Sustainable Supply Chain of McDonald's

Moving Towards 'Good Food Fast'

Jacqui Macalister
Senior Manager Sustainable Supply
McDonald's Objective

To ensure the food served and packaging used in McDonald's restaurants comes from sustainable sources.

Solution

Through our Sustainable Land Management Commitment (SLMC) we work with suppliers to ensure our agricultural raw materials originate from sustainable sources. In partnership with WWF we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the main raw materials we purchase all over the world. Five commodities were identified to focus on first: coffee, palm oil, packaging, poultry (including soy in feed) and beef.

Result

We've made progress in all of these areas:
- Since 2007 100% of our coffee beans have been certified by Rain Forest Alliance or Utz Certified Good Inside 
- We've made a commitment to source only certified sustainable palm oil 
- Our goal is to source 100% of virgin wood fibre for our packaging from certified sources 
- We continue to work with GreenPeace to support the moratorium on sourcing soy from the Amazon biome 
- We've kicked off a lot of work on sustainable beef production - take a look at our story so far in "Grabbing the bull by the horns"

Grabbing the bull by the horns

Keith Kenny
Senior Director Sustainable Supply
McDonald's Europe
keith.kenny@eu.mcd.com

Objective

As a big purchaser of beef, McDonald's is working with farmers and the wider beef industry to progress towards sustainable beef production.

Solution

In partnership with energy and carbon consultants The E-CO2 Project, McDonald's Europe has pioneered the use of the E-CO2 on-farm carbon calculator. In the UK and Ireland, McDonald's is in its third year of working to understand the greenhouse gas emissions from beef farms and is now working with farmers to reduce emissions. McDonald's is now also measuring emissions on farms in Germany. In France, McDonald's has worked with over 100 stakeholders (including suppliers, producers, consumers, academic experts and government representatives) to identify and understand best practice in sustainable beef production. These practices are now being tested on commercial farms, with the ultimate aim of implementing them across the entire beef supply chain. McDonald's chairs the Beef Working Group of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform and McDonald's is a founding partner of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB), a not-for-profit organisation aimed at driving sustainability within the global beef supply chain.

Result

Our work has shown us there's a huge range of greenhouse gas emissions between farms - and therefore a real opportunity to achieve significant reductions. We will continue to share the experience we gain from our national projects with other European markets and on a wider scale through our involvement with the SAI Platform and the GRSB.

Flagship Farms are leading the way

Keith Kenny
Senior Director Supply Chain
McDonald's Europe
keith.kenny@eu.mcd.com

Objective

To identify and promote leading practices in sustainable agriculture.

Solution

The Flagship Farms project, developed by McDonald's and the Food Animal Initiative (FAI) identifies leading sustainable agricultural practices from its European supply base and shares these with the wider industry. To become a Flagship Farm, farmers must demonstrate leading sustainable practices on a foundation of strong agricultural practices across the whole farm, scientifically valid, reproducible and scalable practices and that the farm is commercially viable. Farms are visited by a senior FAI consultant and are rigorously assessed to ensure they meet these criteria before being