On Tuesday, The Wendy’s Company released its 2020 Corporate Responsibility Report detailing the progress made across its three key focus areas of Food, People and Footprint. Within the report, Wendy’s shared the outcomes of its recent materiality assessment of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics, along with several new goals relevant to Wendy’s Good Done Right platform and strategy.
“Everything we do revolves around our vision of becoming the world’s most thriving and beloved restaurant brand,” says Wendy’s president and CEO Todd Penegor. “Throughout 2020, our teams remained focused on taking care of our customers and the Wendy’s family while making a positive, lasting difference in the broader communities we serve. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made against our Good Done Right strategy and excited about the new goals we’re sharing publicly today.”
For the first time, Wendy’s is recognizing leading reporting standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and those frameworks can be found in the matrices table at the end of the report. Wendy’s is also sharing how its material impacts align with the globally recognized UN Sustainable Development Goals. Later this year, Wendy’s will also report to the CDP for Climate for the first time.
“Wendy’s is committed to transparency throughout our corporate responsibility journey,” says Wendy’s Chief Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Officer Liliana Esposito. “That’s why we are communicating and benchmarking our progress against globally recognized reporting frameworks, such as SASB and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We will continue to drive momentum on material topics and will regularly report our progress.”
As further described in the 2020 Corporate Responsibility Report, Wendy’s new goals include:
Food: Responsibly source Wendy’s top 10 priority food categories by 2030. Building on the Company’s long-standing work to responsibly source its ingredients, Wendy’s is now formalizing its approach by developing environmental and social criteria, which are informed by a lifecycle assessment of priority food categories, Wendy’s Animal Care Standards Program, a human rights risk assessment and through collaboration with key supply chain partners. These criteria are intended to allow Wendy’s to assess current status, set new targets and demonstrate progress and transparency through ongoing reporting. The top 10 priority food categories, determined by spend and impact, include products such as beef, chicken, pork, dairy, eggs, produce and beverages.
People: Increase the representation of underrepresented populations among Company leadership and management, as well as the diversity of Wendy’s franchisees. Specific areas of focus include increasing representation of those who identify as female and persons of color, as well as driving an inclusive mindset and culture at all levels of the organization.
Footprint: Sustainably source 100 percent of customer-facing packaging by 2026. To accomplish this goal, over the next five years, Wendy’s will optimize customer-facing packaging and transition to sustainable options including items that: have higher recycled content; use fewer raw materials; adhere to an established restricted substances list; are recyclable, compostable or reusable; and are sourced from areas that do not contribute to deforestation.
Benchmark, track and reduce Wendy’s Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and set a science-based target by the end of 2023.
Further highlights and the full 2020 Corporate Responsibility Report can be found here.
