Yum! - Global Citizen & Sustainability
ABOUT
Opening: 1997, Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky
Brands: KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, The Habit Burger Grill
Locations: 50,000 restaurants in more than 145 countries
Website: www.yum.com
CEO: Greg Creed (Jan 1, 2015–)
Investor: Public YUM (NYSE)
CONCEPT
“As a global citizen, Yum! Brands believes in acting responsibly as we grow KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell around the world when it comes to serving food people trust, growing sustainably and unlocking potential in our people,” said Greg Creed, CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc.
Calling it the “Recipe for Good”, Yum! intends to leverage its scale and the power of its brands to help address global issues centered around the three pillars Food, Planet and People.
This includes working to remove antibiotics important to human medicine in its food production by 25%, shift all plastic-based, consumer-facing packaging to be recoverable or reusable globally by 2025 and progressing its work around diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Yum! is also a supporting partner of the NextGen Consortium, a global consortium founded by McDonalds and Starbucks, that aims to address single-use food packaging waste globally by advancing the design, commercialization, and recovery of food packaging alternatives.
To lower the environmental impact of their locations, the company has become a member of the United States Green Building Council and has built more than 30 LEED-certified buildings around the world. Yum! Brands plans to incorporate the methods used in their LEED-certified green buildings in all other locations in order to conserve water, boost energy efficiency and reduce waste.
TREND
No Greenwashing – Holistic Approach – Social Responsibility
With a customer that is more aware of sustainable practices and the difference between real sustainability and greenwashing, environmentally friendly practices have to go deeper than just banning plastic straws and be embedded in all operational processes.
Yum! decided to take it a step further than such superficial greenwashing-practices commonly displayed by businesses. Because the Yum! Brands system opens on average over eight new restaurants per day worldwide, it recognizes the importance of making these sustainably built and operated buildings.
While Yum! sources their beef sustainably from the US and therefore does not contribute to the beef farm induced deforestation of the Amazon, palm oil production is the largest cause of deforestation in Indonesia. This is why Yum! decided to focus its efforts on fighting deforestation caused by palm oil production and only use sustainably produced palm oil in all of their restaurants.
BLUELINE
In 2008, Yum! brands achieved their first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for their green restaurant in Northampton, Massachusetts.
In 2014, they premiered their own green building standard called Blueline, which is named after the earth’s blue atmosphere that can be seen from space. Blue is viewed as a roadmap to LEED certification, and is based on the company’s more than a decade of experience with green building. The focus of Blueline is on energy savings, water conservation, sensible materials and healthy environments for people.
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