Environmental activist group Dogwood Alliance has launched a national campaign against KFC to encourage the company to adopt more eco-friendly paper packaging sourcing practices. The group charges that the restaurant chain is contributing to the annual destruction of the Southern U.S. forest region.
The group is targeting KFC because of its positioning as a Southern heritage brand and is calling on the company to become a leader by relying on Southern paper packaging sourced from Forest Stewardship Council certified sustainably managed forests.
The Dogwood Alliance recently held a public rally in front of KFC's flagship store in Louisville, Ky., to launch their ongoing "Kentucky Fried Forests" campaign. The organization said it intends to keep putting pressure on KFC until the company takes meaningful action to protect Southern forests through reducing waste and increasing the use of recycled content and FSC certified paper.
KFC said in a statement that it is "as committed to the environment as we are to our food and to our customers."
We are proud of the steps we have taken so far to reduce our environmental footprint and are committed as a brand to do even more in the future. It's an ongoing journey and we are keeping our customers informed along the way.
The company has posted on its Web site its packaging initiatives:
- All KFC's paper bags are 100 percent recycled content
- All KFC's in-store napkins are 100 percent recycled content
- 30 percent of every KFC Bucket Lid is made out of recycled content
- By May, more than 90 percent of KFC paperboard packaging will be Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified
The Dogwood Alliance said that it objects to SFI certification because it is under the control of forestry industry associations and "lacks crucial elements for achieving the goals of sustainable forestry management and chain of custody." The organization claims FSC certification is considered the international gold standard for credible certification.
KFC has been the target of other activist groups, most notably PETA, which protests the slaughtering methods of chickens supplied to the QSR's stores. The organization has called for a boycott of the chain and has launched a celebrity-endorsed Web site on the subject.
The southern region of the United States is the largest paper producing region in the world (greater than any other single country), providing 20 percent of the globe's pulp, paper and lumber while only being home to 2 percent of the world's forests.
