FLUNKING THE PLANET: SCORING AMERICA’S FOOD BRANDS ON SUSTAINABLE MEAT

The report evaluates a wide range of U.S. food companies, including fast food chains, grocers, and distributors, on three sustainability metrics for meat sourcing. The vast majority of the assessed companies, such as Subway, Starbucks, and Costco, have no commitments to reducing Scope 3 emissions, implementing sustainable feed sourcing, or ensuring responsible manure management. A few companies show partial progress: Walmart's 'Project Gigaton' aims to reduce Scope 3 emissions by one billion tons by 2030, and McDonald's has a Science Based Target to reduce emissions intensity by 31 percent by 2030. However, the report notes that many of these efforts are voluntary or lack the rigorous standards and reporting necessary to ensure absolute emissions reductions across the full supply chain.

• Most of the analyzed U.S. food brands have no commitments to reducing Scope 3 emissions, sustainable feed sourcing, or responsible manure processing in their meat supply chains, including Albertsons Companies, Aramark, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Compass Group North America, Costco, Domino’s Pizza, Panera Bread, Restaurant Brands International, Starbucks, Subway, Sysco, Wegmans Food Markets, Wendy’s, Whole Foods, and Yum! Brands.
• Walmart's 'Project Gigaton', launched in April 2017, aims to reduce Scope 3 emissions by one billion tons by 2030 from a 2015 baseline, including an 'Agriculture pillar' for raw material producers like livestock farmers.
• McDonald's has a Science Based Targets initiative-approved commitment to reduce its supply chain emissions intensity by 31 percent by 2030 from 2015 levels, though the report notes that absolute emissions could still increase despite a decrease in intensity.
• Sodexo has a goal to reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 34 percent by 2020 using a 2011-2012 baseline, but it only reports progress on Scope 1 and 2 emissions on its website.
• Target set science-based targets in 2017 for Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, aiming for a 25 percent reduction in absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025, but its Scope 3 goal is limited to its own brand meat suppliers.
• Several companies are members of the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB) or Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB), including McDonald's, Restaurant Brands International, Target, and Wendy's, but the report argues these initiatives are ineffective because they do not set standards or operate certification programs to hold companies accountable.
• Aramark is noted for promoting plant-based choices, with 30 percent of its menus being vegetarian or vegan, yet it lacks steps to reduce the environmental impact of the meat it sources.

APA

Mighty Earth (n.d.). FLUNKING THE PLANET: SCORING AMERICA’S FOOD BRANDS ON SUSTAINABLE MEAT. http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Flunking-The-Planet-Company-Profiles.pdf

Chicago

Mighty Earth. FLUNKING THE PLANET: SCORING AMERICA’S FOOD BRANDS ON SUSTAINABLE MEAT. n.d. http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Flunking-The-Planet-Company-Profiles.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Mighty Earth |title=FLUNKING THE PLANET: SCORING AMERICA’S FOOD BRANDS ON SUSTAINABLE MEAT |url=http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Flunking-The-Planet-Company-Profiles.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mightyearthndflunking, author = {{Mighty Earth}}, title = {{FLUNKING THE PLANET: SCORING AMERICA’S FOOD BRANDS ON SUSTAINABLE MEAT}}, institution = {Mighty Earth}, url = {http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Flunking-The-Planet-Company-Profiles.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }