Bloomin’ Brands

No leading practices were identified in the governance and strategy area.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has a target to reduce scope 1 and scope 2 total GHG emissions by approximately half by 2030 and to net zero by 2050 against the baseline year 2019.

Animal welfare
The company discloses a target that addresses animal welfare issues in its supply chain and reports progress against the target.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company partakes in activities related to transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption along with a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and file complaints related to instances of bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The current composition of the company’s board, with women constituting 36%, suggests a step towards gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Respect human rights
The company indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) but could further link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and disclose detailed information regarding its remuneration policy related to DEI.

While stating that the board of directors has expertise in ESG, the company has an opportunity for further disclosure. Specifically, it could reveal whether its highest governance body has specialised expertise in its most material sustainability topics, such as biodiversity, climate, ecosystem conversion, water, nutrition, and social inclusion.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Furthermore, it could provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets and report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process, including frequencies and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
The company states that it has a materiality assessment, but could disclose further details on how it identifies and prioritises its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts, including how external stakeholders are involved in the process, how regularly the assessment is undertaken, and the outcome of the process.

While the company discloses certain sustainability objectives, including those related to climate, there is room to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to report consistently on progress against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has set a target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 total GHG emissions by approximately half by 2030 and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, using 2019 as the baseline year. In 2020, there was a quantitative reduction in these emissions compared to 2019. However, the company could report current progress against its previous year’s targets for scope 1 and 2 emissions. Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to align its scope 1 and 2 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Additionally, the company could focus on reducing its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, establish a related time-bound target, and report on progress against this target. It could also strengthen its commitment by aligning the scope 3 emissions target with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Animal welfare
While the company has a target that addresses animal welfare issues in its supply chain, it has an opportunity to make it applicable to all species, geographies, and products.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose its efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation or restoration. The company could develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Food loss and waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose its food loss and waste (FLW) reduction targets and report on progress against these targets. The company could also align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction by 2030.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence regarding plastic use reduction and use of sustainable packaging.

Protein diversification
The company has an opportunity to set a sales-based target to increase alternative proteins across its portfolio, as well as report progress against this target.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate how it is improving the nutritional quality of its products and to set targets to increase the share of more nutritious products in its portfolio.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to disclose how it provides nutritional information on its products and how it supports consumers with making healthy food choices through its labelling schemes.

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment to food safety and demonstrate that its operations and supply chain adhere to food safety standards.

Responsible marketing
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment to responsible marketing and its marketing activities to promote healthy food options.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and to indicate how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it could require them to have an age-verification system in place.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some commodities and regions. Also, it could adopt procurement practices and develop supply chain relationships that improve farmers’ income resilience.

Forced labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose forced labour requirements for its operations and supply chain such as a prohibition to pay recruitment fees, to retain workers’ personal documents, or to restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company has an opportunity to recognise and assess the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers. Furthermore, it could provide evidence of support activities that improve the health and safety of vulnerable groups.

Living wage
The company has an opportunity to set a target for paying a living wage across its direct suppliers and describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it sources. Also, it could disclose the percentage of workers across its own operations or suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment against bribery and corruption by including anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships, and establishing a process to identify risks and impacts related to bribery and corruption.

Furthermore, the company could demonstrate ethical conduct by publishing a policy statement that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement and emphasises its non-participation in political contributions, or alternatively, states the criteria for exceptions. It could also transparently disclose all lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to workers’ health and safety in its operations and supply chain by disclosing a policy statement and providing evidence of monitoring supplier compliance.

Additionally, it could set a time-bound target for ensuring all workers receive a living wage, describe the living wage determination methodology, and disclose strategies to support suppliers in paying a living wage.

Furthermore, the company could commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment and disclose related targets. It could also disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to human rights by disclosing a policy statement that respects fundamental human rights, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) fundamental rights at work, covering its operations and supply chain.

Additionally, the company could describe the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in specific activities or locations, covering its operations and supply chain, as well as the process for assessing and identifying its salient human rights issues. The company could establish a global system to address these salient human rights issues by implementing preventive, mitigative, or remedial measures.