McDonald’s serves 69 million people daily in 37,000 restaurants located in over 100 countries around the world. Due to their large scale, environmental-protection efforts (and lack of effort) can have significant influence in worldwide progress. Like many corporations, McDonald’s understands the value of environmental branding in today’s society where there is growing public concern over the current climate crisis. The company has developed various online resources to showcase their own interest and efforts in regards to environmental concerns. Customers should be skeptical because, while there are likely some true efforts being implemented, many consider this campaign to be another example of greenwashing.
The company boasts of large commitments, but these are only voluntary with little accountability measures set in place. The company’s overarching goal is to work with their franchises to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 36% by 2030 (from a 2015 base year). Working with suppliers and producers, the company has also committed to a 31% reduction in emissions intensity in their supply chain by 2030 (from 2015 levels). While this may seem like an inspiring commitment, some question the viability of the 2015 baseline data. In the past, companies have been known to inflate this baseline to make any emission cuts appear greater than they actually are. McDonald’s also boasts that their goal has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, but this initiative is partially managed by the World Wildlife Fund and CDP, both of which McDonald’s helps fund. This conflict of interest should raise a red flag on the validity of this approval. It is also important to understand the scale at which McDonald’s is setting their commitments. Many initiatives include franchise-owned restaurants, but some are limited to the much smaller number of restaurants owned directly by the company. Over 90% of McDonald’s restaurants are franchise-owned. Even when this large number of restaurants is included in stated goals, these franchise-owned restaurants are not required to comply with the commitments the company itself makes. The company is limited to providing awareness and encouragement, which do not necessarily lead to effective action. In the 2018 Annual Report, the company makes it clear they are adopting new environmental standards because future environmental regulations will likely directly impact their business and increase costs for the company. This is not surprising: corporations often fear unpredictable situations and may try to initiate changes early in order to minimize the cost of future, unknown changes due to regulations.
Some of McDonald’s focus issues include sourcing meat sustainably, recycling, minimizing energy consumption, and reducing GHG emissions. In sourcing beef sustainably, McDonald’s goal remains vague. They say by 2020, they will source “a portion” of their beef from suppliers in sustainability programs. This value is not explicitly stated, and even in their progress update, they say “We continue to source a portion of our beef from recognized sustainability programs in two of our top 10 beef sourcing countries.” Not only is this vague, but the fact that they only have two of their top beef sourcing countries on track is disappointing. Additionally, McDonald’s is lagging behind its competitors in adding plant-based burgers and entrees to their menu. So far, the introduction of a plant-based burger has only occurred within Finland and Sweden.
In efforts to improve recycling, McDonald’s progress update admits they only recycle guest packaging in an estimated 10% of restaurants. This itself is a very low value, and upon further scrutiny, it is clear this progress has limited effectiveness. Within this 10%, McDonald’s has a low qualification requirement. For example, a restaurant can be considered to have a successful recycling system as long as they have both trash and recycling bins. This system places the responsibility of recycling on the customer, and the company is largely unable to determine how often this recycling is happening or if it is an effective system. It is also interesting that despite growing numbers of restaurants, the number of restaurants included in analyses of GHG emissions and energy consumption has actually decreased over the years. In 2016 energy consumption figures, 10,677 out of 27,453 restaurants were analyzed. In the same 2017 comparison, only 8,923 out of 27,467 restaurants were analyzed. This is a decrease of over 1,700, despite an increase in the number of total restaurants. While there is not enough information to imply why the analysis numbers were decreased, the lack of transparency in the matter is concerning.
The actions that McDonald’s is taking to reduce GHG emissions and improve environmental standards should be supported, but as consumers we cannot blindly take their greenwashed commitments and initiatives as truth. Corporations need to be pushed to adopt real, concrete, and effective commitments.
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