Brinker International

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

Water withdrawal
The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

Child labour
The company requires suppliers to prohibit child labour and verify the age of recruited workers.

Act ethically
The company has a policy on bribery and corruption with anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationships’ contracts, along with a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints. Furthermore, it discloses a public commitment to protect personal data.

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses its commitment to its operations and supply chain workers’ health and safety by disclosing a policy statement. Additionally, it provides information in relation to the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements, the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and race or ethnicity. The company has 44.4% women on its Board and discloses its target to increase female representation at the restaurant operations leadership level to 45% by FY25 and 60% of Board members by FY24.

Respect human rights
The company has a policy statement that respects fundamental human rights in its operations along with a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company. Moreover, it discloses public policy statement committing it to respect the International Labour Organization (ILO) fundamental rights at work, in its operations and supply chain.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has an opportunity to link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover environmental and social issues. Furthermore, it could disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Furthermore, the company can provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, the company can 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 how it engages with stakeholders, the issues raised during such activities, and the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement.

Sustainable development strategy
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. While it discloses some sustainability objectives including those related to social inclusion, there is room to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, while the company reports consistently against some targets, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has an opportunity to disclose reductions in Scope 1 and 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, and set time-bound targets aligned with the Paris agreement’s 1.5 degree pathway.

Antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy on reducing the (prophylactic) use of antibiotics and/or growth promoting substances. Additionally, it can disclose targets to phase out the prophylactic use of antibiotics across all species, geographies, and products and report the progress against these targets.

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 progress against these targets. Additionally, the company can consider aligning 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.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose activities and targets to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, and report progress against them.

Water withdrawal
The company has multiple opportunities to enhance its sustainability efforts related to water withdrawal. It can start by disclosing quantitative evidence of reductions in water withdrawal across its own operations. Additionally, the company can set a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and regularly report progress in achieving this target. Furthermore, engaging with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal presents another opportunity for the company to make a positive impact in this area.

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

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate that all of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme or other widely recognized certification program. Additionally, the company can disclose the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Responsible marketing
The company has a chance to showcase its marketing activities that promote healthier and more nutritious food options, in line with government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines. Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to reveal a responsible marketing policy that is specifically designed for children, aligning with international codes and guidelines and applying to all media channels.

Workforce nutrition
The company has an opportunity to disclose evidence of workforce nutrition programmes.

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 is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts.

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.

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. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to disclose the percentage of workers across its own operations or direct suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, the company can demonstrate ethical practices by further disclosing its approach to lobbying and political engagement, clarifying its non-participation in political contributions, and transparently disclosing lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company can further demonstrate its commitment to the wellbeing of its operations and supply chain workers by providing evidence of monitoring suppliers’ compliance. While the company asserts that it pays its employees the minimum wage, there is an opportunity to pledge a commitment to a living wage. This could be achieved by establishing a time-bound target and detailing the methodology for determining this living wage. The company has set wage expectations for its suppliers but could enhance this by mandating a living wage and outlining strategies to support the payment.

Although the company has statements on gender equality and women’s empowerment, it could further strengthen its stance by translating it into a public policy document and disclosing the pay ratio of women to men across its direct workforce.

Respect human rights
While the company has conducted an enterprise risk assessment, it has an opportunity to disclose how it identifies human rights risks and impacts and the results, in its operations and business relationships. Furthermore, it could describe its process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues and establish a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate these salient human rights issues.