SHANGHAI, China – Yum China Holdings, Inc. (the “Company” or “Yum China”,NYSE: YUMC and HKEX: 9987) announced that it has received an ‘A’ rating in the latest MSCI Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Ratings for 2021. Yum China is one of only two restaurant companies to receive an ‘A’ rating, recognizing the Company’s strong ESG performance.
“Sustainability is an integral part of our business and fundamental to our future success. We strive to work collaboratively with our stakeholders across the value chain to promote innovation for sustainable development,” said Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China. “We are honored to receive the “A” rating from MSCI for our efforts and commitment to sustainable development.”
Yum China’s industry leading position in the MSCI ESG Ratings is driven by the Company’s continued progress and efforts in ESG. According to MSCI, Yum China outperformed industry peers in the following areas: Corporate Governance, Packaging Material & Waste and Opportunities in Nutrition & Health. MSCI also awarded Yum China a Best-in-Class score for board performance and acknowledged the Company’s detailed policies on business ethics and corruption.
Yum China is actively involved in tackling plastic waste and carbon emissions by implementing improved sustainable packaging measures, targeting to reduce 30% (as compared to the 2019 baseline) of non-degradable plastic packaging weight by 2025 and is also committed to achieving 100% of FSC certified paper packaging. In addition, Yum China has committed to supporting the Paris Agreement by setting science-based emissions reduction targets and reaching a net-zero value chain GHGs emissions by 2050.
MSCI Inc. is the world’s leading provider of ESG Indexes with over 1,500 equities and fixed income ESG Indexes designed to help institutional investors benchmark ESG investment performance and manage, measure and report on ESG mandates. MSCI ESG Ratings is designed to measure a company’s resilience to long-term ESG risks.
Yum China’s sustainability leadership is recognized through the Company’s presence in leading sustainability indices and ratings. Notably, Yum China has once again been recognized as one of the industry leading companies for sustainability performance in the 2021 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). It has been selected as a member of both DJSI World Index and DJSI Emerging Market Index for the second consecutive year.
