ACTIONS AND EXAMPLES
> Deforestation and conversion-free supply chains by 2030
Palm Oil
- Sodexo has maintained full RSPO membership since 2011.
- Since 2015, the Group has achieved 100% sustainable sourcing for cooking oils and margarine using both physical supply and book & claim mechanisms.
- In Fiscal 2025, 93.4% of palm oil sourced was physically certified (mass balance, segregated, or identity preserved), representing a +24 pts improvement from Fiscal 2024.
- Targeted actions in the Middle East & Africa (via supplier engagement) and Brazil (via product portfolio adaptation) helped reduce volumes of uncertified palm oil.
Soy and Beef
- In Fiscal 2025, the Group engaged 24 major suppliers to begin tracing beef supply chains in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Australia — regions with high deforestation risk. These suppliers represent 92% of beef volumes in those countries.
- Sodexo has collaborated with the Consumer Goods Forum, Forest Positive Coalition and landscape-level initiatives and works with Proforest to scale shared solutions and improve traceability and transparency.
Paper
97.2% of hygiene paper and 97.9% of office paper is now sustainably sourced, through revised contractual requirements and tender specifications aligned with FSC and PEFC standards.
> Embedding climate and environmental criteria into sourcing and procurement processes
Launched in 2023, the Sodexo UK & Ireland Net Zero Supplier Engagement Program exemplifies how Sodexo moves beyond traditional procurement by fostering a collaborative ecosystem where suppliers are partners in co-creating sustainable solutions. This program builds deep, ongoing partnerships with suppliers to drive collective emissions reductions in the Scope 3 footprint. Through tailored mentoring, capacity-building, and transparent progress tracking, suppliers are empowered to define and pursue their own net zero pathways aligned with Sodexo’s climate goals.
Since its inception:
- An 95% of in-scope suppliers are actively engaged, demonstrating broad buy-in and commitment across the supply base.
- The program has achieved a 31.8% reduction in supply chain greenhouse gas emissions compared to the 2017 baseline.
This initiative illustrates the approach of integrating climate criteria, supporting science-based targets, and scaling impact through supplier engagement. Plans are underway to expand and adapt this model globally, amplifying its impact across Sodexo’s global supply chains and accelerating collective progress toward Net Zero.
> Sustainable agriculture practices
Due to its position at the end of the food value chain, Sodexo has limited direct influence over the adoption of sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices. However some initiatives are being developed to encourage and support upstream suppliers in transitioning toward more sustainable, circular and regenerative practices.
A leading example is the collaboration at Royal Ascot, where Sodexo Live! has partnered with Full Circle Farms for three consecutive years. This initiative collects appropriate food waste from venues and events, which is composted to create rich, chemical-free fertilizer. This fertilizer is then used to grow vegetables, without synthetic pesticides or herbicides, that are reintroduced into menus at the same events. This closed-loop system exemplifies circular, low-impact food production in practice. The Group is exploring how to replicate this model across other sites and regions.
Sustainable eating
IMPACT AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE
We believe that meals should not only taste good, they should also do good. By accelerating the adoption of nutritious, low-carbon meals and encouraging informed consumer choices, we help reduce environmental impact while promoting healthier lifestyles. Our approach empowers individuals to align their food choices with both personal well-being and planetary health. This pillar targets product-related Scope 3 emissions, including those from food production and waste.
COMMITMENTS AND TARGETS
- Achieve 33% plant-based main dish recipes in its menus by 2025.
- Accelerate nutritious, low-carbon meal adoption by designing and promoting recipes with sustainable proteins and significantly reducing animal proteins, in particular red meat. We have set an ambitious target of 70% low-carbon main dishes in centrally planned menus by 2030.
ACTIONS AND EXAMPLES
Across the globe, Sodexo’s culinary experts are reinventing recipes to meet evolving consumer expectations. The aim is to rebalance protein sources in line with health and sustainability standards, while preserving both the nutritional value and the great taste that define our offerings.
- Low carbon recipe creation: the Group has collaborated with Unilever Food Solutions to develop 25 sustainable recipes now available worldwide, including a “sweet potato falafel wrap with marinated carrots and kale aioli” and “green spelt risotto with spinach and green peas”.
- Enabling tools: to advance its Sustainable Eating strategy and achieve its Better Tomorrow 2028 goals, Sodexo is taking concrete action by integrating data-driven tools that measure and reduce the environmental impact of the food we serve. A key step is our global partnership with Eaternity, a specialist in calculating the carbon footprint of food. In the UK and Ireland alone, Sodexo has already measured the impact of more than 20,000 recipes, giving our chefs the insights they need to redesign recipes and menus with a lower environmental footprint. Building on this success, Sodexo will scale this approach to additional geographies in the coming years. This will allow us to continuously reduce the impact of our offer, track progress against our climate targets, and embed sustainability into everyday menu decisions.
- Training: as part of our culinary training programs, we’ve added a masterclass to inspire our chefs and cross-functional teams to continue incorporating more sustainable ingredients including whole cereals, pulses, vegetables in our recipes, menus and offers. The masterclass has three main objectives: helping to upskill our chefs and food service team, improve our environmental impact, and encourage healthier eating habits among our consumers. Eight countries in Europe have been trained with the ambition to expand the masterclass to more countries and segments.
- Engagement: to animate its community of chefs and celebrate their talents, Sodexo hosts an international culinary innovation competition that focuses on developing and promoting tasty creations with low-carbon emissions. This global culinary competition, "Cook for Change, the Sustainable Chef Challenge", is 100% plant-based, zero-waste recipes using local ingredients and encourages the chefs to create sustainable dishes that highlight flavor, nutrition, health and well-being, source products responsibly and avoid food waste.
- Client Engagement: Sodexo’s client Cytiva, a pharmaceutical company, is committed to reducing their carbon footprint. Sodexo and Cytiva aligned on this during contracting. Since 2019, Sodexo’s chefs have adapted meal offerings to reduce carbon emissions for this client. Provided with the opportunity to experiment with lower impact ingredients, the chefs have successfully crafted a menu that has reduced the average carbon footprint of food served by 59% from 1.5 kg CO2e to 0.6 kg CO2e per serving.
- Consumer engagement: to shift consumer behavior toward more plant-forward diets, Sodexo has embedded its DefaultVeg strategy in the menu design at nearly 400 university and college dining halls in the U.S., serving roughly 1 million students daily. Under DefaultVeg, each dining hall offers plant-based options at every station, with one station alternating daily between plant-based and animal-based mains, and, where feasible, a fully plant-based station. During the pilot study, days when plant-based options were set as the default, without any other change in dining setup, saw a 58.3% increase in the selection of plant-based dishes. In two universities with consistent implementation of the default strategy, the rate of students choosing plant-based meals jumped 150%, reaching up to 81.5% uptake. By integrating behavioral science into menu design, DefaultVeg not only drives greater plant-based adoption but also strengthens transparency and sustainability in food service. This initiative directly engages consumers, leverages choice architecture to shift dietary patterns, and helps Sodexo test, learn, and iterate on menu strategies that contribute meaningfully to climate objectives.