ESG Governance
With over 27,000 restaurants and a global network of franchisees and suppliers, we know
it’s critical to align all key stakeholders within and outside of our organization to
drive our sustainability priorities forward. This work begins with an effective
governance structure which allows for top-down guidance and bottom-up prioritization and
execution.
Restaurant Brands International’s (RBI) sustainability steering committee consists of
our Chief Corporate Officer, our Chief Marketing Officer, and our Global Head of Supply
Chain who are jointly accountable for the sustainability framework and strategy and
report to our Chief Executive Officer, who provides oversight. Restaurant Brands
International’s Board of Directors oversees the management of ESG topics and receives an
update twice annually from the sustainability steering committee.
Managing sustainability is a division between corporate and brand-led initiatives. A
corporate-level team tracks stakeholder expectations and trends, identifies
sustainability initiatives to support the business strategy, and highlights best
practice across the group. The team maintains regular contact with senior leadership,
guiding them on long term social and environmental trends and the expectations of global
stakeholders, engaging them to incorporate sustainability priorities as part of their
business objectives. They also guide the company’s sustainability reporting, and work
with a number of other business lines to oversee the preparation of sustainability
disclosures. Regional brand presidents work together with restaurant owners to inform
the company-wide business plan, and to execute and market sustainability initiatives at
the brand level.
The importance of sustainability at Restaurant Brands International is also reflected in
metrics linked to annual employee performance incentives across our business, including
individuals across each brand, supply chain, nutrition, quality assurance, and marketing
and communications.
Finally, our commitment to good corporate citizenship and sustainability is communicated
in our Code of Business
Ethics and Conduct for Non-Restaurant Employees and the Restaurant Brands
International Code of Business Ethics and Conduct for Vendors.
Materiality
Restaurant Brands for Good is built on our first materiality
assessment which was conducted to identify the most important sustainability issues for
our business. We benchmarked ourselves in relation to our industry peers and
competitors, assessed guests’ priorities through consumer research and social media,
captured external stakeholder perspectives through Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
requests and investor inquiries, and cross-referenced these topics against an assessment
of business risks in order to gather key insights and concerns to consider. Then, we
identified the areas where we believe we can push the industry forward, creating waves
of change that will be good for the entire planet.
We are also making a long-term commitment to support the achievement of the UN’s
Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, and evaluated where Restaurant Brands
International can contribute and focus resources to help drive the greatest impact.
This process identified our key impact areas, which form our three pillars of
Food, Planet, and People & Communities. We will focus on these pillars
as we work to bring our sustainability vision to life. Click here to view our pillars and impact
areas.
Reporting
We are committed to communicating our performance regularly and transparently. The
Restaurant Brands for Good section of our website is designed to be a living reporting
platform. We also publish annual summaries of progress, and report against external
frameworks, including GRI and SASB. We publish these reports on our Policies
and Reports page.
View Policies And
Reports →
Reporting Scope
Unless otherwise stated, information and data across the Restaurant
Brands for Good section covers Restaurant Brands International and its subsidiaries
during fiscal year 2020 (January to December).
Statements contained in these web pages about future developments and past occurrences
are based on information and assumptions available as of the date of publication.
Certain information in this report has been provided by third parties, including our
vendors. In these cases, we have relied on these third parties for accuracy and
completeness.
Reporting Boundaries
Our Franchisees and vendors are independent business owners who make
decisions for their own organizations, while maintaining core standards for our brand
and customer satisfaction. We work in collaboration with them to raise
awareness and provide tools and opportunities to help them manage ESG issues. We work
with vendors to mutually set objectives and targets, monitor progress and engage
collaboratively on shared innovation opportunities and challenges.
Contact Information
For questions regarding Restaurant Brands for Good and our reporting,
please contact sustainability@rbi.com
Stakeholder Engagement
Ongoing stakeholder engagement enables us to identify and understand issues, risks and
opportunities that can affect Restaurant Brands International and our brands. It is also
essential for us to proactively manage potential business operation impacts with key
stakeholders.
This is a continuous process through which the views of individuals and groups are
responsibly collected and used as important insights into our decision-making processes.
We have a diverse set of stakeholders which require a variety of engagement methods, and
we recognize that these methods must be representative, inclusive, respectful and
focused in order to be meaningful. These include, but are not limited to, collaborative
partnerships, online surveys, and in-person forums and events. The feedback we receive
as a result is essential to informing our material topics and how we best address those
in order to maximize our social impact.
Throughout the year, we engage with the following stakeholder groups:
Guests
Our big dream is to build the most loved restaurant brands in the
world. We work hard, every day, to serve great food that our guests and our people love.
As our main priority, we focus on understanding our guests’ needs through extensive
guest research, including how they feel on topics related to sustainability. Across
channels, from social networks to our specialized customer service teams, we strive to
keep guests informed and make it easy to provide feedback, to foster a positive guest
experience.
Restaurant Owners
Whether during our advisory board meetings or every autumn at our
annual convention, restaurant owners are brought together to discuss business plans and
share priorities. We believe in making sure all restaurant owners feel prepared to
uphold the brand experience for our guests. Through engagement surveys, we verify our
efforts and utilize our dedicated field teams on the ground, to share best practices and
promote ongoing franchisee success.
Vendors
As a consumer-facing business, many of our products’ biggest
sustainability impacts are located beyond our own operations, so our vendors are
instrumental to the execution of our sustainability strategy. We engage with our vendors
to gather feedback on new sourcing policies, understand where challenges and
opportunities for innovation exist, and ultimately advance our responsible sourcing
progress and commitments. We also engage with our vendors to certify their compliance to
the standards contained in our Code of Business Ethics and Conduct for Vendors.
Corporate Employees
Our employees are committed to building the most loved restaurant
brands and their inputs guide business decisions, maintain strong relationships with our
suppliers and franchisees, and foster a safe workplace, all of which help us in
achieving this goal.
Hosting townhall meetings and quarterly all-employee meetings allow for frequent updates
and progress checkpoints to be communicated across the entire business. We also make
sure we collect employee feedback, from two-way engagement to regular surveys, we care
about what our people think and use their insights to influence our strategy.
Local Communities/Community Organizations
Along with our restaurant owners, we are committed to strengthening
and giving back to the communities we serve through our brand foundations and by
supporting local programs and issues that are close to our guests’ hearts. Through our
three foundations, Tim Hortons Foundation camps, the Burger King McLamore Foundation,
the Popeyes Foundation and the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, our brands are devoted to contributing time, talent and funds to
build up the communities they serve.
Government
Through direct engagement or industry associations, we engage with
policymakers to understand priorities and demonstrate regulation compliance. We work to
inform legislative and government officials of our commitment, and advocate in the best
interest of our brands.
Investors
ESG issues and goals have become an increasingly important topic of
conversations with our investors. We know that those invested in our brands expect
transparency regarding both financial and non-financial information, with an emphasis on
the future direction of our brands. Through engagements such as annual shareholder
meetings, quarterly earnings reports and direct meetings, we aim to regularly
communicate updates while seeking feedback and responding to inquiries.
Industry Associations/Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)
By engaging with a range of NGOs and industry associations, we gain
external perspectives on policies that help inform decisions and support strategies.
Memberships with industry associations allows us to share knowledge with and learn from
like-minded businesses, supporting mutual interests and goals.