McDonald’s Going Green?

In McDonald’s 2009 Best of Green highlights, they mention that their use of an interactive software program, EcoProgress, for managing and reducing energy usage in restaurants in France achieved an 11% savings in electricity. In Australia, McDonald’s is involved in water management and say that over a 20 year period their advanced stormwater retention tanks can save nearly 4 million liters of water. “In Brazil, Chile and Argentina, McDonald’s has partnered with local organizations that transform used cooking oil into biodiesel. Currently, 270 restaurants in these markets deliver their used oil to be converted into biodiesel, representing over 1,000,000 liters of oil to date.” Is this superficial greenwashing or is McDonald’s stepping up to the plate on environmental issues?

McDonald’s is also jumping into the green building environment in the US. Last year, they opened their first “green restaurant” (in Chicago) for a new pilot program on green building. It received the Gold LEED rating! In one location in North Carolina (opened last month), it has actually installed a charging station for electric vehicles.
McDonald’s is also making a big difference in Japan. By joining the Team Minus 6% program hosted by the Japanese government, “to reduce CO2 emissions by 1kg per person, per day, by offering a discount to consumers who registered to participate in the program,” McDonald’s helped to increase the participants from 40,000 to 380,000.

From: Zachary Shahan, Cleantechnica
Published August 21, 2009 10:20 AM