Advancing Good Done Right: Wendy's Releases 2024 Corporate Responsibility Report with Progress Across Food, Footprint and People Pillars

Today, Wendy’s released our 2024 Corporate Responsibility report detailing progress we made last year against our Good Done Right strategy and the ways we’ve further embedded this work into our daily operations to deliver on our Brand Promise – Fresh, Famous Food, Made Right, For You.

Doing the right thing, in the right way, has been our unwavering commitment since Wendy’s was founded more than 50 years ago. In 2024, we continued our work to advance progress against our Good Done Right pillars of Food, Footprint and People. Among other achievements, the report details Wendy’s commitment to serving high-quality food responsibly and transparently, delivering more with less environmental impact and fostering inclusive cultures in our workplaces and communities. Read on for key highlights found in the report, and the many ways these efforts support our business. 

“In 2024, we introduced our new Brand Promise, Fresh Famous Food, Made Right, For You. This promise reflects Wendy’s dedication to quality and our focus on putting the customer at the center of everything we do. Good Done Right is fundamental to bringing that promise to life. While the work is never done, the progress we made last year underscores our shared belief across the Wendy’s System that doing business responsibly is essential to delivering on our promise and is simply good business.” - Liliana Esposito, Chief Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Officer, The Wendy’s Company

Serving high-quality food responsibly and transparently 

In 2024, we continued to deliver on our commitment to serving high-quality food from responsible sources. 

Our System conducted over 13,000 Food Safety Assessments across Wendy’s global restaurant footprint through our partnership with EcoSure®. These assessments help us adhere to best-in-class food safety and operational procedures as well as identify and act upon areas for continued improvement. 

As part of our responsible sourcing program, we are working to improve the ways we source our top 10 priority food categories, engage with our suppliers and demonstrate accountability for ethical business practices, sustainability and social responsibility. Last year, we increased the percentage of products aligned to this program to 19%, driven by significant progress in our potato supply chain, which is the largest of our priority categories by weight. Additionally, through the Wendy’s Animal Care Standards Program, we reached our goal to have a comprehensive accounting of animal welfare best practices across our beef, pork, chicken, eggs and dairy supply chains in the U.S. and Canada. This work also expanded our view of our indirect protein supply chain in the region, amounting to more than 20,000 farms and facilities, and helped us build relationships beyond our direct suppliers.

Delivering more with less environmental impact

Wendy’s embraces our role and responsibility in mitigating our climate impact, and we are continuing to make progress in this area. 

In 2024, our Scope 1 and 2 emissions decreased by 37% from our 2019 baseline. We increased franchisee enrollment and participation in our Wendy’s Energy Challenge by more than 50% year-over-year, which engages franchisees in energy management initiatives to support our work to reduce Scope 3 franchisee emissions. We also reached a milestone in our sustainable packaging journey with 76% of our customer-facing packaging now considered sustainably sourced following the transition of our fry cartons and chili cups to a Sustainable Forestry Initiative certified fiber material. This also supported our new commitment to no deforestation across our most at-risk primary commodities by 2025. 

Supporting our employees and the communities we serve

In 2024, we continued to demonstrate our passion for a key ingredient to success — our people and communities.

Through our Community Giving Program, we donated $75,000 across 17 organizations, bringing our giving total to more than $485,000 since we began this program four years ago. We also continued our support for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption® (DTFA), a nonprofit organization started by our founder Dave Thomas committed to finding safe, permanent homes for children in foster care across the U.S. and Canada. In 2024, the DTFA received approximately $28 million in the U.S. and $1.7 million (CAD) in Canada from in-restaurant and other campaigns. In addition, more than 100 Wendy’s family members received financial assistance last year through our WeCare fund, totaling more than $40,000 to help offset the devastation caused by Hurricanes Beryl, Helene and Milton. Membership in Wendy’s seven volunteer Employee Resource Groups grew approximately 30% and programming grew by 150% compared to 2023.

While the report released today chronicles a single year of progress, the work of Good Done Right is never done and the milestones we reach each year can’t be achieved on our own. Delivering on our commitments as we continue to grow is only possible through purposeful collaboration with our employees, customers, franchisees, suppliers, business partners and the communities we serve. 

For more information about Wendy’s Good Done Right strategy, please view our 2024 Corporate Responsibility report.