Pluxee Belgium - Earns the first gold CO2 Neutral company label aligned with climate science

The Benefits and Rewards Service (Sodexo BRS) of Sodexo Pluxee Belgium (formerly Sodexo Pass Belgium) has been awarded the very first CO2 Neutral 'Gold' corporate label, demonstrating its commitment and ambition in its move towards carbon neutrality. Sodexo is one of Belgium's leading food services, facilities management and equipment companies.

As part of its certification process, the meal voucher issuer has put in place an emissions reduction plan with over 20 concrete actions to achieve its carbon neutrality ambitions by 2035. These actions are aimed at combating the main emissions 'hotspots' (responsible for up to 80% of their total carbon footprint).

Focusing on emission reduction

One of the hotspots of emissions is directly linked to the mobility of its employees, more precisely the use of company cars, and the second hotspot lays on the production, transport and distribution of the payment solutions (paper and digital vouchers and sodexo card).

Greg Renders, Corporate & Social Responsibility Manager at the Belgian office, testifies: “For a company with 70% of commuting done by car, we decided to take a radical and ambitious decision: to relocate our headquarters to the heart of a mobility hub: Brussels Central Station. And with no car park at destination!

This decision triggered many internal discussions, but it is the most effective way to bear our responsibilities and substantially reduce our impact."

In order to reduce to a maximum the emissions arising from payment solutions in the near future, Sodexo also chose to work on the digitalization of all the payment modes and fully dematerialize them at a later stage. As a first step towards this massive change, Pluxee Belgium will be collaborating with pilot-clients to implement test projects aiming at better anticipating and preparing for a digital revolution:

"Moving from paper vouchers to digital ones was a first revolution; fully dematerializing payments (meaning not having a card at all and paying only with a phone, for example) will be the second one. The market is not mature enough for this drastic change, but mindsets will have to evolve".

An ambitious commitment for the climate

"Communicating our climate transition strategies is essential to engage businesses in all sectors. When it comes to the environment, we all have a role to play." According to Greg, the upgrade of CO2logic's CO2 Neutral label was vital in order to transparently and consistently show the ambition and progress of each company on their climate strategy. Greg also underlines that the label is a useful tool to draw attention and open up the discussion around climate topics that are not always easy to grasp. Without such a tool, it is challenging to bring sustainability topics to the table.

To learn more about Pluxee Belgium's climate commitments and the CO2 Neutral label, scan their label's QR code.