McDonalds Unveils Global Sustainability Practices

OAK BROOK, Ill.McDonalds Corp. unveiled its Sustainable Land Management Commitment (SLMC), a long-term commitment to ensure the food served in its restaurants worldwide is sourced from certified sustainable sources.

Initially, the fast-food giant will go green through sustainable practices in the areas of beef, poultry, coffee, palm oil and packaging. The commitment will be supported by an external, third-party annual evaluation process.

McDonalds serves customers around the world, and we accept the responsibility that comes with our global presence," said McDonalds Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner. We will continue to focus our energy on developing sustainable sourcing practices and broadening our menu choices. Each year, we set goals that challenge us to put our resources toward strengthening communities and helping maintain a world that can carry all of us well into the future."

As part of the effort, is working with the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef to improve the sustainability of beef production, and sponsoring and piloting a 3-year beef farm study to investigate the carbon emissions on 350 beef farms across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company also joined the Sustainability Consortium and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and pledged to source only RSPO-certified palm oil by 2015.

We know that our customers care about where their food comes from," said Francesca DeBiase, McDonalds vice president for Strategic Sourcing. McDonalds and our suppliers have taken many positive steps in the past 20 years to improve the sustainability of our supply chain, and now were reaching even higher with our vision for sourcing all of our food and packaging from certified sustainable sources."