Toward A Better Tomorrow
About the author : Jessica Synkoski
Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility for Sodexo in North America
A Better Tomorrow. It’s a simple phrase that captures our ambition and hope. A hope fueled by concrete actions and an unwavering dedication to nurturing our communities, clients and planet.
As we embrace a new year of opportunity and challenge, we at Sodexo USA recommit to our vision of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We know progress must be intentional. So, we continually strive to create a better world for all. It all starts with the everyday.
Working at the intersection of social and environmental priorities, we focus with purpose on four areas where we can make the most impact:
- Carbon Emissions and our commitment to a 34% reduction
- Food Waste and Recovery and our commitment to reducing food waste by 50% and uplifting 3.6 million beneficiaries every year through our Stop Hunger Foundation
- Social Impact and our commitment to a gender-balanced workforce, diverse suppliers and allocating 25% of our spend to small businesses
- Plant-Based Eating and our commitment to 33% plant-based entrées
We aim to reach these targets by 2025. But we know the time to tackle these issues is NOW.
How do we make progress?
By following our Better Tomorrow road map, which outlines our nine key commitments as an employer, service provider and corporate citizen.
By implementing innovative, ambitious and expertly designed programs and aligning with global climate, sustainability and community organizational partners.
And by measuring and reporting our results transparently, as we demonstrated in this year's inaugural U.S. Sustainability Annual Report.
In that spirit of progress, we are proud to announce we will support the renewable energy infrastructure by purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) covering 50% of our electricity use at all our directly owned and operated sites by the end of fiscal year 2022 and 100% by fiscal year 2023. With this fulfillment of our pledge to the RE100, we join the world’s most influential businesses pursuing 100% renewable electricity.
Our RE100 partnership is just one way we’re working with global climate leaders to reduce carbon emissions, and how we’re helping our clients meet their own CSR and sustainability goals. We’re proud that our knowledge, expertise and decades of experience position us to provide creative, customized and enduring solutions for our diverse customers.
We’re also proud that our core values compel us to better our communities, as we combat the triple threat of climate change, social injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic. We know healthy people depend on a healthy planet, and that all our social, economic, well-being and environmental issues are deeply intertwined. We also understand that disadvantaged communities are disproportionately affected by threats in these areas. So, we're determined to challenge inequities, in collaboration with our clients, suppliers and allies.
In the coming months, expect us to talk regularly and openly about our actions and progress — what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and where we’re making improvements. We’ll explain our work — and engage our community — through articles featuring our team of sustainability and CSR experts.
We look forward to sharing our successes and learnings. We encourage you to do the same.
Let’s continue our journey together toward A Better Tomorrow!