Elior has achieved Silver status in the Business in the Community’s (BITC) 2011 Corporate Responsibility Index (CRI), the UK’s leading voluntary benchmark of corporate responsibility.

The results, released this week in the Financial Times, further cement Elior’s ongoing commitment to responsible business practices.

The accolade shows that Elior UK conducts effective stakeholder engagement (with employees, the community and customers among others) and that it is able to identify and manage risks and opportunities in the best way possible.

The company has been making waves in the realm of corporate responsibility; earlier this year, it achieved Red Tractor accreditation for its meat and vegetable produce. It also works closely with key suppliers to reduce carbon emissions and has met its target of reducing the number of deliveries to sites by 40%.

Nick Boston, Chief Financial Officer, Elior UK received the award on behalf of the contract caterer. “Ensuring that we operate in a responsible manner is one of our core values and to have our practices recognised by such an influential body is a real honour. We’re committed to becoming an exemplary corporate citizen and as far as we’re concerned, we are taking the right steps toward achieving this.”

Stephen Howard, Chief Executive of Business in the Community says: “Congratulations to Elior on achieving Silver in the 2011 BITC Corporate Responsibility Index. It’s fantastic that it is having a positive impact on society, despite the challenging times that we are in. To achieve Silver in the first year of entering the index is very impressive and we’re already looking forward to seeing how Elior will perform next year.”