CASE STUDY

The Sodexo Community of Practice

Value chain collaboration to achieve shared sustainability, commercial and marketing goals.

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Some of the organisations that we support through the Sodexo Community of Practice 

Overview

Sodexo UK & Ireland delivers catering, food services, facilities management, property and technical services, workplace experience, security, and care services across business & industry, education, healthcare, justice, defence, government, and sports & leisure.

With ambitious commitments across climate, nature, and social impact, Sodexo recognised that many of its most critical goals could not be achieved alone. Progress depended on deep collaboration across customers, suppliers, and partners.

FuturePlanet partnered with Sodexo to design and deliver a cross-sector Community of Practice — a safe, trusted space where leaders could learn together, share challenges, and accelerate action across the value chain.

We are able to bring many organisations together from various different industries to collaborate and learn together so that we can all collectively achieve our climate and sustainability goals.

Julie Ennis
CEO Corporate Services, Sodexo UK&I Julie Ennis

We recognise that with our closest partners, we can play a role in leading adaptation, mitigation and transformation. By working together, sharing resources, co-creating solutions and amplifying our influence, we believe we can tackle the complexities of ESG.

Claire Atkins Morris
Director of Sustainability Sodexo, UK&I Claire Atkins-Morris

Strategic Ambition

Sodexo UK & Ireland recognised that today’s most pressing sustainability challenges, from decarbonising complex supply chains to restoring biodiversity, cannot be solved in isolation.

The ambition was to move beyond the role of a traditional service provider and become a Transformation Partner and catalyst for change:

  • Bridging knowledge, time, and resource gaps
  • Creating a pre-competitive space for collaboration
  • Supporting customers and suppliers to progress together, not in silos

The goal was simple but bold: enable collective progress at scale.


The Solution: A Community of Practice

In collaboration with Sodexo’s commercial, marketing, and sustainability teams, FuturePlanet co-created a Community of Practice and annual programme that brought together leaders from organisations including BASF, GSK, Nestle and NHS England.

The programme included:

  • A clear framework and terms of reference
  • Curated, peer-led sessions across ESG, procurement, supply chain and sustainability
  • A yearly rhythm of online preparation calls and full-day, in-person workshops
  • Community-sourced themes and co-created content
  • Facilitated discussions that translated insight into practical action and collaboration
  • Comprehensive summary notes, case studies, and shared learning

Principles 

The Community of Practice encompasses these core principles 

  • A safe space where participants joined as equals
  • Trust-based, peer-to-peer learning
  • Co-curated with every member, listening to their needs and goals
  • Collaboration over competition
  • Practical insight over theory

Being a part of this community for the last couple of years has been immensely helpful. It further highlights that working in sustainability is a collaborative action with shared common goals and hearing the perspectives of those in different sectors with similar challenges has been incredibly powerful. Hats off to Claire, Sarah and Carl for creating a safe space and environment for sharing and to Sodexo for its support.

tony heslop basf
Regional Lead Sustainability EMEA at BASF Tony Heslop
RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Results and Value Created

Enhanced Reputation

Trusted relationships, positive testimonials, and external recognition strengthened Sodexo’s position as a credible sustainability leader and convenor.

Revenue Enablement

Collaborative insight surfaced opportunities that supported commercial conversations and strengthened customer relationships, contributing to revenue growth.

Accelerated Learning

The Community of Practice acted as a shortcut to knowledge, rapidly translating complex sustainability challenges into practical, actionable understanding.

Stronger Relationships

A safe, peer-led space built trust between customers, suppliers, and partners, creating deeper, more productive long-term relationships.

Reduced Risk

Clearer visibility of customer priorities and shared challenges enabled earlier collaboration, improved transparency, and reduced delivery and reputational risk.

Regulatory Confidence

Collective sense-making of CSRD, EUDR, TCFD, and TNFD helped members move from reactive compliance to confident, informed decision-making.

Increased Resilience

Regular connection and shared learning deepened stakeholder relationships, increasing confidence and resilience across commercial and operational partnerships.

Cost Reduction

Collective learning reduced duplicated effort, saving time and internal resources through shared problem-solving and case-led insight.

Words of affirmation shared by the community

My experience of working with the Sodexo community and practice has been universally fantastic. It gives me insight into what our suppliers are going through. It gives me some really valuable insight of our program going forward.

Alexandra Hammond
Associate Director, Net Zero and Sustainable Procurement Alex Hammond

Such a valuable community of peers. Thank you to Carl Pratt, Sarah Bastida, and Claire Atkins-Morris for bringing us all together.

Sophie Blackburn
Senior Manager Sustainable Procurement, GSK Sophie Blackburn

Fabulous Community of Practice. When I joined I immediately felt the energy, the passion, the connection!

Fiona Campbell
Global Sustainability Director, Johnson Matthey Fiona Campbell

A pleasure to have attended such an insightful and inspiring day, and be a part of such a positive, experienced group of change makers across the sustainability space. Looking forward to the next one!

Charlie Crofts
Procurement Sustainability Lead, Unviersity of Birmingham Charlie Crofts

Loads of opportunity for us to collectively use our influence to actually push forward for some change in the future, which leaves me feeling pretty excited.

Dee Davison
Global Director of Sustainability, Deluxe Dee Davison

I learned a number of ideas that I want to implement in our organization. It was really kind of a very open and honest series of discussions around stakeholder management, nature and biodiversity, and topics around how we engage suppliers. As opposed to sitting down and being top chats.

Ibim Banigo
Global People Sustainability Manager, Johnson Matthey Ibim Banigo

It's really, really nice to get some comfort and some confidence from hearing what your key is to dealing with.

Paul Andrews
Director of Global Energy, Smith & Nephew Paul Andrews
RESOURCES

Insights co-created with the community

PRINCIPLES

7 Principles for effective collaboration

Well crafted landing pages pay dividends. They’re often made out to be an enigma but don’t need to be complicated.

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CASE STUDY

5 insights to setting up an Eco Fund, with DPD.

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CO-CREATED INSIGHT

13 Characteristics of a high performing sustainability team

LEARN MORE
TESTIMONIALS

The Sodexo Community of Practice

Value chain collaboration to achieve shared sustainability, commercial and marketing goals.

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FAQ

Need clarification?

What is a Community of Practice

A Community of Practice is a trusted, peer-led group where people working on similar challenges learn together, share experience, and collaborate to turn insight into action.

Where can Community of Practice fit in my organisation's strategy?

It can support commercial, sustainability, procurement, supply chain, innovation, people, or transformation strategies, bridging silos and accelerating progress on shared priorities. 

Communities of Practice can be created to bring together senior leaders, professionals across functions, departments, territories, supply chains and value chains. 

Who can join the Community of Practice?

Depending on your goals, participants typically include sustainability, procurement, operations, commercial, marketing and communications, and innovation leaders from internal teams, customer, supplier, and partner organisations.

How is a FuturePlanet Community of Practice different from a network or working group?

Unlike informal networks, FuturePlanet Communities of Practice have clear purpose, facilitation, shared principles, transformation pathways and a structured rhythm that turns learning into practical outcomes.

What outcomes can we expect

Organisations gain clarity, save time, reduce risk, strengthen relationships, build capability, and accelerate progress on complex sustainability and transformation challenges.

How long does a Community of Practice run for?

Communities of Practice can run indefinitely, and once created it makes sense to plan for a minimum of 3 years - or the duration of a project. This requires a clear pathway  a defined rhythm of sessions, touchpoints, and shared outputs, and can be extended or scaled.

How much does it cost to co-produce a Community of Practice?

Costs vary depending on scope, scale, and duration. We typically co-design programmes aligned to your goals, budget, and desired outcomes.

Interested in exploring how a community of practice could benefit your organisation?


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