LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) today released its 2017 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report, citizenship.yum.com, highlighting the company’s progress in 2016 and 2017 and outlining efforts by KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell to make a meaningful impact in three areas of strategic focus: Food, Planet and People.
“As Yum! Brands grows KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell around the world, we take our role as a global citizen and our impact on society and the environment seriously,” said Greg Creed, CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc. “In line with Yum! Brands’ Recipe for Growth to become more focused, franchised and efficient, we’ve created a Recipe for Good – our updated global citizenship and sustainability strategy that outlines our public commitments concerning food, planet and people. I’m proud of the progress we’re making, as well as our growing efforts to listen and engage more intently with our stakeholders on priority issues that are material to our business.”
The content of the report reflects topics identified through Yum! Brands’ first companywide materiality assessment and progress against its existing public commitments. The report is prepared according to Global Reporting Initiative Standards, the most widely recognized framework for sustainability reporting.
Also featured are success stories from the company’s brands around the world, each of which has contributed to progress in distinct ways:
- KFC: As a brand that’s Always Original, KFC is focused on ingredient sourcing that ranges from sustainable palm oil to purchasing chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine in its U.S. restaurants by the end of 2018. The brand has created a customized green building program for its restaurants and invests in its restaurant team members with various training and development programs as well as educational partnerships globally. Worldwide, KFC donated 3 million meals last year to more than 1,500 charities through the Harvest program, and restaurants raised over $14 million (USD) to benefit more than 35 charitable organizations that fight hunger and promote growth opportunities for youth.
- Pizza Hut: Known for its iconic pizza innovation, Pizza Hut is redefining the modern pizza delivery experience. Pizza Hut offers a variety of crusts, sauces and customizable topping combinations including fresh vegetables, proteins and fruits and has eliminated partially hydrogenated oils from its global menu. In the U.S., the brand became the first national pizza restaurant to remove artificial flavors and colors from its core pizzas and WingStreet products, and it extended its commitment to serve chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine in its WingStreet wings by 2022. Through its global waste reduction efforts, Pizza Hut reached a significant milestone in 2017 – donating 100 million pounds of food over the years through the company’s Harvest program. The brand also expanded its commitment to literacy in 2016, launching its signature platform, Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project, which in its first year impacted 15.9 million people across Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, South Africa and the U.S. through initiatives like the BOOK IT! Program and in-restaurant fundraising.
- Taco Bell: As a brand that’s in a Category of One, Taco Bell has been on a Food for All journey, creating a menu that offers the choices its consumers are asking for. For example: offering choices that are low calorie/fat, high protein and vegetarian; removing artificial flavors and colors, high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils; reducing sodium; serving chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine in its U.S. restaurants; and serving 100 percent cage-free eggs across its menu in the U.S., among other things. The brand is also giving employees and customers the opportunities they need to turn their dreams into goals through its Live Más Scholarship, which provided $1 million to $2 million in funding per year for more than 400 students in 2016 and 2017.
Other highlights from Yum! Brands’ 2017 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report include:
Food
- Deploying a new global nutrition strategy that emphasizes simplified ingredients, transparency of ingredients, high-protein, lower-calorie, reduced sodium and other offerings that promote a balanced diet
- Pursuing a goal of offering balanced meals by having 20 percent of meal options consistent with one-third of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) or foreign equivalents by 2020; currently, nearly 50 percent of restaurants have met this goal
- Removed artificial flavors from 70 percent of food ingredients, with a goal of removing 100 percent by 2020*
- Removed artificial colors from 78 percent of food ingredients, with a goal of removing 100 percent by 2020*
- Removed partially hydrogenated oil from 97 percent of food ingredients, with a goal of removing 100 percent*
- Conducted more than 230,000 restaurant food safety audits between 2015 and 2017, and approximately 3,000 food safety supplier audits in 2017
*Key markets, excluding co-branded ingredients and beverages
Planet
- Kept more than 750,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in 2017, or the equivalent of taking 160,000 cars off the road for a year, through energy conservation, food waste donation and recycling efforts
- Published Sustainable Animal Protein Principles and Good Antimicrobial Stewardship policy in 2017, set and achieved commitments to serve chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine in U.S. restaurants, and required suppliers globally to minimize use of antimicrobials important to human medicine and practice responsible, judicious use
- Having a goal of sourcing 100 percent sustainable palm oil by 2018; currently sourcing 87 percent of cooking oil from sustainable palm oil or non-palm sources
- Sourced 69 percent of global paper-based packaging and service products from either certified virgin or recycled sources in 2017, with a goal of 100 percent by 2020
People
- Signed on to the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace
- Aligned with Paradigm for Parity®, a coalition of companies working to increase the number of women in senior operating roles
- Donated 6.9 million pounds of food to feed people in need through the company’s Harvest program in 2017
- Supported the launch of brand-specific culture and leadership initiatives, including KFC’s Leading with Heart program, Pizza Hut’s Life Unboxed campaign and Taco Bell’s Start With Us, Stay With Us platform
For more information and to view Yum! Brands’ 2017 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report, visit citizenship.yum.com, or join the experts at Yum! Brands on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 12pm ET to discuss the #YumRecipeforGood in a Twitter Chat hosted by @TriplePundit. Visit here to for details.
Join the conversation at Facebook.com/yumbrands and @yumbrands on Twitter using the hashtag #YumRecipeforGood.
Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 45,000 restaurants in more than 135 countries and territories and is one of the Aon Hewitt Top Companies for Leaders in North America. In 2018, Yum! Brands was recognized as part of the inaugural Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and ranked among the top 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Corporate Responsibility Magazine. In 2017, Yum! Brands was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index. The company’s restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – are global leaders of the chicken, pizza and Mexican-style food categories. Worldwide, the Yum! Brands system opens over seven new restaurants per day on average, making it a leader in global retail development.
