products.
It will also reduce carbon emissions as part of its benefits that the company is deploying on its more than 33,000 client sites, through four scalable best practices that reduce carbon emissions, such as a program that cuts food waste and technologies that cut energy use between 12% and 45%.
Neil Barrett, Sodexo group vice president for sustainable development, said: “The individual approach provides incremental improvements; in order to have a real impact we need to engage our entire value chain to generate systemic reductions.
“We combined the best local initiatives that are being implemented by Sodexo operations around the world and used them, in combination with a science-based understanding of our carbon emissions to determine a ‘baseline.’ We then developed a plan of action with all of our supply chain partners - and with more and more of our clients for all of the countries where we operate.”
Suzanne Apple, senior vice president of private sector engagement at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said: “Sodexo’s commitment to reduce emissions beyond its own operations – from customer locations to its supply chain - will help protect our planet from climate change and conserve nature’s dwindling resources.
“By pursuing these emissions cuts, Sodexo is demonstrating leadership that can impact the entire consumer services sector, and we hope other companies replicate and build on their efforts. Our work with Sodexo is a great example of how WWF is working together with companies to curb climate change by seizing market opportunities.”