Yum! Brands, owner of quick-service seafood chain Long John Silver’s, released its first corporate responsibility report yesterday outlining its commitment to environmental and social responsibility, including its longstanding pledge to source only sustainable seafood.
“This report reinforces our commitment to corporate responsibility (CR), details our performance to date and identifies our future CR direction,” says David Novak, the Louisville, Ky., company’s chairman and CEO. “Our view is that the dynamic nature of societal and environmental changes — some predictable, some not — requires us to anticipate, understand and respond meaningfully. That makes us stronger and better as a company and as a responsible citizen of the world community.”
Titled “Serving the World,” the report says Yum’s commitment to sustainable seafood has been longstanding.
“Over a decade ago, we came to the realization that, in order to ensure a lasting and diverse supply chain for seafood, we needed to make certain that our seafood sourcing practices are sustainable,” the report says. “We carefully selected fisheries and aquaculture operations in the world that are considered to be sustainable. We made a conscious effort to source our seafood from fisheries that work to protect our valuable seafood resources.”
Since 1993, more than 99 percent of the battered whitefish purchased by Long John Silver’s has originated from three sources — Bering Sea Alaska pollock, New Zealand hoki and South Africa hake. Since then, all three fisheries have been certified as well managed and sustainable under the Marine Stewardship Council program.
Additionally, all but one of the shrimp processing plants that supply Long John Silver’s with battered shrimp have been certified as sustainable by an independent, third-party organization.
Yum is the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of number of units, with nearly 36,000 locations in more than 110 countries and territories. In addition to Long John Silver’s, its brands include KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and A&W.
The report is available at www.yum.com/responsibility.
