Paris, January 15, 2020 – Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Life Services, is proud to announce its membership in The Valuable 500, an international initiative striving to put disability on the leadership agenda. Sodexo supports the campaign dedicated to unlocking the business, social and economic value of people living with disabilities around the world.

Denis Machuel, Chief Executive Officer of Sodexo, said: “We are convinced that by mobilizing our employees towards a more inclusive growth, we can eliminate misconceptions and biases that hold people with mental or physical disabilities back to make sure everyone can reach their full potential. We hope many other companies will join the Valuable 500 initiative to make our collective efforts part of the usual way of doing business going forward.”

With this announcement, Sodexo affirms its ongoing commitment that by 2025, 100% of its workforce will have access to initiatives supporting the inclusion of people with disabilities. Concretely this means that each country where Sodexo operates will have:

  • A non-discrimination policy about people with disabilities
  • Communications to support the inclusion of people with disabilities
  • A disability champion amongst our employees to pursue our disability commitment

Sodexo has partnered with the International Labor Organizations Global Business and Disability Network. This partnership supports Sodexo’s disability inclusion efforts by facilitating the opportunity to learn from and share experiences with other global leaders and providing access to country specific information.

According to The World Bank, more than 1.3 billion people around the world live with some form of disability. To address this, The Valuable 500 was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019. Their goal has been to sign 500 national and multinational, private sector corporations and unite them to serve as role models for change on this vital issue. To date, more than 200 global businesses have signed up.

“It is extremely promising to see global companies like Sodexo, from all four corners of the globe and across a vast array of sectors, continuing to pledge to join our disability inclusion movement nearly twelve months on from its launch. As The Valuable 500’s historic return to Davos fast approaches, it throws into sharp relief our progress in tackling ‘diversish’ attitudes in the workplace over the past year. We gladly welcome these new members – I am certain they will be instrumental in ensuring disability inclusion becomes the norm in working life globally.” Said Caroline Casey, Founder, The Valuable 500. 

About The Valuable 500

Launched by Binc, #valuable is a campaign working to ensure businesses globally recognise the value of the one billion people around the world living with a disability. We believe that building a global society that recognises the value of the 1 billion people living with a disability starts with business. We’re on a mission to make sure businesses across the world recognise the value of the one billion people living with a disability.

Binc was founded by social entrepreneur and activist Caroline Casey in 2015, with a mission to ignite a historic global movement for a new age of business inclusion. Binc is capitalising on Caroline Casey’s 18-year track record of success engaging over 450 organisations and working with 500,000 business leaders. Binc fundamentally believes that inclusive business creates inclusive societies and is initiating a new approach to business that genuinely includes the 1 billion people living in the world with a disability. Binc is the founding team behind valuable, an ambitious global campaign to put inclusivity on top of the business agenda around the world in 2019.

About Sodexo

Founded in Marseille in 1966 by Pierre Bellon, Sodexo is the global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, an essential factor in individual and organizational performance. Operating in 67 countries, Sodexo serves 100 million consumers each day through its unique combination of On-site Services, Benefits & Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services. Sodexo provides clients an integrated offering developed over more than 50 years of experience: from foodservices, reception, maintenance and cleaning, to facilities and equipment management; from services and programs fostering employees’ engagement to solutions that simplify and optimize their mobility and expenses management, to in-home assistance, child care centers and concierge services. Sodexo’s success and performance are founded on its independence, its sustainable business model and its ability to continuously develop and engage its 470,000 employees throughout the world.

Sodexo is included in the CAC 40, FTSE 4 Good and DJSI indices.

Key figures (as of August 31, 2019)

  • 22 billion euro in consolidated revenues
  • 470,000 employees
  • 19th largest private employer worldwide
  • 67 countries
  • 100 million consumers served daily
  • 15.8 billion euro in market capitalization (as of January 8, 2020)

 

Contacts media

Dalila Elluin

Tel: +33 1 57 75 80 28 / dalila.elluin@sodexo.com

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