BUSN 3314: Sustainability and CSR

Approach #1: Understand company as entity (including relevant partnerships)

Domino's pizza boxes are manufactured by a paper company called Westrock. Recently, Westrock merged with a European company to form Smurfit Westrock. Researching these companies is another avenue toward understanding Domino's actual role in sustainable packaging: 

Domino's Ventures into Sustainability with WestRock Partnership

Smurfit Westrock North America CEO talks post-merger priorities

Approach #2: What are competitors doing?

Another way to shed light on company activity is to compare it to a competitor. For example, what do these two SEC filings from Pizza Hut and Domino's reveal about how each company positions their sustainability efforts? 

Pizza Hut: 

Domino's:

Approach #3: Research the solution, not just the company

Go to independent or academic research about the type of solution. For example, what other studies are out there with regard to pizza box recycling? How can we verify their independence from corporate interests?

Class-based separations of mixed solid–liquid systems with condensable solvent washing and extraction: The dilemma of pizza box recycling

Approach #4: Use third-party metrics/rankings

There are tons of ESG metrics/rankings out there. For example, financial intelligence company S&P Global gives the Australian-headquartered Domino's an ESG score of 32 out of 100. What does that mean? What about the US-based company? More research required!

As You Sow is a shareholder advocacy organization that ranks companies on different ESG metrics. Smurfit (partner with WestRock) ranks as a "clean 200" company, but what does that tell us? Gotta read to find out...