Whitbread and Sodexo score platinum and gold respectively in CR index

Only two hospitality companies have made it into the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index, published this morning.

Whitbread, operator of Premier Inn and Costa Coffee has been awarded a platinum ranking, while foodservice operator Sodexo has achieved gold for a third consecutive year.

The annual CR Index is a voluntary benchmark for corporate responsibility and has been run by Business in the Community (BITC) for over a decade to help companies measure and manage all aspects of their social and environmental performance.

Drawn up through an online questionnaire, the index covers four areas: corporate strategy, integration, management and impact, with questions on everything from diversity policies to carbon emissions reduction goals.

Sodexo manages its worldwide sustainability strategy through its Better Tomorrow Plan and this month it published its eight annual corporate citizenship report.

Thomas Jelley, corporate citizenship manager at Sodexo, who received a BITC Game Changer Award in recognition of his work to advance the responsible business movement last year, said he was "thrilled" with the latest gold ranking. "It is a great endorsement of Sodexo's Better Tomorrow Plan and the efforts of colleagues across the UK and Ireland who have helped to bring it to life through continuous improvement in management and performance."

The announcement of the 2013 CR Index has been timed to coincide with Responsible Business Week (15-19 April 2013), an initiative to raise public awareness across the UK of the powerful, positive role of business in society. The results of the BITC 2013 CR Index are published in the today's Financial Times.

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