McDonald’s recently announced that, by 2025, 100 percent of McDonald’s guest packaging at its 37,000 restaurants will come from renewable, recycled or certified sources. Also by 2025, the goal is to recycle guest packaging in 100 percent of McDonald’s restaurants.
On the McDonald’s website, Francesca DeBiase, Chief Supply Chain and Sustainability Officer and a 2017 recipient of the AWESOME Legendary Leadership (ALL) Award, explains “As the world’s largest restaurant company, we have a responsibility to use our scale for good to make changes that will have a meaningful impact across the globe. Our customers have told us that packaging waste is the top environmental issue they would like us to address. Our ambition is to make changes our customers want and to use less packaging, sourced responsibly and designed to be taken care of after use, working at and beyond our restaurants to increase recycling and help create cleaner communities.”
The idea that the scale of McDonald’s provides an opportunity to take a leadership role in sustainability echoes what Francesca said at the 2017 AWESOME Symposium in a conversation following the presentation of the ALL Award. At that time, she spoke about another initiative: starting a “global roundtable for sustainable beef, bringing together the people who provide the beef for McDonald’s to agree on practices.” Read highlights of the 2017 ALL Award conversation with Francesca.
The 2018 ALL Award will be presented on May 10, day two of the AWESOME Symposium.