Check out the Yum! Brands 2018 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Progress Update

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) today released its 2018 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Progress Update, outlining the Company’s work to advance its citizenship and sustainability agenda around its strategic focus areas of Food, Planet and People.

“As a global citizen, Yum! Brands believes in acting responsibly as we grow KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell around the world when it comes to serving food people trust, growing sustainably and unlocking potential in our people,” said Greg Creed, CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc. “I couldn’t be more proud of the tremendous progress our organization has made over the past year to advance our Recipe for Good agenda and to drive socially responsible growth and manage risk.”

The Company’s citizenship and sustainability strategy, called its Recipe for Good, plays an important role in uniting customers, employees, franchisees and the supply chain around its most material issues. Yum! is focused on leveraging its scale and the power of its brands to help address global issues including working to remove antibiotics important to human medicine in its food production, expanding its deforestation commitments and progressing its work around diversity and inclusion.

The content in the 2018 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Progress Update reflects key announcements and commitments made since Yum! published its first investor-grade report last year. Highlights include:

Food

• KFC U.S. met its public commitment to remove antibiotics important to human medicine from its poultry supply.
• Taco Bell announced its global commitment to reduce antibiotics important to human health in its beef supply by 25% by 2025.
• Yum! joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Challenge, an effort to accelerate the fight against antimicrobial resistance across the globe.
• Yum! published a new Global Animal Welfare Policy to further advance its efforts around improvements made from the farm through the supply chain.

Planet

• Yum! began evaluating its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in accordance with the Science-Based Targets initiative, to understand the Company’s footprint, refine GHG reduction targets and identify emission reduction initiatives on the path to set science-based targets.
• Conducted a global supply chain risk assessment across food and agriculture procurement and as a result, expanded its deforestation commitments beyond palm and paper to include beef and soy.
• Endorsed the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) and the private sector goal of eliminating deforestation from the production of agriculture commodities including beef, palm, paper and soy.
• KFC pledged that all plastic-based, consumer-facing packaging will be recoverable or reusable globally by 2025.
• Taco Bell started using recyclable cold cups and lids in its U.S. restaurants and committed to having its cups 100% recyclable by 2021.
• Yum! joined the NextGen Consortium as a supporting partner.
• Marked a decade of progress in green buildings with nearly 35 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified restaurants globally.

People

• Yum! provided training and development opportunities to nearly 10,000 employees in 2018 through programs including Leading Culture to Fuel Results, Leading with Heart and Unconscious Bias.
• Progressed diversity and inclusion strategy through efforts like expanding its unconscious bias training program to global corporate employees and franchisees.
• Worked to advance women into senior roles with approximately 40% of global leadership positions held by women in 2018.
• Donated $55.6 million and impacted over 27 million people in 2018 through programs such as the KFC Foundation, Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT! Program and the Taco Bell Foundation’s Live Más Scholarship.
• Donated 5.6 million pounds of food through the Yum! Harvest Program.

For more information and to view the Yum! 2018 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Progress Update, visit yum.com/citizenship.

Join the conversation at Facebook.com/yumbrands and @yumbrands on Twitter using the hashtags #YumRecipeforGood and #ServingUpMoreGoodness.

About Yum! Brands, Inc.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 48,000 restaurants in more than 145 countries and territories primarily operating the company’s restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – global leaders of the chicken, pizza and Mexican-style food. Worldwide, the Yum! Brands system opens over eight new restaurants per day on average, making it a leader in global retail development. In 2018, Yum! Brands was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index and ranked among the top 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Corporate Responsibility Magazine. In 2019, Yum! Brands was named to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the second consecutive year.

Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, and its subsidiaries franchise or operate a system of over 60,000 restaurants in more than 155 countries and territories under the company’s concepts – Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill. The Company's Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut brands are global leaders of the Mexican-inspired food, chicken and pizza categories, respectively. Habit Burger & Grill is a fast casual restaurant concept specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches and more. In 2024, Yum! was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America, Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies, USA Today’s America’s Climate Leaders and 3BL’s list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens. In 2025, the Company was recognized among TIME magazine’s list of Best Companies for Future Leaders. In addition, Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut brands were ranked in the top 25 of Entrepreneur’s Top Global Franchises Ranking for 2025, with Taco Bell securing the No. 1 spot for the fifth consecutive year.

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