Dine Brands Global, Inc. | Report on ESG standards at Dine Brands Global, Inc.

Status
19.16% votes in favour
AGM date
Proposal number
6
Resolution details
Company ticker
DIN
Lead filer
The Humane Society of the United States
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Environment
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Animal welfare
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Consumer Discretionary
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Shareholders request an analysis of the specific ways in which Dine Brands reconciles disparities—such as those illustrated in this proposal—between its published ESG standards (including its stated values, approaches, and pledges) with the implementation of those standards. The report should include the success rate of suppliers to follow the Company’s ESG standards and specific actions that have been taken to address failures. This should occur within six months of the 2022 annual meeting, at reasonable cost, and omit proprietary information.
Whereas clause
Is Dine Brands misleading shareholders about ESG?

Take DIN’s proclamations about animal welfare, for example.

“We are against the cruel treatment of any animal used in the production of food for our restaurants,” DIN has said. “If we find that a supplier is not meeting our standards, we work with that supplier to improve. If there is no improvement, we will find a supplier who does meet our standards.”

One standard, announced in 2013, was DIN’s pledge to eliminate gestation crates from its pork supply chain. These solitary confinement cages restrict pigs so severely, they can’t even turn around.

That announcement claimed “we hold our suppliers to the highest standards” and promised that, “By 2020, Applebee’s and IHOP will only serve pork products that are produced without the use of gestation crates.” Then, in 2014, DIN further promised: “As a next step…we are asking our suppliers for annual progress reports on their efforts to comply with our plan so we may evaluate where each supplier is with regard to reaching our goal.”

Keeping in mind DIN’s prior pledge to drop suppliers who don’t meet its animal welfare standards, shareholders could reasonably expect that DIN would implement its standard of eliminating gestation crates by 2020.

But it didn’t even come close.

In 2021, nearly 80% of the pork in DIN’s supply chain still came from systems which lock pigs inside gestation crates.

And that’s not all.

Instead of eliminating gestation crates, DIN simply eliminated its *policy* to eliminate gestation crates. (DIN no longer makes *any* promise to *ever* rid its supply chain of these cruel cages.)

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