Sodexo, one of the world's largest food services and facilities management companies, has announced a partnership with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) that will help many Sodexo sites maintain a high standard of sustainability in their seafood practices.
Sodexo, one of the world's largest food services and facilities management companies, has announced a partnership with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) that will help many Sodexo sites maintain a high standard of sustainability in their seafood practices.
MSC facilitates certification of different companies for excellence in transparency and sustainability in the seafood industry. Certification requires a strong management system; a supply chain traceability system; and a guarantee that all products that are certified will be identified and that any certified products will never be substituted with a non-certified product. Now that Sodexo is utilizing this chain of custody certification, it will be able to track seafood through its entire supply chain back through to the fisheries. For Sodexo, this represents a large-scale commitment to phase out purchases of seafood that is not MSC-certified.
“We have a unique opportunity to leverage the scale of our supply chain in an approach to seafood procurement that benefits consumers and communities alike,” said Deborah Hecker, Sodexo’s vice president of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. “The future of wild-caught seafood depends on recognizing and rewarding sustainable fishing practices. This program helps our clients and consumers do that.”
Sodexo currently reaches over 15 million consumers each day, but this program will start with the one million consumers in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, at sites such as National Geographic, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Aquarium, the Brookings Institute, the International Monetary Fund, Gannett, Marriott International, the Sodexo Headquarters, Marymount University, the University of Mary Washington, and George Mason University.
Sodexo is the latest in a slew of companies committing to sourcing seafood sustainably; last month, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and several other major U.S. grocery retailers joined the Campaign for Genetically Engineered (GE)-Free Seafood.
Published Apr 8, 2013 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT / 11pm BST / 12am CEST