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Planet

Our Approach

At Restaurant Brands International, protecting the planet for future generations and for the sustainability of our business and the agricultural industry is paramount. Areas of focus within the planet pillar are: packaging and recycling, green buildings, and responsible sourcing. Our commitments and progress for each of these areas can be found in the dashboard below.

Packaging and Recycling:

Packaging helps us safely and conveniently serve our guests the food they love, but we know that packaging and plastic waste is threatening the health of our planet and we have a responsibility to help solve this challenge. Working closely with our suppliers, we are innovating to reduce our use of packaging, transition to more sustainable materials and help our guests to reuse and recycle.

Green Buildings:

With four restaurant support centers and over 26,000 locations around the world, Restaurant Brands International and our brands are working to reduce the impact that our business has on the environment and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. In order to help our restaurant owners minimize their environmental footprints, our restaurant design teams develop building standards that incorporate the use of leading industry products and practices focused on reducing usage of water, energy, and waste, in both new restaurants and updates to our existing locations.

Responsible Sourcing:

Food production can be resource intensive and environmentally impactful, which is why we’re committed to responsibly sourcing the food we serve. Our commitment extends to our supply chain and the people, land and animals that may be impacted by our business. Participation in multi-stakeholder roundtables and active engagement with our suppliers supports industry wide advancements of sustainable sourcing practises for our priority commodities. At the same time, our quality assurance and supply chain teams work together to develop and uphold responsible sourcing standards through the procurement process.

Highlights

Packaging and Recycling

  • Tim Hortons implemented new straw-less lids for cold beverages in Canada and will transition fully in the US by early 2020, which will remove 120 million plastic straws from our supply chain each year.
  • By early 2020, all of Tim Hortons paper bags in Canada will be made of 100% recycled fiber.
  • In the UK, Burger King has completely removed all plastic toys from its King Junior Meals, estimated to save 320 tonnes of single use plastic annually.
  • Burger King Korea and Burger King India have implemented a reusable cup system for in-store guests.

Green Buildings

  • Across our four global restaurant support centers, we have fully transitioned to using reusable cup systems and have removed all non-biodegradable packaging.

Responsible Sourcing

  • In 2018, 34% of directly sourced palm oil was from Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-certified sources.
  • Burger King and Tim Hortons have fulfilled their global commitment to source 100% of fiber-based packaging from certified or recycled sources.

Looking Forward

Our goals over the next year.

  • Measure and understand our carbon footprint, and establish reduction targets for Burger King and Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada and the US.

  • All brands will continue to engage suppliers to advance their efforts towards eliminating deforestation.

  • Complete the transition to sourcing all palm oil from suppliers who can verify sustainable production as detailed in our Palm Oil Sourcing Policy, found here.

  • Popeyes and Burger King will continue to phase out expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam from all centrally managed guest packaging globally and by 2021 or sooner will require that markets do not use EPS foam for any local guest packaging items.

  • Tim Hortons will launch a refreshed reusable cup platform in 2020, making affordable reusable drinkware available for purchase in all standard restaurants across Canada as part of their ongoing commitment to single use cup reduction.

Performance Summary: Planet

Packaging & Recycling

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Continue our work to advance packaging sustainability by improving materials and reducing overall packaging used.

Ongoing

We are continuously innovating and pilot testing new solutions:

  • Tim Hortons new hot beverage lid is now made from polypropylene, a material type that is 100% recyclable and accepted in 95% of curbside recycling programs across Canada.
  • Tim Hortons implemented new straw-less lids for cold beverages in Canada and will transition fully in the US by early 2020, which will remove 120 million plastic straws from our supply chain each year.
  • Tim Hortons is increasing the recycled content of their paper takeaway bags. All paper bags in Canada will be made of 100% recycled fiber by early 2020.
  • Burger King India has announced a 100% ban on single use plastics, and continues to use more environmentally friendly materials like bamboo for forks, spoons, and stirrers.
  • Burger King Korea and Burger King India have implemented a reusable cup system for in-store guests.

By 2025, 100% of approved guest packaging will come from renewable1, recycled2 or certified3 sources.

2025

*NEW Commitment as of December 2019
We are in the process of collecting data to report on our status in this area.

By 2021 we will phase out expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam from from all centrally managed guest packaging globally and require that markets do not use EPS foam for any local guest packaging items.

2021

*NEW Commitment as of December 2019
We are in the process of collecting data to report on our status in this area.

Tim Hortons approved packaging is already free from EPS foam, globally.

Burger King expects to phase out EPS foam items globally by 2020.

Burger King is committed to completely phasing out non bio-degradable plastic toys from its system worldwide by the end of 2025.

2025

Burger King UK has removed all plastic toys from its King Junior Meals, estimated to save 320 tonnes of single use plastic annually.

Tim Hortons is committed to single use cup reduction and a consumer education campaign over 10 years.

Ongoing

*NEW Commitment as of May 2019
Tim Hortons will launch a refreshed reusable cup platform in 2020, making affordable reusable drinkware available for purchase in all standard restaurants across Canada.

Facilitate access to waste diversion including recycling, starting with recycling guest packaging in 100% of Burger King and Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada and the US by 2025.

2025

*NEW Commitment as of December 2019
We are in the process of collecting data to report on our status in this area.

Green Buildings

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Design, build and operate restaurants to be measurably more sustainable using our restaurant design standards to reduce energy consumption, water use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste.

Ongoing

In 2020, we will begin to measure and understand our carbon footprint, and establish reduction targets for Burger King and Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada and the US.

Responsible Sourcing

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Uphold responsible sourcing practises across our supply chain.

Ongoing

We remain committed to our Code of Business Ethics and Conduct for Vendors, which requires suppliers to operate their businesses ethically and abide by all applicable laws and regulations.

By 2020 Canadian and US suppliers will be required to certify their compliance with the Code annually.

In 2020, we will conduct a life cycle assessment of 8 high impact procurement categories accounting for over 80% of procurement spend. This assessment will cover GHGs, waste, water, and energy usage.

Remain committed to eliminating deforestation from our supply chain by 2030 or sooner.

2030

In 2019, Restaurant Brands International joined the Roundtable for Responsible Soy to support the advancement of traceability of soy as animal feed in the industry.

We are actively engaging our brands’ suppliers to work towards this goal, and will formalize the monitoring of suppliers’ deforestation policies, commitments, and independent certifications along with the 2020 update of our quality assurance system.

Source fiber-based packaging from certified or recycled sources.

2021

Burger King and Tim Hortons achieved this goal globally in 2019. Popeyes shares this commitment and is working towards achieving this goal by 2021.

By 2020, all palm oil directly sourced as well as palm oil and palm kernel oil used as an ingredient in our branded products will be from approved suppliers who can verify sustainable production. This commitment is detailed in our Palm Oil Sourcing Policy, found here.

2020

In 2018, 34% of palm oil directly sourced was from Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-certified sources.

Advance beef sustainability based on the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GSRB) principles.

Specifically, for Burger King restaurants in the US, increase the proportion of beef sourced that aligns with our vision for beef sustainability to 30% of the beef supply by 2022.

2022

We are proactively engaging with our peers, experts and industry stakeholders to advance beef sustainability through our participation in the GRSB and its associated regional roundtables, including the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) and the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB).

Seek continuous improvements in animal welfare, such as cage-free eggs, sow housing, and broiler chickens.

By 2025, Burger King and Tim Hortons will transition to 100% cage-free eggs in the U.S., Canadian, Mexican and Latin American markets.

Burger King and Tim Hortons are committed to source pork globally only from approved suppliers that do not use gestation crates and will accomplish this in the US and Canada by 2022 and in Latin America by 2025.

By 2024, in the US and Canada, Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons will target the following related to broiler chicken welfare:
  • Transition to using breeds determined to have better welfare outcomes
  • Provide more space by reducing maximum stocking density, per Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Standards
  • Enhance living environments including litter quality, lighting and enrichments, per GAP Standards
  • Utilize a multi-step controlled-atmosphere stunning system

Ongoing

In 2019, Popeyes joined Burger King and Tim Hortons in making a commitment to advancing broiler chicken welfare.

Tim Hortons brand is committed to strengthening its approach and commitment to ethically sourcing coffee, and supporting the people, places and partners across its coffee supply chain.

Ongoing

Using third-party verification every three years and self-audits for the years in between, Tim Hortons verifies detailed compliance with our Vendor Code, confirming that its coffee is ethically sourced.

The last third-party verification was undertaken at the mill-level in 2017 and revealed no major compliance issues, however, areas of improvement are continuously pursued.

Self-audits were completed in 2018, where Tim Hortons vendors conducted and provided self-audits to our vendor code that demonstrated consistency in quality management systems, safety of practises and ability to trace back to where the coffee was first purchased.

Self-audits for 2019 will be completed by the end of the year.

1 Renewable: Renewable Material that is composed of biomass from a living source and that can be continually replenished. ISO 14021:2016 “renewable” and “recycled” material; for plastic, ASTM 6866 or ISO 16620-2. Renewable applies to plastics only, not fiber.

2 Recycled: Material that has been reprocessed from recovered [reclaimed] material by means of a manufacturing process and made into a final product or into a component for incorporation into a product. [ISO 14021:2016 “renewable” and “recycled” material.] Recycled material applies to plastics and fiber. Fiber-based packaging made from 100% recycled content must be third-party verified, unless certified under a Chain of Custody forest management standard.

3 Certified: Specifically, all guest packaging items (including hot cups, cold cups, carry-out bags, folding cartons, clamshells, wraps, food service bags, napkins, drink carriers) made from paper/ board sold to Restaurant Brands International brands globally must be certified by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). FSC is required when fiber is sourced from the following high deforestation risk countries: Russia, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Argentina by 2021.