We’ve been thinking and acting “green” for more than thirty years
McDonald’s has been working to minimize our environmental footprint for a long time. Over 30 years ago, we initiated energy conservation measures. In 1990, we formally established our Global Environmental Commitment and forged a pioneering alliance with Environmental Defense Fund. During the 1990s alone, we eliminated 300 million pounds of product packaging by redesigning items and reducing materials used.
Since then, we’ve continued to seek ways to improve our environmental performance – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s smart business. Efficiency and innovation are natural byproducts of thinking “green.” And when we conserve energy, produce less waste and minimize resources used by our suppliers, we use less and we spend less.
Given our decentralized structure and the variability of environmental issues across regions, there is no “one size fits all” approach. We see this as a benefit because we have a virtual laboratory of environmental initiatives across our marketplaces that we can learn from, share and scale when doing so makes sense. Given the breadth and scope of our business operations, we also need to understand what is most important from a global perspective. At the restaurant level, we are focusing on three areas:
Energy efficiency
Find further ways to increase energy efficiency in our restaurants in order to save money and reduce our environmental impacts.
Sustainable packaging and waste management
Continue exploring ways to reduce the environmental impacts of our consumer packaging and waste in our restaurant operations.
Green building design
Enhance our strict building standards to incorporate further opportunities for environmental efficiencies and innovation in the design and construction of our restaurants.
For all of these priorities, we continue to engage with experts, including NGOs like Conservation International, Environmental Defense, and the U.S. Green Building Council, to get their best thinking on how we can improve our environmental performance.