The Global Investor Engagement on Meat Sourcing, initiated in 2019 by Ceres and the FAIRR Initiative, consists of dialogues between six of the largest quick-service restaurant (QSR) brands and institutional investors, with over $11 trillion in combined assets. Investors have urged the QSRs to analyse and reduce their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, water scarcity, and pervasive threats to water quality driven by animal protein production.
Companies have made notable progress in addressing investor requests to analyse the climate impact of QSRs. All six target companies have now publicly stated they have already set, or will set, global GHG reduction targets approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). However, most companies do not report the GHG emissions or the water impacts derived from their animal protein supply chains.
As QSRs set science-based targets, they will have to accompany their climate ambitions with strong disclosure of their progress towards achieving their commitments, particularly in relation to Scope 3 emissions from animal agriculture, which remains an industry challenge.
While companies recognise the materiality of water to their business, none of these QSRs have set enterprise-level targets to measurably reduce water pollution or consumption across their supply chain. These water risks remain largely unmitigated across the industry.
To meet their climate and water ambitions, QSRs will have to address the challenges in animal agriculture supply chains. Companies will benefit from setting strong sourcing policies and engagement with meat and dairy suppliers to align suppliers with corporate targets.