Steve Booker, CEO:
SK Food Group and the five other unique companies that make up the North American Sandwich Division are united behind a set of strongly held values. These values are rooted in our passion for working to benefit more than just our associates, customers and stakeholders. We are equally passionate about working to serve our local communities and operating in a way that is best for our planet.
As our values are embedded in our responsibility to all of our stakeholders, the North American Sandwich Division recognizes that there are environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics related to our business that impact our ability to achieve our mission. Since their inception, social and environmental practices have been at the core of each of our five companies. In 2020 we formalized our ESG governance by creating an ESG Committee, with representation from across all of our companies.
One of the ESG Committee’s first deliverables was the formation of a set of 10 objectives to help us focus on where we can make the greatest difference. These objectives represent the most meaningful benefits we can create over time:
Our 10 ESG Objectives
- Reduce energy usage/reduce emissions
- Reduce food waste
- Reduce water consumption
- Reduce plastic waste and packaging
- Promote healthy food and good nutrition
- Improve worker safety
- Sustainable and ethical sourcing
- Improve food safety
- Community engagement and food security
- Encourage diversity and inclusion
Once we established these objectives, we realized we needed a broader coalition to manage the specific initiatives to help us reach our goals. For this reason, we established an ESG Green Team whose members we refer to as “Champions”. The ESG Committee meets to report on progress achieved by the ESG Green Team, celebrate successes and share learnings.
I am very proud of the meaningful progress we have achieved across all 10 of our ESG objectives. We have increased the number of initiatives behind each one and we look forward to communicating our results.
We intend to favorably impact not just our associates, customers and consumers, but also the environment, the communities we serve and our suppliers. More importantly, we believe doing good for all of these stakeholders is not just our company’s responsibility, but it is also good for our business.
