Planet

Continuously Reducing Our Environmental Footprint

Restaurant Brands International remains committed to building a great business that scales for good. We’re focused on protecting our planet, driving innovation, and ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come.

In partnership with our franchisees and suppliers, we’re working towards our long-term goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, or sooner, the protection of natural resources, the reduction of waste through increased circularity, and the promotion of strong practices of care for the animals in our supply chain.

Our key areas of focus in our planet pillar are:

Climate Action → Packaging and
Recycling →		 Protecting Forests →
 Animal Health
and Welfare →

Our Objectives and Our Progress

Summary Ongoing Goals Milestones

Climate Action		 As one of the largest quick-service restaurant companies globally, we have an opportunity and an obligation to address climate change head on and our ambition is to become a part of the solution.
By 2030:
  1. Reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50%.

  2. Reduce Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 50% per metric ton of food and per franchise restaurant.

  3. Transition at least 72% of our corporate Tim Hortons truck fleet to electric models.

  4. Transition 100% of our Burger King corporate car fleet to electric models.

  5. Procure 100% of our electricity from renewable sources for our corporate-owned and directly-controlled facilities globally.

  6. Procure 50% of electricity globally by franchisee restaurants from renewable energy sources.

  7. Develop and implement Green Building Standards for new builds and remodels at corporate and franchise restaurants globally.

By 2050:
  1. Achieve net-zero emissions.
  1. In Progress: We've procured renewable energy for 99% of our corporate-owned facilities globally.

  2. In Progress: In 2022, we purchased two Volvo VNR trucks that we expect to receive in Spring 2023 to test operational effectiveness of an electric fleet.

  3. In Progress: In 2022, we transitioned 15% of our RBI corporate car fleet to electric models.

  4. In Progress: In 2022, Burger King teamed up with Cargill and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) on a five-year plan to support regenerative agriculture in the Southern Great Plains.

  5. In Progress: We are continuing our work to develop Green Building Standards and pilot them across our brands and regions.

Packaging and Recycling		 Packaging helps us serve our guests the food they love and working closely with suppliers, we are innovating to reduce our use of packaging, transition to more sustainable materials and help our guests to reuse and recycle.
  1. Increase the use of reusable packaging alternatives.

  2. Identify opportunities to reduce material volume through innovative design and restaurant policies.

  3. Increase the use of renewable and recycled materials.

  4. Increase the use of fibre from recycled or certified sources within fibre-based guest packaging.1

  5. Reduce problematic or unnecessary plastics – those which are difficult to recycle or compost due to their format, composition, or size.

  6. Work to make our guest packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable within the markets in which we operate around the world.


By 2022:
  1. Fully eliminate the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam from approved guest packaging.

By 2025:
  1. Phase out intentionally added PFAS from guest packaging.

  2. Recycle guest packaging in restaurants globally, where commercially viable and where infrastructure is available.
  1. In Progress: By the end of 2022, pilot testing of reusable and returnable takeaway packaging has taken place at select Tim Hortons and Burger King restaurants in Toronto, Vancouver, New Jersey, and in the UK. Testing and continued implementation of a variety of reusable packaging models also took place at select Burger King restaurants in Germany, France, Denmark, Spain and Portugal in 2022.

  2. In Progress: Excluding Turkey, 93% of the fibre-based guest packaging across RBI comes from recycled or certified2 sources as of December 2022.

  3. Achieved: Joining Burger King, Popeyes has phased out EPS foam from centrally-managed approved guest packaging globally as of Q2 2022.

  4. In Progress: As of November 2022, we estimate that less than 8% of guest packaging items globally still contained added PFAS. For these items, we continue our work to transition to alternative materials that offer the right grease-resistant barriers.

  5. Achieved: Burger King UK removed plastic lids from soft drinks in restaurants nationwide as of October 2022 as part of an effort to reduce single-use plastic. The removal of lids for dine-in customers is estimated to remove 17 million plastic lids from circulation and save over 30,000kg of plastic each year.

  6. Achieved: Burger King nationally in the U.S. an unbleached napkin made of 100% recycled fibre.

Responsible Sourcing		 We're working to responsibly source the food we serve, which extends to our supply chain and the people, land and animals that may be impacted by our business.
  1. We remain committed to good antibiotic stewardship and reducing antibiotics important to human medicine (as defined by the World Human Organization3) in our chicken and beef supply chains.

  2. Tim Hortons is committed to ethically sourcing coffee by partnering with Enveritas.

  3. Palm oil that is directly sourced and used as an ingredient at greater than 1% in our approved branded food products be supplied through a Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified supply chain or be covered by RSPO credits to an equivalent volume.4

By 2024:
  1. In the U.S. and Canada, we are working toward increasing broiler chicken welfare outcomes in line with the five freedoms and five domains of animal welfare.

  2. We aim to source pork raised without the use of gestation creates for pregnant sows for regions representing about 94%5 of our global pork by the end of 2024, and in remaining markets by 2035 or sooner.

By 2026:
  1. We are on track to use cage-free eggs in North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand representing about 40% of our global egg requirements6, and in remaining markets by 2030.

By 2030:
  1. We aim to eliminate deforestation as defined by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization from our global supply chain.
  1. Achieved: The chicken used in approved products for both Burger King and Popeyes in the U.S. is now raised without the use of antibiotics important to human medicine as defined by the World Health Organization.

  2. Achieved: Tim Hortons partners with Enveritas, who verifies 100% of coffee purchases each year under a set of social, economic, and environmental standards that confirms responsible and ethical sourcing.

  3. In Progress: In 2022, 91% of the palm oil within the scope of our Palm Oil Sourcing Policy was RSPO-certified Mass Balance, with the remaining volumes covered by RSPO credits.

  4. In Progress: We have achieved compliance for 33% of global pork supply, which includes maintaining full compliance in our European7 and African markets, reaching full compliance for Burger King New Zealand, Popeyes in the United States and Canada, achieving partial compliance for Burger King in the United States.

  5. In Progress: Today, in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, whole eggs used at Burger King are produced by laying hens reared in cage-free systems. This translates to an expected compliance achievement of about 6% of our global egg requirements.

  6. In Progress: Building on initial tests conducted in 2021, in 2022, we planned 3 additional pilot tests which launched in 2023 related to on-form enrichments and lighting in partnership with our supplier advisory council and leading academic advisors and universities.

1Certified sources defined as sources certified by at least one of the following certification bodies: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) or Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).

2To qualify as compliant, 100% of the materials within the fibre of the approved packaging item must be made from pre- or post-consumer recycled materials and must be third-party verified, unless certified under a Chain of Custody forest management standard, such as the FSC.

3As defined by the World Health Organization in Critically Important Antimicrobials for Human Medicine 6th Revision 2018.

4All palm oil directly sourced by the BURGER KING®, TIM HORTONS®, and POPEYES® brands, and approved food products with greater than 1% palm oil/palm kernel oil as an ingredient, excluding third party branded products, as well as cooking oil used in and food products sold in Turkey.

5Based on 2021 volumes and estimates as of November 2022.

6Inclusive of achieving 100% cage-free eggs in Western Europe, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, as well as Popeyes and Tim Hortons in the United States and Popeyes Canada by the end of 2025.

7Europe defined as excluding Russia and CIS.