Dogwood Alliance

Much to our surprise, fast food giant Yum! Brands just released their first ever Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report . Unfortunately, they are still buying their paper packaging from Southern forests, and other endangered forests around the world.

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.

Send a message to Yum! Brands CEO David Novak here.

• 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, aboriginal and business communities.
• 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:
  • Increase and maximizing the use of PCR content.
  • End sourcing from endangered forests
  • End sourcing from forests converted to plantations…
  • Increase packaging efficiency and reduction
  • Source paper from sustainably managed forests like those certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Take action click here.

Taking these steps would not only save forests but also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.