ESG Strategy & Governance

As a global restaurant company with more than 55,000 restaurants, Yum! Brands has a clear vision for building the world’s most loved, trusted and fastest growing brands in our industry. We’re doing this through our Recipe for Growth—the core capabilities upon which we’re building long-term results— and our Global Citizenship & Sustainability Strategy known as our Recipe for Good. The Recipe for Good reflects our priorities for social responsibility, risk management and sustainable stewardship of our people, food and planet.

Yum! continues to integrate citizenship and sustainability into our business processes, including enterprise risk management (ERM). We are focused on advancing progress and results in the most critical parts of our business:

  • Creating a workplace where everyone feels welcomed and valued
  • Attracting, developing and retaining the best talent
  • Feeding people safely and responding to customers’ evolving preferences
  • Minimizing our climate impact and choosing responsible suppliers
  • Operating our restaurants efficiently
  • Giving back to our communities

While all ESG topics are essential, the past several years have heightened our focus on global issues that are also core to Yum!. This includes increasing inequities around the globe, the elevated importance of social issues impacting our people and the urgent need for action to address climate change. These issues align with the ongoing evolution of Yum!’s strategy, which emphasizes People as our hero pillar. The introduction of our new social purpose of Unlocking Opportunity to fight inequality for frontline team members and communities further reflects Yum!’s long-term commitment to education, entrepreneurship and equity & inclusion.

Oversight for ESG issues ultimately resides with the Yum! Brands Board of Directors. The Board is briefed at least annually on current issues and focus areas through its Audit Committee and is updated on a weekly basis through broader business updates. Our cross-brand Global Leadership Team, led by our Chief Executive Officer, is regularly engaged with and updated on material topics. At the operational level, the ESG Council plays a key role in championing and governing Yum!’s overall citizenship and sustainability strategy and priorities. Yum! also convenes cross-functional working groups that meet regularly throughout the year and include employees from food safety, human resources, supply chain, development, sustainability, communications and legal teams at the corporate and brand division levels to advance priority area agendas. This includes an ESG Working Group that helps manage ongoing efforts such as our materiality assessment, disclosures to sustainability ratings and rankings agencies and our Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report.