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Pizza Hut partners with Dairy Farmers of America to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

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August 11, 2022

Pizza Hut and its parent company Yum Brands have partnered with Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a farmer-owned coop with more than 11,500 farm family, and dairy supplier to provide participating farmers with the technology and data needed to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

Pizza Hut will participate in annual farm-level greenhouse gas and energy foot-printing through the Farmers Assuring Responsible Management and Environmental Stewardship (FARM ES) evaluation over a three-year period. By 2025, the end of the three-year period, Pizza Hut aims to source 50% of the dairy used to make its pizza cheese from dairy farms enrolled in the FARM ES program.

"Pizza Hut has a long history of implementing industry-leading innovation," Penny Shaheen, head of food innovation and technology at Pizza Hut, said in the release. "With this sustainability initiative, we're able to utilize technology along with our dairy partners in a way that helps the environment while still delivering the iconic taste that pizza lovers have come to expect from our offerings."

Since Pizza Hut's inception in 1958, it has worked with the same family-owned business to supply 100% real cheese made with whole milk to top its pizza and that commitment to the highest-quality cheese will remain unchanged. With this announcement, Pizza Hut will leverage its national scale by partnering with DFA and dairy suppliers to help make its supply chain more environmentally friendly by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The project is also part of a broader strategy that will help all parties reach additional long-term sustainability goals:

• Yum! and Pizza Hut: decrease GHG emissions 46% by 2030 with a focus on restaurants and supply chain and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
• Dairy Farmers of America: 30% GHG emissions reduction across supply chain by 2030. DFA is also part of an industry-wide collaboration through the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy to be greenhouse neutral or better by 2050.

Pizza Hut operates more than 18,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries.