Coffee Sustainability

In 2018, Dunkin’ U.S. and NDCP, became a leading funder of World Coffee Research, a non-profit dedicated to coffee sustainability and farmer profitability. We expect that the Dunkin’ system will donate approximately $2 million through 2022.

Currently in the U.S. and in select international markets, the Dunkin' brand offers Rainforest Alliance certified coffee. Since 2018, Dunkin’ has been part of The Sustainable Coffee Challenge, a collaborative effort, led by Conservation International, of companies, governments, NGOs, research institutions, and others, aligned around a common goal of transitioning the coffee sector to be fully sustainable. For 2021, Dunkin’ has committed $110,000 to become a premier-level sponsor of The Sustainable Coffee Challenge, continuing its work within the organization to make coffee the world’s first fully sustainable agricultural product.

Dunkin’ is also making a $10,000 donation to the Sustainable Coffee Challenge’s Labor Action Network Initiative in Brazil. Funding supports Rainforest Alliance’s efforts to build the capacity of auditors and technical support teams in Brazil to ensure timely identification of any social violations.

Dunkin' has teamed up with One Tree Planted, an environmental non-profit that's helping the environment by planting trees in countries around the world. Through a $200,000 donation from Dunkin', by the end of 2021, One Tree Planted will plant a total of 200,000 trees throughout Honduras and Guatemala, including areas that are essential to regional environmental stability, increased rural farmer productivity, and the livelihoods of thousands of people. This tree-planting program will create significant benefits to these regions, including improving air and water quality, improving soil health, increasing wildlife biodiversity, and providing jobs in local communities.

Dunkin' is allocating $40,000 toward providing our coffee suppliers in Guatemala and Colombia with The Partnership for Gender Equity's Virtual Learning Journey. This unique online workshop series helps advance gender equity by providing 10 producer organizations with a better understanding of gendered challenges and opportunities, and identifying areas of opportunity for targeted action plans and solutions.

Improving Menu Quality and Providing Choice

As part of our company’s ongoing efforts to offer guests great tasting, high quality products and cleaner menu labels, Dunkin’ eliminated artificial dyes from key categories on its menu. Specifically, we have successfully removed artificial dyes from donuts, baked goods, breakfast sandwiches, coffee flavorings and select frozen beverages. We continue to work with our suppliers to identify a solution for Blue Raspberry COOLATTA®. The exception for Dunkin’s menu includes select supplier-branded ingredients produced by other companies and used as topping, inclusions and decorative elements. 

In addition, we are committed to increasing vegan and vegetarian offerings on the Dunkin’ menu. Important progress made in 2019 included the following:

• We partnered with Beyond Meat® to launch the Beyond Sausage® Sandwich.
• Dunkin’ was named the Most Vegan Friendly Restaurant Chain by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Sustainable Palm Oil

As a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and founding member of the North American Sustainable Palm Oil Network (NASPON), we continue to participate in efforts to advance sustainable palm oil sourcing. In 2019, 100% of palm oil purchased through NDCP was RSPO certified.

Dairy Sustainability

Dunkin’ recently joined the Dairy Sustainability Alliance, a multi-stakeholder group consisting of representatives from across the dairy value chain, committed to leading in sustainability and furthering the dairy community’s social responsibility goals.

Animal Welfare

We are committed to the humane treatment of animals. We do not own, raise, process or transport livestock, but we recognize that animal welfare is an important part of a safe and sustainable food supply chain. And like many of our stakeholders, we care about the way animals are raised and treated. We created our Animal Welfare Policy in 2012  to share our animal welfare commitments with our stakeholders, set forth clear expectations for our suppliers and guide our own decision-making regarding animal products in our U.S. supply chain.

100% of the chicken offered in Dunkin’ restaurants has been raised antibiotic-free following the USDA guidelines for No Antibiotics Ever. We are committed to sourcing 100% of the eggs for the Dunkin’ U.S. menu from cage-free sources by 2025. We currently source approximately 11% of the eggs for our Dunkin’ U.S. breakfast sandwiches from cage-free sources.

DISCOVER SUSTAINABLE RESTAURANTS

Sustainable Packaging

Dunkin' eliminated all polystyrene foam cups from its supply chain in 2020. Our elimination of foam, is expected to remove approximately 1 billion foam cups annually from the waste stream. Approximately, 86% of Dunkin’ packaging is either renewable, recyclable, and/or made from certified materials. In 2021, we will be transitioning from plastic to wooden stirrers. In 2019 we also began testing a new plastic straw alternative that is both home and industrial compostable, in addition to our previously tested paper straws. We remain committed to finding a long-term sustainable alternative to our single-use plastic packaging, including straws that meets our guests’ expectations and reduces environmental impacts.

Sustainable Building

Currently, we have over 700 Dunkin’ U.S. DD Green Achievement restaurants surpassing our goal of 500 by the end of 2020. We’ve set a new goal to open our 1,000th DD Green Achievement restaurant by the end of 2025. Our DD Green Achievement restaurants are performing better than anticipated, reducing energy use by approximately 33% compared to a conventional Dunkin’ restaurant.

In January 2018, we opened our first Next Generation restaurant in Quincy, MA which features a new modern design and innovative technologies throughout. Our Next Generation restaurants are designed to meet DD Green Achievement specifications and to be at least 25% more energy efficient compared to our previous restaurant design.

DISCOVER SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

Energy and Climate

As part of our commitment to reduce our environmental impact, we continue to work with consultants to measure our energy and GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions footprint for our corporate headquarters and Dunkin’ Brands University. Our external consultants monitor our energy and Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions for our corporate holdings. In 2019, we saw a 60% reduction in GHG emissions compared to a 2013 baseline.

Disaster Relief in our Coffee Growing Communities

In 2020, Hurricanes ETA and IOTA struck Central America, devastating many regions within Honduras and Nicaragua, including coffee growing communities. We have donated $10,000 to World Vision and $10,000 to the Seeds for Progress Foundation, to help alleviate human suffering for those affected by Hurricanes ETA (Cat 4) and IOTA (Cat 5).

DISCOVER SUSTAINABLE FOOD