Sodexo’s commitment plain to sea

16 June 2011

Sodexo has signed a worldwide agreement with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for wild caught fish with a view to promoting MSC-certified seafood across the 80 countries where it operates and to maximise awareness and collaboration with both its clients and customers.

By committing to source sustainable fish and seafood, Sodexo will actively contribute to reversing the decline of living marine resources and will help protect marine biodiversity.

The worldwide agreement with MSC follows Sodexo having nearly 1000 of its restaurants and cafés in the UK certified to serve MSC-certified sustainable fish in December 2010. Sodexo is now the leading foodservice supplier of MSC-certified fish in the UK with the largest number of MSC-certified lines listed and the largest number of sites certified. It serves sustainable fish at more than 375 schools and universities, 54 hospitals, 150 defence sites and 350 company restaurants, visitor attractions and national events.

Sodexo’s Sustainable Seafood Initiative is part of the company’s Better Tomorrow Plan, the company’s global roadmap for sustainability and its five-part global seafood strategy to:
 maintain a wide variety of species in Sodexo’s catalogues and menus
 ban species at risk and implement control measures for others
 use eco-standards for labels
 set up supply for sustainable aquaculture
 develop sourcing according to a collaboration with WWF.

Damien Verdier, Sodexo Group Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, said: “Sodexo is the first foodservice company to have a worldwide agreement with MSC for wild caught fish. Under this initiative, Sodexo will continue to work for a collaborative climate to improve fisheries management, promoting awareness of sustainability issues and encouraging suppliers, partners and clients to participate in the MSC programme and support sustainable seafood practices.”