Supporting our SME, VCSE and diverse suppliers
Supporting our small, medium enterprise (SME) suppliers
A key element of our social impact strategy focuses on our commitment to enhancing the capabilities and capacity of our micro, small andmedium enterprises (SME) and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) network and suppliers. This group currently represents over half of our core supply chain and accounts for 44% of our total spend.
Our 2021 social impact pledge details our commitments through four impact pathways, our partners pathway includes our approach to creating resilience and growth among our partner network.
Sodexo’s Supply Chain Inclusion Programme
As part of Sodexo’s commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, we launched our Supply Chain Inclusion Programme in 2015, supporting 17 SME’s (small and medium size enterprises) that were owned by women, minority ethnic groups or social enterprises. The programme continues to this day, helping more SMEs become suppliers to Sodexo.
We work with WEConnect, MSDUK, Social Enterprise UK, Enterprise Nation, Scotland Food & Drink and Bord Bia to identify potential suppliers and invite the most exciting and relevant diverse businesses to join our programme.
We have developed a comprehensive, tailored programme that provides support to navigate our onboarding process for new suppliers, one-to-one mentoring and a guaranteed meeting with a relevant category manager.
Buy Social Corporate Challenge signatory
In 2021 we joined a number of other high-profile businesses in the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, run by Social Enterprise UK.
The initiative aims to bring together corporate partners from a range of industries with a collective ambition to spend £1 billion on social enterprises. Currently Sodexo works with 128 social enterprises/charities which accounts for £8.9 3.5 million in spend.
The Challenge helps social enterprises grow their revenues and impact by tapping into corporate supply chains. Social enterprises reinvest profit or donate them to their local communities to create positive social change. This allows them to tackle social problems, improve people’s life chances and provide training and employment opportunities for marginalised communities.
In September 2023 Social Enterprise UK published its seventh the sixth annual Buy Social Corporate Challenge annual report, revealing in the last year the group of 30 major businesses have spent more than £991 million procuring services and products from social enterprises. Since its launch the group has spent more than £2350 million and helped create 3,42,700 jobs. Read the 2023 report here
Roadmap to Net Zero Supply Chain engagement
Our supply chain accounts for over a third of Sodexo UK&I’s scope 3 emissions. To support the journey to net zero, we launched our Net Zero Supply Chain roadmap in September 2023, detailing our approach to partnering with our supply chain on decarbonisation activities. Read more about the roadmap here.
SME and VCSE supply partners represent over 60% of our supply chain. To assist these partners who may not have resources to address net zero we have created a support programme including mentoring and a two year grace period on key milestones.
- Supply Chain Mentoring Programme – developed with SMEs, VCSEs and other diverse businesses in mind, this programme allows eligible partners to access pro-bono mentoring from Sodexo subject matter experts.
- Roadmap 2 year grace period – SME and VCSE partners have been granted a two year grace period on key milestones requiring SBTi validated targets.
