Caterer Elior UK has been awarded Legal & General’s Making A Difference Award for its commitment to CSR, earning the Starlight Children’s Foundation, its charity of the year, £1,000.

The award recognises Legal & General’s suppliers who have made significant improvements in their CSR programmes. Elior’s sustainability agenda included reducing food miles by a staggering 600,000 miles over the last three financial years and made the contract caterer a clear winner.

Elior’s Wheel Power project has seen it work alongside distributor 3663 to not only consolidate the number of deliveries to each of its 650 sites, but to convert waste cooking oil into biofuel to power 3663’s delivery vehicles. Since 2010 this initiative has seen 200,380 litres of oil diverted from landfill and 103.8 tonnes of CO₂ saved.

Grazia Dal Fara, corporate responsibility manager, Elior UK says: “We have a real commitment to becoming a more sustainable company and this recognition by Legal & General is another green credential for us to add to our list. We’re delighted that our charity of the year, the Starlight Children’s Foundation, has received a donation as a result and this will go a long way towards making the lives of terminally ill children better.”

Alex Wolny, director of group procurement and supplier management, Legal & General says: “Elior was presented with the 2011 Legal & General Supplier Making a Difference award thanks to its top to bottom understanding of its impact on the environment. The resulting strategic business partnerships and the complementary programme of initiatives to support these were notable. The team demonstrates leadership in its industry and has an attitude of continuous improvement that really impressed the judging panel. We congratulate them on winning this year’s award.”