Yum!'s newly appointed CSO has outlined Yum!'s Global Enterprise Wide Goals for Sustainability. These goals include reducing global energy and water consumption, LEED certifiable restaurant prototypes, and a global packaging vision.
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Restaurant Building Engineering - Green Building Innovation

The core of sustainable building innovation at Yum! is the E3 Initiative. What is E3? It stands for Energy, Environment, and Economics. The goal of the initiative is to develop green building solutions that meet the bottom line objectives of people, planet, and profits. This holistic design approach looks at all aspects of our building and site and endeavors to test technologies and approaches in experimental buildings.

As with any experiment, you need to be open to new ideas and be prepared for a few surprises along the way. We like to remind people that environmental sustainability and CSR is a journey, not a destination. Developing sustainable solutions takes thoughtful and measured research. Only through this process can field-tested and field-ready solutions be prepared and deployed into our system. As we build our understanding, our expectation is to apply proven green solutions to existing buildings, planned prototypes, and future designs.

Our Bold First Steps

We are honored that our KFC-Taco Bell restaurant in Northampton, Massachusetts received LEED Gold certification in 2009. It was our first building constructed under the United States Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. LEED is an internationally accepted and independent system used to measure environmental performance of buildings. Buildings granted LEED certifications are recognized for their environmental commitment in the areas of: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation in design.

A few of the lessons that we have learned include:

Efficient Ventilation: With so much heated or cooled air typically being expelled from our buildings through kitchen hoods, it was the perfect place to look for energy savings. Following cooking, heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is our largest energy user. Our new hood strategy under test has been shown to reduce energy used for exhaust ventilation by over 70% during the first year of monitoring. Even after achieving these reductions, we obviously still need to bring fresh air into the building. During the winter months the sun's energy is used to preheat the air before it comes into the restaurant to reduce the use of gas. This not only saves money, but also reduces our carbon footprint.

LED General Lighting: The lighting industry is changing rapidly and the next promising technology is LED (light emitting diode) lighting. Simply stated, it uses a semi-conductor as a light source. Why try this? LED fixtures are energy efficient, do not contain mercury, and have a projected lifespan of 50,000 hours. So, by lasting eight to ten years they take changing light bulbs off of the operator's "to do list" and can contribute to improved performance ratings. The lighting design in Northampton uses 60% less energy than our typical building. Even though there is great promise in the technology, we continue to test products as well as to seek out the most cost effective ways to appropriately integrate this technology into restaurants.

Exterior Water Conservation: Picking the right plant species can save water and maintenance. The practice of selecting landscaping in ways that eliminates or reduces the need for irrigation is called "xeriscaping". In Northampton, all of our non-sod plantings were selected to live without any supplemental irrigation. This provided a baseline reduction in design water use by 70%. How do we irrigate the remaining sod? We capture rainwater from the roof and store it in an underground tank to use with the sprinkler system. No city water is used for irrigation.

We followed this success with a green KFC in the town of Wisbech, United Kingdom in 2010 that achieved a Grade B rating under the leading green building rating system in the UK, BREAM (Building Research Establishment Assessment Method). A primary goal of the project is to reduce the carbon footprint of the restaurant. Careful planning helped the building to achieve a rated reduction of 30%. We used a number of technologies to help achieve this objective.

Solar Hot Water Heater: By using the sun's energy we can provide an average of 40% of the restaurant's hot water needs during the course of a year and almost 100% during the summer.

Daylighting: Directing natural light through highly reflective ducts from collectors on the roof to the interior of the building enables us to switch off artificial lighting during some parts of the day. In addition to saving a bit of electricity, it contributes to a better work environment.

Improved Lighting Design and Control: A fresh look at illumination levels combined, with the application of low energy lighting technology, come together to reduce the energy demands of the building. This has been married to an improved control network that provides motion sensors to turn off lights in non-occupied areas as well as photosensors to more precisely control exterior lit signs.

In addition to the innovations listed above, some other areas we focused our sustainability efforts on included control systems for walk-in freezers to improve the evaporator efficiency and reduce energy consumption and dual flush cisterns in toilets and waterless urinals to significantly reduce our water usage. During construction, recycled materials and timber from sustainable managed resources were used as well as increased levels of insulation, saving 7.8% on heating load. We are also working on a test with a waste disposal company that will enable us to both reduce our construction waste and track exactly where our waste is going.

Other Green Buildings

We are proud to have relocated our Taco Bell headquarters, in late 2009, to an existing LEED Certified building located in Irvine, California. There are many green features of the building that help both the environment and our employees. The building uses a high efficiency glazing system that allows natural light in while keeping unwanted heat gain out. The under-floor air distribution system, combined with chiller efficiency and a variable speed drive on one chiller, help provide better energy savings and comfort. All toilets in the building use reclaimed water to reduce dependence on city supplies for waste conveyance by over 50%. During the fit-out process for Taco Bell, LEED for Commercial Interiors provided the framework for building modifications. This system is the green benchmark for tenant improvements that recognizes green interiors that are healthy, productive places to work; are less costly to operate and maintain; and have a reduced environmental footprint. This past October, the project was awarded LEED Gold under the system.

Beginning January 2011, our Pizza Hut and Yum! Restaurants International headquarters will be relocating to our new building in Plano, Texas. The project team used an integrated design process, bringing key stakeholders together to collaborate and integrate green solutions, that is anticipated to lead to Green Globes certification. Like any good, green project, it began with the site. The team selected and designed the site to minimize ground disturbance, optimize building placement, properly control runoff, and nourish landscaping comprised of native vegetation. Conserving energy and water are important to us. Technologies and approaches that we used to conserve included energy efficient lighting and HVAC equipment, high performance glass, low water consumption restroom fixtures, building automation systems, and daylight harvesting. Green design and the integrated design approach will provide benefits to the environment and our employees for years to come.

The Steps Ahead

Yum! is in the process of developing additional green buildings in the U.S. and internationally to continue testing and to get one step closer to our bold goal of integrating green practices into restaurants in an economic, responsible, and simple way.

Areas of ongoing building system research include:

• Hood Design: Research is currently being conducted on optimizing exhaust hood design. Reducing the amount of air removed from our restaurants through the kitchen exhaust system not only reduces hood energy consumption, but also the size and energy use of the heating and air conditioning system. This will continue to be a major area of focus throughout the world during 2011 and 2012.
• Refrigeration: Section 312 of the Energy and Information Security Act (EISA) of 2007 (effective January 1, 2010) provides prescriptive design requirements for new walk-in refrigerators and freezers. Our engineers are currently evaluating whether it is feasible to implement select components of EISA in existing walk-ins. Initial research and recommendations will be concluded in 2011.
• Energy Management Systems: Many of our restaurants currently use an Energy Management System (EMS) to control the operation of artificial lighting. This system also manages the temperature settings of the thermostats and sets them back to reduce energy consumption during unoccupied hours. Depending on the brand, our research showed that an EMS reduces energy consumption between 6% and 7.5%. However, because they operate in isolation, with no communication outside of the restaurant that they were installed in, optimal performance of some of these systems is lost over time. We are currently evaluating new EMS, that incorporates online communication, to allow for ongoing proactive performance optimization. In addition to controlling energy usage, new systems monitor equipment health and provide alerts before failures occur. A thorough evaluation is underway to develop the solution that balances performance and cost.

In China, a significant milestone between the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and the China Green Building Council (CGBC) was reached in 2010. The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreeing to work together to advance green building opportunities and reduce carbon emissions, including joint research and educational programs around green building. This agreement will be helpful as we look to expand our green buildings in China in the future.

Main Street Green

As our development of experimental green buildings continues across the globe, we have been integrating proven field ready solutions into our existing restaurants. These solutions contribute to ongoing efforts to reduce energy consumption.

Some highlights of our ongoing efforts include:

Lighting: In all of its company restaurants in the U.S. where feasible, KFC replaced existing incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps. Overall, 26,979 lamps have been replaced resulting in the elimination of 3200 metric tons of CO₂ per year. KFC also proactively replaced over 4,000 existing parking lot lamps to a lower wattage resulting in an additional reduction of 3400 metric tons of CO₂ per year.

Our China team has also been active in retrofitting existing restaurants with more efficient lighting systems. During 2009, 190 restaurants in China had their interior linear fluorescent lamps upgraded to a more efficient version resulting in a reduction of over 600 metric tons of CO₂ per year.

Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC): In 2006, Yum! made the commitment to standardize high efficiency air conditioning systems for all U.S. restaurants. Since then, over 1800 high-efficiency air conditioning units have been installed with slightly over 600 taking place in 2008 and 2009. These 600 + installations have reduced our CO₂ output by 10,500 metric tons per year.

Kitchen Equipment: Obviously, a significant portion of the energy in a restaurant is consumed by the equipment used for cooking and preparing the food for our customers. Engineers in all our divisions are constantly seeking out innovative ways to make our kitchen equipment and processes more efficient.

In the U.S., Taco Bell redesigned a cooking device called a rethermalizer to make it more energy efficient. This updated piece of equipment was implemented in 2009 saving approximately 2500 metric tons of CO₂ per year.

In China, the engineering team developed the means to overcome water hardness issues compromising the efficiency of certain heating devices used in our KFC kitchens. Their solution enabled the equipment to operate at peak efficiency which eliminated over 4200 metric tons of CO₂ per year.

Finally, in partnership with a key supplier, the KFC U.S. engineering team developed the most energy-efficient convection oven ever tested by the Foodservice Technology Center, which has achieved the Energy Star^® rating for convection ovens. This oven was implemented in all U.S. KFC restaurants in 2009.

Refrigeration Systems: Approximately 5% of our restaurant's energy is used by refrigeration equipment. Therefore, we are regularly seeking ways to optimize this equipment to minimize its electricity use. To that end, after testing on several restaurants in 2009, our Yum! China team has plans to expand the rollout of new scroll compressors that will reduce CO₂ output by 5.5 metric tons per year per restaurant.

In the U.S., a program has been underway over the past four years to upgrade our ice machines to a model that carries an Energy Star^® rating. Of the approximately 1400 ice machines that have been replaced during this period, 790 were replaced in 2008 and 2009 eliminating almost 3300 metric tons of CO₂ per year. Additionally, all of our divisions are in various stages of evaluating and implementing devices to optimize their ice machine's evaporator efficiency which can save from 10 to 18 metric tons of CO₂ per restaurant per year.

Reporting

Restaurants are known to have very high levels of energy intensity due to their relatively small building size and the amount of cooking, heating, and refrigeration needed to prepare and serve food to customers. Due to these high levels of energy use, we continue to focus our efforts on reducing our energy intensity in both new and existing restaurants.

In 2006 we established a goal to reduce energy usage in our U.S. company-owned restaurants by 12 percent from 2005 levels by the end of 2009. We are pleased to report that we achieved a 14% reduction through the application of numerous energy conservation measures (ECMs). In addition to reducing our energy consumption, these ECMs resulted in the elimination of over 117,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year from the atmosphere.

Our China division has also recognized the need to focus on energy conservation and has become actively involved in implementing ECMs over the past few years. Their efforts have resulted in the elimination of over 5300 metric tons of CO₂ per year.