Fast food has become symbolic for much of what ails modern society - attaching McDonald’s has come to mean too much of a bad thing. "At McDonald's we've got time for you" goes the jingle. Why then do they design the service so that you're in and out as soon as possible? Why is it so difficult to relax in a McDonald's? Why do you feel hungry again so soon after eating a Big Mac?
Grain is fed to cattle in South American countries to produce the meat in McDonald's hamburgers. Cattle consume 10 times the amount of grain and soy that humans do: one calorie of beef demands ten calories of grain. Of the 145 million tons of grain and so fed to livestock, only 21 million tons of meat and by-products are used. The waste is 124 million tons per year at a value of 20 billion US dollars. It has been calculated that this sum would feed, clothe and house the world's entire population for one year.
Beyond locally grown meat and produce, McDonald’s must look to their entire operation to create a sustainable business model, from recycled packaging, biodegradable cleaning products, and renewable energy to deliver goods with bio-diesel or hybrid powered vehicles. Of course, from a consumer’s point of view, the bottom line for McDonald’s restaurant is how the food tastes. Which would you rather eat — a burger made from a patty filled with antibiotics that has sat under a heat lamp for who know how long, or a sandwich made from grass-fed beef that enjoyed a life ruminating in the sun, slow-roasted and made to order right there on the spot?
Social responsibility is a way of thinking, caring, and responding to a multitude of complex community, environmental, and people issues and circumstances. McDonald’s has known for a long time for serving fattening food to the people which links to obesity, and heart deceases but the company has not done anything to change the way their food is being served. Yet they announced they are changing the social responsibility of the corporation. McDonald’s approach to the environment is in transition from a traditional approach of environmental responsibility, embodied by the practical philosophy of “reduce, reuse, recycle,” to a broader sustainable framework. McDonald’s has implemented environmental responsibility in the management of their restaurant systems. These include waste management, packaging use, the building environment, energy efficiency, and litter control. For the most part, these issues are easy to touch and see, because they are directly related to their restaurants.
Sustainable Agriculture
The term "sustainable agriculture" has provided "talking points," a sense of direction, and an urgency, that has sparked much excitement and innovative thinking in the McDonald’s corporate culture.
McDonald's has embarked on a new partnership with the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, a division of Conservation International, to implement sustainable agriculture and conservation practices and standards within McDonald's global food supply network. This new partnership with the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business reflects McDonald's vision to enter a new phase of environmental work. Critical discussion of the sustainable agriculture concept of McDonald’s should continue. Understanding will deepen; answers will continue to come. Economically, McDonald’s includes a increasingly large expenditures and corresponding involvement in planting and investment decisions; widening disparity among farmer incomes; and escalating concentration of agribusiness-industries involved with manufacture, processing, and distribution of farm products-into fewer and fewer hands. Market competition is limited. Farmers have little control over farm prices, and they continue to receive a smaller and smaller portion of consumer dollars spent on agricultural products.
Environmental Defense
McDonald's USA has made significant packaging changes. On August 1, 1990, the McDonald's Corporation and Environmental Defense Fund joined forces in a unique collaboration. Most of these changes have been adopted globally and eventually adopted by the quick service industry as a whole. Together joined hands they looked in to options of cutting down the waste. Recommend waste-reducing and conservation options for McDonald's to consider included Source reduction, which means using less material. Reuse - introducing reusables throughout the supply chain. Recycling - return materials to productive use. Composting recycling organic materials when possible. This resulted switching from polystyrene foam "clamshells" to paper-based wraps for its sandwich packaging, providing a 70-90% reduction in sandwich packaging volume, reducing landfill space, energy used and pollutant releases over the lifecycle of the package. Converted to unbleached paper carry-out bags, coffee filters and Big Mac wraps. Reduced paper use by 21% in napkins, and incorporated 30% postconsumer recycled content. Asked suppliers to incorporate 35% postconsumer recycled content into all corrugated shipping boxes.
McDonald's continuously innovate and challenge itself, from packaging changes and energy conservation investments to their current efforts to reduce the use of animal antibiotics. McDonald's has now purchased more than $4 billion worth of products made from recycled materials. On a global basis, McDonald's has reduced packaging by 200,000 tons by redesigning items including straws, napkins, cups, fry cartons, and other packaging items. Most recently, Environmental Defense and McDonald's worked together to study the effects of animal antibiotics. One of the outcomes of this work is that McDonald's USA asked its poultry suppliers a year ago to discontinue the use of fluoroquinolones - an antibiotic, therapeutic medication for chickens.
The Natural Step
In the past McDonald's has used lethal poisons to destroy vast areas of Central American rainforest to create grazing pastures for cattle to be sent back to the States as burgers and pet food, and to provide fast-food packaging materials. It's no exaggeration to say that when we bite into a Big Mac, we are helping the McDonald's empire to wreck this planet.
Presently McDonald's adopts sustainability strategies to save the nature and the planet. McDonald's newest partner, The Natural Step (TNS), is helping McDonald's incorporate into its business what TNS describes as "the minimum system conditions" required for society to operate in balance with the rest of nature.
McDonald's is demonstrating leadership by beginning to build sustainability into its strategy and operations. Management at McDonald's understands that this is a long journey. They have taken the first step by identifying their environmental and social impacts and building an integrated strategy to move forward. This is not only smart business leadership, it is responsible corporate citizenship.
Business for Social Responsibility
Non-governmental organization Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) began working with McDonald's in 2000 to assist the company in creating an internal process to examine strengths, areas for improvement, and future opportunities. McDonald's commissioned this internal social responsibility assessment to formalize a process and establish benchmarks against which it could begin enhancing its social responsibility performance. A good example for social responsibility is McDonald’s in India, where Hindu’s are reserve from eating cow meat. So they replace their beef items with vegetable patties etc.
Animal Welfare
THE menu at McDonald's is based on meat. They sell millions of burgers every day in 35 countries throughout the world. This means the constant slaughter, day by day, of animals born and bred solely to be turned into McDonald's products. Some of them - especially chickens and pigs - spend their lives in the entirely artificial conditions of huge factory farms, with no access to air or sunshine and no freedom of movement. Their deaths are bloody and barbaric.
In the slaughterhouse, animals often struggle to escape. Cattle become frantic as they watch the animal before them in the killing-line being prodded, beaten, electrocuted, and knifed. A recent British government report criticised inefficient stunning methods which frequently result in animals having their throats cut while still fully conscious. McDonald's are responsible for the deaths of countless animals by this supposedly humane method. But we have the choice to eat meat or not.
But now McDonald’s has changed their animal welfare policies using guidelines established by a leading animal welfare expert. McDonald's works with its suppliers to audit their processing facilities to ensure the humane treatment of farm animals. In the U.S., McDonald's introduced guidelines for the improved treatment of egg-laying hens. Building upon this work, McDonald's formed the restaurant industry's first independent board of academic, industry and animal protection experts, the McDonald's Animal Welfare Council, to advise the company on issues regarding the welfare of farm animals.
McDonald’s has long promoted socially responsible practices in their supply chain. They have now embarked on a more comprehensive, strategic approach. It incorporates existing initiatives like their animal welfare program and the supplier social accountability program and also new environmental guidelines and performance measures.
They have developed a sustainable supply vision, principles, and target outcomes. Within this framework, they have initiated two new programs. One focuses on responsible management and marine conservation in the fish supply chain. The other seeks to promote good environmental practices in their land-based agricultural supply chain.
There are many other examples of McDonald's partnership with leaders in this field, notably in the United Kingdom where McDonald's is supporting future of farming and animal welfare projects in partnership with Oxford University and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
"McDonald's has ushered in a new era of responsibility and accountability for animal welfare. They have helped encourage collaboration and cooperation among industry, non-government organizations, academia, and other stakeholders so that together to make a difference.
Food Safety
Leading Scientists Help Advance Safest Practices. In 2001, McDonald's established the International Scientific Advisory Council, a panel of leading scientists and medical experts, to advise McDonald's on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). Members of this council review industry practices and McDonald's system initiatives in BSE prevention. With this council, McDonald's is strengthening its beef safety program. Independent validation of its food safety programs is the key to ensuring the trust and confidence of McDonald's consumers.
References.
· http://www.mcdonalds.com
· Svoboda, S. 1995, Case C: Sustaining McDonald’s environmental success, Pollution
Prevention in Corporate Strategy, Ann Arbor, MI: National Pollution Prevention Center
for Higher Education, University of Michigan.
· Hawken, P. 2002, On Corporate Responsibility: A Ronald McDonald fantasy, San
Fransisco Chronicle Open Forum
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/02/ED72039.DTL
· CERES Press release 10/18/2005, Fast-Food Giant McDonald’s Wins Approval as
Ceres Partner; Pledges Further Improvements in Social & Environmental Programs,
CSRwire, Boston.
· Carol Nader (2007) $330,000 buys Maccas the tick of approval, February 6,
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/330000-buys-tick-ofapproval/
2007/02/05/1170524026024.html
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