The annual CR Index is the UK’s leading and most in-depth voluntary benchmark for corporate responsibility. It has been run by Business in the Community (BITC) for over a decade to help companies accurately measure and manage all aspects of their social and environmental performance; shape how they integrate and improve corporate responsibility throughout their business operations; and benchmark themselves against competitors.
Achieving a ‘Gold’ ranking means Sodexo is able to demonstrate openness and transparency through effective public reporting of its material environmental and social issues, programmes and performance. This is managed through the ‘Better Tomorrow Plan’, the company’s worldwide sustainability strategy to 2020.
Gold ranking companies also tend to expand and adapt their risk management processes by incorporating relevant aspects of corporate responsibility, risk and opportunity and are able to articulate their CR strategy in an effective manner with clear and measurable targets.
Thomas Jelley, corporate citizenship manager at Sodexo, who received a BITC Game Changer Award in recognition of his work to advance the responsible business movement last year, said: “We are thrilled to have achieved Gold band ranking for a third consecutive year. It is a great endorsement of Sodexo's Better Tomorrow Plan and the efforts of colleagues across the UK and Ireland who have helped to bring it to life through continuous improvement in management and performance.”
Stephen Howard, chief executive, Business in the Community, added: “I congratulate Sodexo for achieving Gold band ranking because it signifies a key step on the journey, a willingness to rise to the challenge and that they are part of a movement of responsible business in which all companies have their unique part to play."
Before achieving Gold band ranking in 2011, Sodexo held Silver for four years consecutively.