From Purpose to Narrative: KinderCare Learning Companies’ Inaugural Corporate Responsibility Report

The Challenge

KinderCare Learning Companies is one of the nation’s leading providers of early childhood education and care, serving families across the United States for more than 55 years. Founded in 1969, KinderCare was built on the simple but powerful idea that access to high-quality early childhood education can help children and families thrive. Today, that idea lives on through its purpose of building confidence for kids, families, and the future we share.

KinderCare delivers on that purpose through a portfolio of complementary brands, including KinderCare Learning Centers, The Crème Schools, and Champions before- and after-school programs. Through partnerships with employers nationwide, KinderCare also provides child care benefits to working families.

While KinderCare’s purpose has long been reflected in its operations, its corporate responsibility initiatives had not previously been captured within a single, enterprise-wide narrative. In 2024, KinderCare launched its inaugural corporate responsibility report to formalize its approach, communicate its impact, and advance public reporting within the early childhood education and care sector.

The Goal

Our partnership with KinderCare was anchored in one clear objective: centralize, synthesize, and elevate the organization’s existing sustainability efforts into a credible, inaugural report that met the expectations of stakeholders and established a foundation for future public reporting.

Achieving this required a coordinated effort to:

• Engage stakeholders across brands and functions to document existing corporate responsibility initiatives, priorities, and aspirations
• Build a consolidated data baseline that reflects the organization’s efforts and impacts across its material topics for the first time
• Develop a clear, executive-level narrative that translates long-standing, purpose-driven work into a cohesive foundation for transparency and future reporting

Our Approach

Build a Strong Reporting Foundation

The project began with an information-gathering and scoping phase. Sustainserv worked closely with KinderCare to identify the initiatives, impacts, and data most relevant for public reporting. This process helped surface key stories, prioritize content, and build a more complete picture of the organization’s impact.

Sustainserv also helped ensure the report was developed in reference to leading sustainability disclosure frameworks, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. Through the information-gathering process, we identified disclosure gaps, established a credible reporting structure, and created a foundation for meeting future reporting expectations from investors, rating agencies, regulators, and other stakeholders.

Define a Unifying Corporate Responsibility Strategy

Building on insights from the scoping phase, Sustainserv supported KinderCare in formalizing a unifying corporate responsibility reporting strategy to organize its existing initiatives under a single, enterprise-wide structure. This step was critical in moving from a collection of activities to a cohesive, strategic narrative suitable for effective public reporting.

The resulting reporting strategy, Confidence in Action, was developed by KinderCare’s corporate responsibility team and refined in collaboration with Sustainserv. The strategy established clear focus areas, connected initiatives back to KinderCare’s purpose and business priorities, and provided a consistent framework for communicating progress throughout the report.

Engage Stakeholders in Storytelling

Stakeholder engagement was a cornerstone of the reporting process. Sustainserv engaged teams across the organization through interviews, targeted information and data requests, and reviews of existing programs, processes, and goals.

These discussions helped deepen understanding of KinderCare’s operations, impacts, and priorities while informing the report narrative. They also highlighted how teams create value for children, families, employees, and communities, ensuring the report reflected the organization’s real-world impact.

The Results

KinderCare’s inaugural corporate responsibility report achieved several key outcomes:

• Delivery of a high-quality, thoughtfully structured report that clearly articulates KinderCare’s purpose, strategy, and impact
• Positive recognition both internally and externally, strengthening organizational alignment around the value of corporate responsibility
• Establishment of a scalable reporting framework that provides a strong foundation for future disclosures, program growth, and continuous improvement

The report also strengthened KinderCare’s external sustainability profile. Following publication, the company received an MSCI ESG Ratings upgrade to AAA, the highest rating available within MSCI’s framework. While multiple factors contribute to ESG ratings outcomes, the report helped improve transparency around KinderCare’s governance, management practices, and corporate responsibility performance, providing stakeholders with a more complete understanding of the organization’s approach and impact.

Through Sustainserv’s partnership, KinderCare was able to transform a collection of meaningful initiatives across departments into a cohesive, enterprise-wide reporting approach. At the time of publication, KinderCare was among the few organizations in the early childhood education and care sector producing a comprehensive corporate responsibility report backed by recognized sustainability reporting frameworks. By combining strategic guidance, stakeholder engagement, data organization, and narrative development, Sustainserv helped establish a strong foundation for KinderCare’s future reporting and transparency efforts.

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