KFC announces another eco-friendly initiative
Old Uniforms to be re-purposed.
Launched on World Environment Day, the national initiative will see old KFC staff uniforms made into 25,000 m2 of carpet underlay, to be sold commercially.
This effort will divert 60,000 old uniforms from landfills. It also extends KFC’s ongoing commitment to reducing its impact on the environment; including the opening of the first KFC LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified store in 2013 and the ‘Do the Right Thing, Use the Right Bin’ initiative, which has seen recycling bins installed in 185 KFC stores since 2011.
The move comes as 25,000 KFC employees receive newly designed uniforms across more than 600 KFC stores – the first time since 2008.
"KFC Australia has been working on a number of strategies and programs to address our environmental impact. With the introduction of new uniforms this year, we knew that we couldn’t just have 7,000 kgs of fabric go to landfill so we investigated a number of solutions to responsibly dispose of the material," recounted KFC Australia’s Chief Supply Chain Officer, Michael Clark.
“Diverting old uniforms from landfill presented a significant operational and logistical challenge. This forced KFC to really think outside the box,” he said. “It’s incredibly important that we look for ways to re-purpose unneeded products from our stores and reduce waste and energy consumption across our entire restaurant network”.
By the end of 2014, KFC will use its existing supply chain network to sustainably transfer 60,000 old uniforms to Pacific NonWovens, a fiber technology company conducting the re-purposing. "Environmental sustainability is one of key corporate social responsibility pillars and we’re committed to initiatives that are designed to reduce our environmental impact and that of our suppliers, adopting national and international programs to reduce waste and energy consumption across our stores," he added.
The chain has also partnered up with existing delivery food suppliers, Cut Fresh Salads and Unifresh, to tackle the challenge of returning 60,000 uniforms across the country. Clark explained that the said suppliers will collect old uniforms during routine deliveries and send the 7,000 kilograms worth of materials to Pacific NonWovens from their distribution centres.
Cathy Covino from Cut Fresh Salads said she was proud to support the initiative.
“We’re very happy to be working closely with KFC Australia on its environmental initiatives. This program has strengthened our partnership, now we’re not only delivering fresh Salads, but utilizing our services for a sustainable future.”
According to Clark, for this year, KFC will continue to invest in sustainable stores. "We’re proud to be the first quick service restaurant to have opened a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified store at East Maitland in New South Wales in 2013. We’re also planning to build our second LEED certified store in 2014, which will then set the standard to achieve our aim of designing and building all new restaurants as LEED certifiable by 2015."
"We’re also continuing to trial new initiatives with LED lighting to create further energy efficiencies as well as expanding our recycling program across our network of stores. To date, new recycling systems for public use have been installed at over 185 KFC restaurants across Australia—providing recycling opportunities for millions of customers per year. KFC Australia also proudly recycles cardboard in 98% of our equity stores back of house and in the majority of our franchised stores."
