Investors demand environment action from KFC, McDonald’s and Domino’s

A group of investors representing over $6.5 trillion (£4.9bn) in assets has today demanded more transparency and commitments to tackling emissions from fast food chains Domino’s and McDonald’s.

An open letter from investors including BMO Global and Aviva has called on the restaurants to publish plans to tackle the environmental risks from their suppliers by March this year.

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The letter has been sent to a group of chains with a combined 120,000 branches.

“This engagement sends a clear message to the fast food sector that investors expect them to deliver sustainable supply chains,” Aviva’s Eugenie Mathieu said.

The effort, coordinated by Ceres and the Fairr Initiative, has also targeted Burger King, Chipotle, Wendy’s, KFC and Pizza Hut.

Jeremy Coller, the founder of investor group Fairr, said: “Every day around 84 million adults consume fast food in the US alone, but the inconvenient truth of convenience food is that the environmental impacts of the sector’s meat and dairy products have hit unsustainable levels.

“If cows were a country, it would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.”

The group also asks restaurants to force suppliers to report and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and impact on fresh water suppliers.

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The demands come after a report from Fairr found that agriculture is on track to contribute around 70 per cent of total allowable greenhouse emissions by 2050, while the livestock sector is predicted to use 10 per cent of annual global water flows.

A spokesperson for Yum Brands, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut said: “US animal protein suppliers are among the most efficient with some of the lowest greenhouse gas emissions in the world. We look forward to working with US producers to drive further improvements in efficiency while promoting and encouraging enhanced water quality protection. We also look forward to collaborating with global suppliers to lower their impact in line with leading markets in reduced emissions and impact.”

Morning Wire contacted the other restaurants for comment.