Sustainability Champion Spotlight: Timothy Hierlihy

• Time with Sodexo:  12 years
• Location: Nova Scotia
• Industry: Education 
• Role: General Manager of Food Services
• Team: 150 employees (including management team)

Sustainability to Tim means keeping an open mind to growth that is not harmful and looking for ways to do that things that doesn’t deteriorate our environment or heath and well-being any further. 

Tim has had multiple roles at Sodexo over the past 12 years. All those experiences have cumulated to his current role as General Manager of Food Services for a university campus in Nova Scotia. Operating in a province with several sustainability norms and protocols, sustainability has to be a thought in everything he and his team does. 

Tim sits on the university’s sustainability committee as a partner and has tackled different initiatives on site for several years now, like eliminating styrofoam and only using paper fiber products, as well as going tray-less at the cafeteria to save water.  

“Sodexo is a big part of university life and as a General Manager and a Sustainability Champion, my role is to spread the conversation about what we can do, as well as facilitate the change with others and help them with their sustainability goals.” 

His team has been composting for years, but only recently have adapted the WasteWatch powered by LeanPath (WWxLP) program on site, Sodexo’s global program to prevent and reduce food waste by allowing staff to track food waste in real time. In the short amount of time since the program started in January 2021, 30% of the total food at the University, which would have been wasted, has been donated to Meals on Wheels. 

“You don’t have to be the first one that has done it or asked about it, just sharing your experience can be an opportunity for someone else. It takes one person to start an idea, so there’s no such thing as a bad suggestion or question, especially when it comes to sustainability.”