As a demonstration of our commitment to forests and
our vision to eliminate deforestation within our
supply
chain, Restaurant Brands International is proud to
be
a founding member of the CDP Supply Chain – Forests
program. Through this program, we are working toward
an industry movement to benchmark the management of
key forest risk commodities.
By asking approved vendors to disclose information
through
their participation in the CDP survey on these
commodities
and how they are managing risks related to
deforestation,
we are taking a meaningful step toward increasing
transparency
in our own supply chain and the broader business
community.
Participation by our vendors in this program will
allow
us to proactively identify opportunities to build
and
better manage a more resilient supply chain.
During the program’s 2017 pilot year, we were one
of eight organizations that worked with the CDP to
request
information from vendors including strategies for
measuring
and monitoring the use of key forest commodities in
order to benchmark disclosure, activities and
opportunities
related to reducing deforestation. In 2018, we
expanded
our engagement efforts by reaching out to a broader
group of suppliers, representing about 80% of our
global
spend in our priority commodities, including beef,
packaging,
palm oil and chicken and continued in this regard
through the 2020 disclosure cycle.
Guided by our Deforestation Policy, we will continue
to work collaboratively
within our supply chain, through global roundtables
and with other organizations to identify
opportunities
and solutions in order to move closer towards the
elimination
of deforestation.
The Amazon is of crucial importance to the earth’s
biodiversity. It’s believed to be home to 10% of the
world’s known species1 and many of them are unique
to
this region. According to the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF),
20% of the Amazon biome has already been lost and
27%
of the biome will be without trees by 2030 if the
current rate of deforestation continues2. Increased
agriculture, particularly cattle ranching and soy
plantations,
is putting pressure on this precious ecosystem. As
animal
proteins represent a significant portion of our
supply
chain, Restaurant Brands International and the wider
food industry have a critical role to play.
Currently, all approved suppliers of beef sourced
from Brazil maintain active policies on zero
deforestation in the Amazon Biome. Many of such
approved suppliers have also shared independent
verification of their deforestation free credentials
at our request.
1, 2: WWF 2019.
https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/forests/deforestation_fronts2/deforestation_in_the_amazon/
We are a member of the Global Roundtable for
Sustainable Beef (GRSB), and in 2019 we developed
our first responsible sourcing target for beef based
on GRSB principles. Learn more about beef
sustainability and our responsible sourcing approach
here.
Knowing the origin of inputs to our products and
being able to trace this through the supply chain is
fundamental when it comes to deforestation, in order
to attempt to validate that these inputs were not
sourced
from deforested areas. A key ingredient in animal
feed,
we recognize soy has high deforestation risk when
sourced
from certain regions. The lack of and complexity of
traceability for soy as animal feed and its link to
deforestation is a key concern across the food
sector.
Although Restaurant Brands International brands do
not directly source the feed for beef or poultry, we
are committed to working with approved suppliers who
share our goal of eliminating deforestation and
advancing
solutions that can serve the industry as a whole. In
2019, we joined the Roundtable on Responsible Soy
to better understand the latest efforts within the
industry
on traceability of soy as animal feed and play an
active
role in challenging suppliers to develop the
traceability
of soy industry-wide.
Palm oil is another commodity with high deforestation risk when sourced from certain regions, and as such we have prioritized it as a key commodity where we will concentrate our efforts.
We continue to work with our approved suppliers to source palm oil that does not contribute to deforestation nor the development on peatlands, and protects both High Conservation Value and High Carbon Stock areas, and have set specific targets for sourcing sustainable palm oil.
By the end of 2020:
- Palm oil directly sourced as well as palm oil and palm kernel oil used as an ingredient in our approved branded food products supports the production of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) sustainable palm oil products.
- All volumes will be covered by RSPO certification and credits, and we encourage physical segregation (Identity Preserved, Segregated, or Mass Balance) in our supply chain in countries where and when it is commercially available.
- 78% of palm oil volumes within the scope of our Palm Oil Sourcing Policy is RSPO certified Mass Balance or better
Approved palm oil suppliers are required to be members of RSPO and to have a transition plan in place aligned to this commitment.
Burger King and Tim Hortons require vendors to
source fiber-based packaging from certified or
recycled sources, globally. Popeyes is working
towards implementing this requirement globally by
2021.
In Canada and the United States, all Burger King and
Tim Hortons fiber-based packaging vendors are
required to source board and/or paper from paper
mills certified by the Sustainable Forestry
Initiative, Forest Stewardship Council, or the
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest
Certification, ensuring that the fiber-based
packaging we use in our restaurants is sourced from
certified sustainably-managed forests.