Sodexo – Xinyi Zeng – 2023

Goals

Sodexo, a leader in global food service and facilities management enterprise headquartered in France, maintains North American headquarters in Gaithersburg, MD. With over 90,000 employees across all 50 states, Sodexo North America provides integrated services across diverse sectors.

Aligned with its sustainability goals for a 34% absolute carbon reduction by 2025 and a Net Zero 2040 vision, Sodexo North America collaborated with Climate Corps fellow Xinyi Zeng to support the 2023 carbon footprint performance analysis as part of the annual reporting work.

Solutions

Xinyi contributed to Sodexo’s sustainability and CSR work in two main ways:

• Performance analytics: Xinyi contributed to Sodexo’s 2023 carbon accounting processes, mainly by validating and calculating scope 2 data and supporting auditing efforts. Xinyi also conducted an initial analysis of fleet data to understand the current fleet use to facilitate future fleet efficiency improvements.
• Research: To explore opportunities for fleet efficiency improvements and renewable energy partnerships, Xinyi conducted research into the current landscape, informed by the legislation and market states. 

Potential Impact

Xinyi’s carbon footprint data will be used for auditing, reporting, tracking progress against external commitments, reviewing data for an external ESG disclosure, and purchasing renewable energy certificates. In addition, her fleet analysis will be used to develop a fleet efficiency improvement strategy. This research and her recommendations will also be considered in the future development and enhancement of carbon reduction programs and initiatives at Sodexo.