Innovations in energy savings, recycling & other environment-focused areas
Published 04-18-12
Submitted by McDonald's Corporation
(Marketwire) - Reusing air conditioning condensation to water plants and clean. Repurposing advertising banners into fashionable tote bags. Recycling used cooking oil to power generators at a hospital. Today, McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) celebrates these and dozens more examples of passion and innovation in the 2012 Global Best of Green report.
Best of Green is a collection of best practices that focus on the environment and provide tangible positive impact for the company's business and brand. The report illustrates progress in eight categories -- energy, packaging, anti-littering, recycling, logistics, communications, green building, and greening the workplace.
"Our commitment to environmental sustainability truly comes to life in our restaurants," said Jeff Stratton, McDonald's chief restaurant officer. "By implementing these solutions, McDonald's demonstrates its commitment to building a better business through effective environmental practices around the world."
"I'm proud of the progress in all these areas and I'm especially excited to see the number of impactful advancements in energy/carbon reduction and green building -- two of our key planet priorities," said Bob Langert, McDonald's vice president of Sustainability.
2012 Best of Green includes more than 20 energy-efficiency initiatives, including carbon-reduction practices, and green building advancements in more than a dozen markets around the world.
In the U.S., for example, McDonald's USA has made a national commitment to match 30 percent of its electricity use at company-owned restaurants in 2012 with renewable energy credits from U.S. wind sources. Renewable energy credits help fund the development of new renewable energy resources to increase the amount of available clean energy for everyone.
Other report highlights include:
McDonald's collaborated with key external stakeholders to recognize "best of the best" actions by selecting "Planet Champions" for each report category. The selection committee voted for projects and included representatives from BSR, Ceres, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and McDonald's. They made their selections based on the level of innovation, environmental and business impacts, scalability and business integration. The 2012 McDonald's "Planet Champions" are:
"These actions are important," said Ryan Schuchard, manager of climate and energy, BSR. "The environmental progress from the U.S. market's energy-saving commitment alone is meaningful, and it provides good examples of initiatives that could have a huge impact if scaled throughout the McDonald's system globally."
For more on Best of Green:
http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/sustainability/signature_programs/best_practices.html
About McDonald's
McDonald's is the world's leading global foodservice retailer with more than 33,500 locations serving approximately 68 million customers in 119 countries each day. More than 80 percent of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and women. To learn more about the company, please visit www.aboutmcdonalds.com and follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mcdonaldscorp) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/mcdonaldscorp).
McDonald’s is the world’s leading global foodservice retailer with nearly 40,000 locations in over 100 countries. Approximately 95% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local business owners.
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