As the weather heats up, so does the pressure we’re putting on KFC!

A March Madness NCAA tournament round at the YUM! Brands Arena (named after KFC’s parent company) proved the perfect venue to call attention to the company’s support of destructive forestry practices. On March 17th,Dogwood fielded a 7-man parody team, The KFC Forest Destroyers, outside the arena. Our team applied the full court press — giving away beach balls emblazoned with the campaign’s Kentucky Fried Forests logo and basketball trading cards highlighting KFC’s Chief Sustainability Officer Roger McClendon (a former all-American at Cincinnati) to those headed into the arena.

Watch all the highlights from this event in our new video!KFC Forest Destroyers

In February, Dogwood released its new report, Greening Fast Food Packaging: A Roadmap to Best Practices. This report outlines eight key attributes of environmentally friendly fast food packaging, and provides simple guidance on how to assess environmental impacts in the supply chain.  It offers accolades to leaders in the fast food industry that have undertaken key initiatives that will help move the entire sector forward.  It also includes a realistic, workable action plan to focus corporate sustainability efforts.

“We hope that by boiling down complex issues into a straightforward, stepwise action plan, companies can make progress on their packaging, creating a win-win for our forests and the corporate bottom-line,” said Dogwood’s Campaign Director Scot Quaranda, who co-authored the report. “By following our roadmap and working with experts in key areas associated with the packaging supply chain, more companies can lead rather than lag further behind.”

And finally, the heat continues with our upcoming Day of Action on Tuesday, April 17th. Stay tuned for details in your inbox!

Amanda Rodriguez

Amanda is a first generation Cuban American. As a child in West Virginia, she saw first-hand the impact of forest destruction. Now, she helps others support Dogwood Alliance’s vital mission and applies her skills to online and web marketing. A poet, essayist, and fiction writer, Amanda is also the filmmaker of Dogwood’s "Stories Happen in Forests" documentary. She holds a Masters degree from Queens University of Charlotte and a BA from Antioch College. Amanda has been with Dogwood Alliance since 2010.