Yum! Brands doubles down on vague generalities in 2010 Sustainability Report; Like the empty calories found in the famously gargantuan Double Down sandwich, the report is free of a real commitment to green their paper packaging supply chain

Fast food giant Yum! Brands just released their second ever Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report. While CEO David Novak promises to make their packaging more environmentally friendly, unfortunately, they are still buying their paper packaging from special Southern forests, and other endangered forests around the world. The report also announces the arrival of their new Chief Sustainability Officer Roger McClendon. Although we have not heard from him yet, we hope we can welcome him to his important new position and speak with him about the steps the company can take to protect Southern Forests.

Yum! Brands is huge. When it comes to their paper packaging decisions they are contributing to large scale clearcutting and conversion of natural forests to sterile pine plantations which has disastrous impacts on the biodiversity of Southern forests and communities.

Yum! Brands new Chief Sustainability Officer Roger McClendon can help usher in a new era of leadership at the company by following other companies examples and by taking bold new steps within the fast food sector.

· While countless other companies like Staples, Office Depot, Random House, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Starbucks and others have developed sustainable paper purchasing policies and taken action to help protect forests, to date, Yum! Brands lags seriously behind.
· When it comes to paper packaging choices, Yum! Brands has no clear plans for increasing its use of purchases of post-consumer recycled paper or ensuring that its paper is certified by FSC standards –the only independent global certification system in the world accepted by the conservation community.
· If Yum! Brands wants to seriously be seen as a leader in CSR, it must, as other companies have done, take action to reverse the devastating impacts to forests resulting from its paper packaging. Clearly, alternatives are available.
· Yum! Brands can show leadership in the fast food sector by adopting a sustainable paper purchasing policy committing to:
o Increase and maximizing the use of PCR content.
o End sourcing from endangered forests
o End sourcing from forests converted to plantations…
o Increase packaging efficiency and reduction
o Source paper from sustainably managed forests like those certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Read our statement about how KFC is misleading its customers by embracing the greenwashing associated with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative here.

Learn more about our Kentucky Fried Forests campaign here.