Sustainability

Seafood consumption has doubled over the last 40 years, but fish stocks have not kept pace. Fish is an important part of healthy diets and constitutes 17% of the global population's protein intake. In addition, fish and seafood support the livelihoods of 10-12% of the world's population, most of them in the developing world. For these reasons, Sodexo has made sustainable seafood a cornerstone of its sustainable sourcing approach.

To meet our commitments, Sodexo developed and launched its Sustainable Seafood Policy in 2011 and annually revises our seafood Sourcing Guide. The policy seeks to keep fish in the sea as well as seafood on its menus and catalogs, respecting human rights, preserving jobs, satisfying customers, providing nutritional well-being and offering environmental benefits.

Sodexo's strategy for sustainable seafood seeks to protect this important resource by:

  • 1. Maintaining a wide variety of sustainable species in catalogues and menus;
  • 2. Protecting species identified as being at risk by removing them from the supply chain where no improvement processes are in place or by implementing control measures;
  • 3. Increasing the use of Eco-standards to guarantee respect of sustainability criteria for both farm-raised and wild caught fish;
  • 4. Establishing sustainable supply for aquaculture in accordance with the highest environmental and social standards;
  • 5. Collaborating with the WWF and working with other NGOs for technical advice on Sodexo's sustainable seafood sourcing. WWF advises the Company on sourcing both wild caught and farm-raised fish.

Since seafood supply chains are often long and complex, there is an increased risk of labor abuse entering the supply chain. Conducting business with high ethical standards is fundamental to Sodexo, and we are committed to respect human rights wherever we do business. To that end, we also engage our suppliers through our Sodexo Supplier Code of Conduct as part of our contract.

Sodexo is committed to taking action to prevent abuses in our supply chain and in advocating for wider sector improvements, for example through the Seafood Taskforce.

With the stakes so high in terms of social, economic and environmental impacts, Sodexo has made sustainable purchasing a central tenet of its fish and seafood sourcing process.