KFC Setting New Bar for Sustainability

More and more consumers around the world are shopping with purpose. Concerns about the environment, sustainability, transparency, and ethical standards are increasingly affecting our purchasing decisions. Today’s companies have a moral obligation to be sustainable, and brands who lead these initiatives from the inside out are more likely to see sustained growth.

Sustainability in the food industry is multifaceted, covering environmental concerns, animal welfare, food safety, and social issues like affordability and access. KFC is an industry leader with initiatives in all of these areas.

Food, the planet, and people

“Being a sustainability leader goes back to who we are and our brand values centred around our food, our planet, and our people,” says Nivera Wallani, President and General Manager of KFC Canada. “I’m a mom of two children and like all parents, I feel a deep personal responsibility to my family and to ensuring that our generation is leaving this world a better place for our succeeding generations.”

As a leader in sustainability, KFC has made major strides toward bettering the communities it operates in through tangible programs and commitments around how it sources its food and packaging materials and how it addresses food insecurity.

A sustainability success story

KFC proudly sources Canadian chicken. The company’s partnership with Chicken Farmers of Canada, the organization representing Canada’s 2,800 chicken farmers and responsible for ensuring they produce the right amount of fresh, safe, high-quality chicken to meet the country’s needs, demonstrates its commitment to sustainability.

“The Raised by a Canadian Farmer logo represents not only the fact that the chickens are raised by Canadian farmers but also that a threefold set of standards are met regarding on-farm food safety, animal care, and sustainability,” says Lisa Bishop-Spencer, Director of Brand and Communications at Chicken Farmers of Canada.

Canadian chicken has the lowest environmental footprint of any livestock in North America, and 63 percent of the energy used currently comes from renewable sources.

“Sustainability is a process of continual improvement,” says Bishop-Spencer. “Over the last 40 years, we’ve lowered our carbon footprint by almost 40 percent.”

KFC also recently introduced plant-based alternatives. “Plantbased KFC was developed as a response to Canadians’ evolving tastes and preference for plantbased products, which has grown significantly over the past few years,” says Wallani. “We’re proud of the fact that our chicken is Canadian farm-raised and also of the fact that our plantbased KFC is made by Lightlife in Canada.”

Eliminating plastic packaging and food waste

Globally, KFC has committed to making all of its plastic-based, consumer-facing packaging recoverable or reusable by 2025. In Canada, it eliminated plastic straws and plastic bags from restaurants last year, doing away with over 50 million plastic straws and 10 million plastic bags annually. The brand also continues to lead the industry in sustainable packaging with the introduction of bamboo — one of the world’s most renewable and fastest-growing materials — as a permanent packaging solution starting in 2020.

“We have the most iconic bucket in the world, so it makes sense that the materials we would seek out for it would be just as iconic,” says Wallani. “Bamboo is a reliable, eco-friendly solution and visually signifies our commitment to making our packaging more sustainable.” The transition to bamboo packaging for KFC’s poutine buckets alone has already eliminated about 55 tonnes of plastic waste.

KFC is also addressing food insecurity with its food rescue program, Harvest. It all starts with robust forecasting processes and working with suppliers to only purchase as much fresh food as it expects to sell. Any surplus chicken is then donated to charities, soup kitchens, or meal programs within its local communities. Through Harvest, KFC rescues approximately $3 million worth of chicken, equivalent to over 200,000 meals, annually.

With over 23,000 restaurants in more than 140 countries around the world, including over 600 in Canada alone, KFC is a major player in sustainability. But no matter the impact, the responsibility cannot sit with one brand alone. “Our commitment to sustainability is rooted in the belief that we should hold ourselves accountable as an industry and work together to tackle the sustainability issue as a collective,” says Wallani. “Together we can have a tremendous impact.”