Committing to sustainable seafood
Sodexo Canada, the catering group that provides on-site food services for many of the Lower Mainland health organizations, is more than halfway to its goal of ensuring that all seafood it serves is sustainably caught. The company has enlisted the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program to help get the rest of way by 2015.
Partnerships for success!
Ocean Wise is a Vancouver Aquarium conservation program created to educate and empower consumers about the issues surrounding sustainable seafood.
“Ocean Wise will work with Sodexo’s catering locations at universities, hospitals and businesses to remove products that don’t meet the standard, and work with suppliers to find alternative products”, said Mike McDermid, Ocean Wise’s partner relations manager.
UBC Hospital’s Corner Cafe: a pilot project for more sustainable systems
Ocean Wise and Sodexo have been operating a pilot sustainable purchasing program at UBC Hospital since last spring to develop processes and procedures that can be applied at Sodexo’s other locations.
Corner Cafe at UBC Hospital is going above and beyond to ensure that its customers receive quality food with as little negative impact on the earth or the landfill as possible.
At Corner Cafe, you can expect whole systems approach that takes into consideration:
- A sustainable purchasing policy: sustainable containers and food
- A new waste management system: composting and recycling
- Delicious and healthy food: local seasonal food, fresh ingredients and sustainable seafood for seasonal favourites
- Education and awareness: rotating displays and demonstrations
Eco-certification gains momentum
Sodexo joins institutional foods service giants Compass Group and Aramark Canada as partners of the Vancouver-based Ocean Wise eco-certification program.
The food service industry buys more than 70% of the seafood sold in North America. Sodexo serves 300 clients, many of them large institutions with several food outlets. As a result, Sodexo has considerable clout in the market and exerts influence on the practices of its suppliers.
“Adding Sodexo as a partner is like getting a chain like Earl’s, but seven times as large,” McDermid said. “Compass, Aramark and Sodexo—that’s the big three in food service, and we now work with all of them.”
100% by 2015
The Canadian arm of the Paris-based Sodexo Group buys about $6 million worth of seafood a year, and roughly 60% of that is certified sustainable, according to Chris Roberts, director of corporate citizenship for Sodexo Canada.
