How can restaurants avoid becoming a political football?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Joe Kefauver, the managing partner with public affairs firm Align Public Strategies and cohost of the RB-hosted Working Lunch podcast.

Kefauver discusses a variety of topics, including a backlash against corporate ESG strategies. ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. Many corporations believe that having a strong ESG framework can create shareholder value over time because it can improve their reputation.

But there’s been something of a backlash by conservative groups over these policies. He talks about this trend and how companies can avoid it, if they even can.

He also talks about the Fast Act in California and efforts by restaurant chains to get that act in front of voters in the state, and why this topic is so important. And he discusses unions and why there hasn’t been many efforts to unionize companies outside of the coffee giant Starbucks.