We have been tracking our Scope 1 and Scope 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions for the past five years and continue to advance our reporting through improved controls and processes to prepare for future compliance requirements. We celebrated a major milestone in our emissions reporting by validating our 2024 emissions through a limited assurance process.
Reducing our Footprint
As a global organization, we believe it is our responsibility to understand our full environmental impact and to leverage the strength of our team to take progressive action. We started our journey with a focus on understanding our baseline and we’re continuing to explore reduction opportunities to develop a mitigation strategy right sized for Inspire.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Breakdown by Emissions Scope
90,392
Scope 1
211,910
Scope 2 (Market-Based)
302,302
Total
2024 GHG Emissions Metric Tons CO2E
Energy Reduction
We recognize that energy reduction in our support centers and corporate-owned restaurants is one way through which we can address our GHG footprint. Beginning in 2023, our Operations Innovation team launched a utility outlier program to drive operational improvement by reducing the usage of electric and gas utilities. The program compares restaurants with similar characteristics, such as size, sales, brand, or geographic location, in order to identify energy outlier locations and districts. Once locations are flagged as outliers, operational leaders collaborate with field teams to develop intervention plans and provide support to reduce their usage. Learnings from this program are shared across the organization to inform additional usage reduction activities, including equipment innovation, operational procedure revisions, and facility repairs and maintenance.
Our most impactful actions on electricity and gas reduction often take place behind the scenes, such as upgrading HVAC systems, cooking equipment, and refrigeration equipment. We strive to connect energy reduction initiatives to our daily operations with our restaurant team members. Offering training on best practices as simple as powering down ovens at Arby’s or turning off televisions at Buffalo Wild Wings, empowers the full Inspire team to contribute to our sustainability efforts.
Energy efficiency is built into our restaurants from the ground up. Our brand prototypes are optimized to serve our guests while limiting excess space to minimize energy consumption. Brand standard designs utilize 100% LED lighting, efficient equipment, and sustainable building materials when feasible. Innovative building formats, including BWW GO, non-traditional, and multi-brand locations, are not only exciting growth opportunities for Inspire, but they also boast significant energy savings.
Alliance Kitchen is our spotlight facility for energy efficiency. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, the multi-brand ghost kitchen offers guest-favorite menu items from Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC. The innovative design reduces energy consumption by more than 50% when compared to five standalone restaurants.
Energy Breakdown by Business Activity
38,467
Support Centers
3,034,715
Corporate Restaurants
3,073,182
Total
2024 Total Energy Use MMBTu
Renewable Energy
We are exploring renewable energy as a potential long-term strategy to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. Inspire franchisees around the country are piloting solar energy projects, including three SONIC locations in Long Island, NY, leveraging the drive-in stalls as an ideal spot for solar panels.
Electric Vehicle Chargers
Inspire is supporting the adoption of electric vehicles by installing EV charging stations at select restaurants and support centers. For example, guests can enjoy a meal at designated Buffalo Wild Wings locations while they charge up, making it even easier to be sustainable on the roads.
Water Reduction
Water is not typically a major component of our cooking or preparation process, and our water consumption is driven largely by standard building operations, including sinks, toilets, and dishwashers. Nonetheless, we continue to limit water usage by utilizing water-efficient equipment, installing low-flow faucets, and accelerating leak detection and mediation. We monitor performance through a similar outlier program aligned with our energy reduction approach, making it simple to communicate and discuss any utility usage concerns with restaurant team members.
Waste Reduction
Waste is a key challenge we’re addressing. Our overarching goal is to create less waste; in practice, our waste reduction strategy follows a hierarchy of preventing waste before it occurs, donating edible waste, and responsibly disposing of unavoidable waste.
Preventing Waste
We prioritize food waste reduction as a key performance metric for our restaurant teams, which incentivizes every team member to contribute to reduction efforts, from ingredient preparation to accurate order fulfillment.
- SONIC developed a training program that empowers our managers to be experts in food management, teaching them how to minimize waste and quickly seize opportunities as they arise throughout the food inventory life cycle. We also created waste tracking tools that allow team members and managers to document waste so that the next shift can fine-tune operations to reduce waste throughout the day.
- Arby’s invested in a new back-office system and operations tablets that offer our managers mobility when completing key food management tasks, including inventory tracking and ordering to ensure fresh ingredients are depleted before placing new orders.
Donating Edible Waste
When food waste does occur, we aim to donate surplus food that can nourish our communities. Our franchisees often connect with local nonprofits to donate food directly to causes close to our team members. We also work with food distribution partners, to expand our network of food donations by collecting the leftover food and delivering it to organizations serving vulnerable communities currently experiencing food insecurity. We continue to monitor and assess new food donation opportunities to find programs that address regional and brand specific needs.
Responsible Waste Disposal
For any remaining waste, our teams identify the best disposal option available, seeking to divert waste from the landfill where feasible. We are exploring innovative waste streams—for example, turning inedible food waste into animal feed or piloting a closed-loop oil program. Where available, our restaurants are utilizing compost collection, with the aim to expand this to additional locations. Many of our restaurants offer recycling for both back-of-house and front-of-house waste, but this may vary due to regional limitations on recycling collection. We are working with recycling providers to increase on-site recycling and continue to encourage guests enjoying their meal on the go to recycle packaging in their curbside collection.
- SONIC and Arby’s work with a partner to turn their grease into green energy. In 2024, 29.3M pounds of used cooking oil was collected from 1,210 restaurants and used to create low-carbon renewable diesel or sustainable aviation fuel.
Packaging Innovation
Our packaging serves an essential purpose to keep food fresh for convenient, on-the-go consumption. Innovative packaging is specially designed to keep SONIC Slushes cold, Dunkin’ coffee hot, and Arby’s curly fries crisp—performance we rely on to provide the best possible consumer experience.
Packaging varies across our brands to meet the specific needs of each menu, but we are united in our efforts to improve the sustainability of our packaging. As Mavericks and Visionaries, we approach packaging sustainability from multiple angles to find the best-fit solution that will prepare us for future consumer and regulatory demand. We identified select areas to drive enterprise-wide change, while empowering each brand—and in some cases franchisees—to investigate available solutions and share learnings across Inspire. Tackling packaging as one organization enables us to trial, adapt, and scale solutions faster and more confidently than any brand could achieve alone.
Using Alternative Materials
We are working with our suppliers to explore alternative packaging materials that have a lower carbon footprint. Across our network, we pilot novel packaging innovations in select locations and determine their viability to expand.
Trialing Reuse Systems
We are proud to offer solutions that not only reduce single-use packaging but additionally empower guests to make sustainable choices that fit their lifestyle and values. Increasing the availability and accessibility of reusable cups is an important action we can take as a brand to promote sustainable consumer behavior and support the global drive toward a more sustainable future.
- Innovation Highlight: A Dunkin’ located in Petaluma, California, participated in a 3-month, city-wide reusable cup program with Closed Loop Partners to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges of reuse.
Designing for Recyclability
We align with industry standard recyclability definitions and work closely with our suppliers to identify opportunities to improve recyclability of our current packaging or switch to recyclable packaging alternatives. In addition, we are communicating with local operators to improve compatibility of our packaging with local recycling systems to make it easier for guests to recycle.
Reducing Packaging
We continue to review our packaging portfolio and target lightweighting or downgauging existing packaging or fully eliminating any unnecessary single-use packaging.
Exemplifying Maverick Behavior
Our brands are dreaming up new, creative ideas to reduce their footprint wherever possible, flexing their muscles to do what has never been done before.
2023 Keg Champion
Buffalo Wild Wings won the Steel Keg Association’s 2023 Keg Champion title, awarded to bars and restaurants embracing the benefits of reusable stainless-steel kegs. With an average of 30 draft beers on tap in each sports bar, Buffalo Wild Wings empowers guests to make a sustainable choice to eliminate single-use bottles and cans from ending up in the waste stream. Tapping a keg every 20 seconds makes Buffalo Wild Wings a significant contributor to the industry impact of reusable steel kegs, which removes an average of 6 billion single-use containers from the waste stream every year.
Red Velvet Cookie Donation
Some could say that our guests are obsessed with the limited-time offers our brands introduce throughout the year, including the Red Velvet Cookie from Jimmy John’s. However, the menu items are only made available for a short time before they are removed from the menu. One Supply Chain Operations Manager saw this as an opportunity to bring smiles to the local community. When the Red Velvet Cookies were taken off the menu to transition to the next seasonal item, they collected all the surplus supply in the region and were able to donate 5,512 cookies to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.