Wendy’s 2025 Corporate Responsibility Progress: Advancing Sustainable Beef and Beyond

This year, we continued to make progress toward our ambition of building a stronger, more sustainable Wendy’s®.  

Much of that work lies in the way we source our food. We’re collaborating in new ways across our industry to strengthen the resiliency of the U.S. beef supply chain. These efforts not only protect the long-term quality and availability of our fresh, never frozen beef* but also advance our efforts to source food responsibly and reduce our environmental footprint. Guided by our corporate responsibility strategy and our commitment to quality, we’re proud to share an update on our progress since publishing our 2024 Corporate Responsibility Report in the spring.  

Investing in Resilient Supply Chains 

Fresh*, never frozen beef is at the heart of Wendy’s identity and it’s a cornerstone of our responsible sourcing strategy. Our fresh*, never frozen promise depends on a reliable, high-quality supply of beef sourced from trusted providers. At the same time, we know that beef production is connected to natural ecosystems and local communities, and that it is important to protect both. 

Dynamics such as water availability, soil health and biodiversity impact this supply chain. By supporting programs that help producers adopt improved land and livestock management practices, Wendy’s is working to support beef cattle operations which, in turn, contribute to our own responsible sourcing and climate goals. 

As part of our efforts, Wendy’s recently joined the Legacy Landscapes Program, a rancher-focused initiative for improving livestock and land management practices across key beef-producing regions in Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. The program provides financial and technical assistance to help ranchers implement adaptive grazing plans to improve rangeland management and ecosystem practices. 

Initially launched with seed investment from Nestlé Purina PetCare, Legacy Landscapes is administered in partnership by AgriWebb, the National Grazing Lands Coalition and Regrow. With additional industry collaboration, the program aims to accelerate the journey to improve outcomes across the U.S. beef supply chain. 

In 2025, Wendy’s also partnered with AgSpire to launch the Fresh Resilience Beef Cattle Program. This program focuses on supporting small- and medium-sized backgrounders and cattle feeders in the Central Plains and Midwest to improve their nutrient optimization, feed efficiency and overall operational resiliency. Through this initiative, participating operations are receiving technical guidance, tools and financial incentives to strengthen their businesses against weather, market and other disruptions. The program is also designed to improve yield and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

These investments reflect Wendy’s belief that meaningful change in the food system requires partnership and collaboration across the entire supply chain. By helping advance resilient beef production, we’re working to ensure that our most iconic menu item — our fresh, never frozen Wendy’s hamburger — continues to represent quality and reflect responsible business practices. 

Supporting Our Communities and Improving Our Environmental Footprint 

Across the Wendy’s System, our people and partners continue to embody our core value of doing the right thing, the right way. 

This year’s Frosty 5K Run for Adoption drew record participation, with runners from seven countries joining the effort. Over 2,000 participants helped raise nearly $226,000 for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA), Wendy’s signature cause dedicated to helping children in foster care find permanent homes.  

We also continued expanding opportunities for customers to support the DTFA’s mission. The Round Up for Adoption program, a pilot program for over a year, has enabled customers to round up their bill to the nearest dollar to support the DTFA. More than 600 restaurants across 55 markets and 13 franchise organizations have participated, collectively raising more than $320,000 year-to-date. This year, the program is expanding to additional restaurants in time for the holiday season of giving, more than tripling in size with more than 1,900 Wendy’s restaurants expected to participate.  

Earlier this year, Wendy’s partnered with Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) to celebrate entrepreneurship and community spirit through the Thin Mints Frosty collaboration. More than 4,200 restaurants hosted Girl Scouts booths nationwide, helping girls reach their cookie-selling goals while giving customers a way to support their local community. 

As we work to transition our existing packaging to be more sustainable, we are also committed to ensuring any new packaging we introduce is sustainably sourced. Our newest menu item in the U.S. and Canada, Chicken Tenders, features new packaging aligned to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s (SFI) “certified sourcing” standard, meaning the fiber in this packaging comes from responsibly managed forest lands. This milestone builds on prior transitions of fry cartons, chili cups and bakery bags. 

Guided by Good Done Right, we’re scaling the practices that make Wendy’s thrive, with a long-term view toward sustaining the ecosystems, people and partnerships that are essential to delivering on our quality promise to our customers. 

We look forward to sharing additional progress in our 2025 Corporate Responsibility Report, expected to be published next spring. 

*Fresh beef available in the contiguous U.S. and Alaska, as well as Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the UK, and other select international markets.