Sustainable Synergy: Inspired by Sodexo’s Approach in Harvard Business Review

CSR feature

A wave of excitement swept over me as I came across the name of someone I had met in a prestigious magazine like the Harvard Business Review. This was the feeling I had when I read Sodexo CEO Sophie Bellon’s article “On Building More Sustainable Systems” on a sweltering morning in New Delhi.

I had the privilege of meeting Bellon twice: once in Mumbai in January 2023, and very recently in Paris, when the organization I consult for, Sulabh International, was awarded the Stop Hunger Prize — a Sodexo initiative. Sulabh received the award along with two other non-profits Women Smiles Uganda and Moving Mamas, Norway.

Nirja Bhatnagar from Sulabh, India; Kristine Holst from Moving Mamas, Norway; and Gloria Nandawula, from Women Smiles Uganda receving award from Sophie Bellon, CEO Sodexo. Photo Sutirtha Sahariah

Insights from “How We Did It”

In the article “How We Did It,” Bellon describes how Sodexo, one of the world’s largest food services companies, transitioned to creating efficient sustainable food systems that cater to over “400,000-plus employees, thousands of clients, and more than 80 million consumers.” Sodexo serves people in hospitals, schools, corporate offices, etc. In India, for example, Sodexo coupons are popular in corporate canteens, but many may not know that the coupon is from a company valued at over 12 billion euros.

Several inspirations emerged from the article, including Bellon’s strategic leadership and vision. Since becoming the CEO, she steered the company “to adapt to a rapidly changing global business environment” based on its core values and strengths. What truly touched my heart was learning about the vision of the founder of Sodexo, Pierre (also the father of the CEO), whose mission was to improve the lives of the people he employed and the communities they served.

Resonating Values

Sodexo’s founding values resonate with those of Sulabh International in India, which has spearheaded a sanitation movement impacting millions of people. Late Bindeshwar Pathak, its founder, had one goal — to improve the lives of people, and he chose to do that by developing a toilet technology in 1968 in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. He later founded an NGO, Sulabh, that offered livelihood opportunities to tens of thousands of people who became his volunteers. His actions metamorphosed into a movement promoting sanitation and human rights on an unprecedented scale. Over 1.6 million household toilets, 11,000 public toilets, and countless school toilets have been constructed by Sulabh alone.

The Collaboration: Sodexo and Sulabh

In 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sulabh’s president, Kumar Dilip (also the son of the founder), took the personal initiative to distribute food in some of the poorest slums in Delhi. However, he felt that distrbuting food could not solve the issues of hunger. Almost all people living the slums of big Indian cities were economic migrants. They left homes because of farming distress. For example, many households in the slum that we interacted were migrants from Sunderbans delta in West Bengal bordering Bangladesh. The low lying river islands, the largest river delta in the world, have been battered by frequent cyclones owing to climate change. A solution, therefore had to be thought of to create a sustainable economy around food targeting small and medium scale farmers.

He set up an expereinced program team to explore food interventions. Sulabh had not worked on food earlier, but its five decades of work on sanitation and water at the grassroots level meant that it understood the systems and the communities.

It all started with a small fund from Sodexo, whose India leaders reposed faith in Sulabh’s abilities. In hindsight, that amount now sounds very generous given that, as Bellon mentions in her article, Sodexo lost one-third of its revenue in the 2020 fiscal year.

Impact and Success

But Sulabh seized the opportunity and decided to collaborate, putting in some of its own resources as needed. The program was a success. What began with a modest intervention in was later expanded to twenty villages in two districts in the western state of Maharashtra as Sodexo increased its budget post-pandemic recovery. The impact has been impressive

A benefiaciary showing the seed bank at the proejct site. She mentioned that she now has a surplus income which she uses for edcuating her children. Also she has gained voice and agency and is respected in her community.

Sulabh ran the project on the three pillars of social justice, food sovereignty, and dignified opportunities, reaching out to over 2,500 women farmers. Some immediate outcomes have been the economic empowerment of women farmers and the revival of indigenous crops leading to improved soil conditions. I had the opportunity to visit the project sites and was impressed by the confidence and happiness among the beneficiaries I interacted with.

Self Help Groups in one of the villages . Photo: Sutirtha Sahariah

A Model of Active Collaboration

Sulabh, as a large NGO, never believed in being a passive recipient of grants but an active collaborator for development. When it came to sanitation, its founder created a self-sustainable model where income from toilet construction was invested back into programs aimed at behavior change and rehabilitating women who worked as manual scavengers. As an organization dedicated to responding to new challenges, a program on food security was the need of the hour, given that hunger and malnutrition in India (and around the world) are widespread and increasing due to income inequality, conflict, and above all, climate change.

Bellon’s article gives further insight into a company whose CSR initiative is not only making a difference in the lives of women farmers but also bringing their traditional recipes to the table. When I met her for the first time, I was awestruck by her humility. Sodexo’s talented chefs showcased mouthwatering dishes in Mumbai based on traditional recipes provided by the beneficiaries of the project. The recipes were innovative, healthy, and fresh. I felt proud and congratulated our program director.

Reflections on Leadership and Vision

What I learned from the article is that behind Sodexo’s success lies humility and care for people and the planet, so richly embodied by its CEO Sophie Bellon. Sulabh International feels proud to work with Sodexo and salutes Bellon’s leadership and vision. Thank you Sophie Bellon.

About the author

Dr. Sutirtha Sahariah is a senior VP and Head of Communications at Sulabh International. He is also a modern slavery resercher and consutlant and have led several projects funded by the UK government. He is the auhhor of the book Sex Work, Labour and Empowerment- Lessons form the Informal Entertianment Sector in Nepal. He has previously worked as journalist; his stories on development have featured for BBC, The Guradian, Dutch Public Radio & Television, NPR, Huffington Post

Acknowledgement

*The author also thanks Sodexo India team particularly Luna Misra , lead CSR at Sodexo India