McDonald’s Green Initiatives Different For Individual Markets

December 23, 2007

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McDonald’s has discovered that with 31,000-plus restaurants in in 118 countries, coming up with one environmental blueprint for all of its restaurants is impossible, Reuters reports. Instead, the company is trying out a number of individualized environmental initiatives, said Bob Langert, vice president of corporate social responsibility, in an interview, adding that it did not make sense to force one solution onto its entire system.

“In Japan, which is very land constrained, it’s about waste. In Australia, the big issue is water,” Langert said. “There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to environmental initiatives.”

Increasingly, individual markets and franchisees are spearheading their own “green” initiatives. The goal, Langert said, is to use the company’s restaurants as “laboratories of green experimentation.”

McDonald’s is using networking equipment from Echelon Corporation to manage and reduce the energy consumption of its kitchens.

A McDonald’s restaurant in Pensacola, Florida is digging 55 holes, 350 feet deep to heat and cool the new restaurant with geothermal energy.

in February, Langert posted his “Top Ten Lessons Learned on CSR Strategy, Partnerships, and Policy Development.”

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