At McDonald’s, we know that “success breeds success” and through the sharing of innovative best practices such as these, we hope you are able to leverage these activities and use them as a catalyst for similar improvements in your markets. Best of Green highlights environmental best-practice innovations in a wide spectrum of areas with tangible impacts for our business and our brand. These environmental innovations, taking shape at multiple levels throughout the McDonald’s System, illustrate that positive change can originate from anywhere and that we all have a role to play in improving our environmental performance.

Download PDFs of McDonald’s Best of Green:
• 2012 Best of Green
• 2010 Best of Green

2012 Planet Champions

For the first time this year, McDonald’s collaborated with key external stakeholders to recognize “best of the best” actions by selecting “Planet Champions” for each report category. The selection committee voted for projects and included representatives from McDonald’s as well as Business for Social Responsibility, Ceres, Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). They made their selections based on the level of innovation, environmental and business impacts, scalability and business integration. Congratulations to this year’s winners.

Energy
Calculate Your Carbon Footprint
McDonald’s Europe’s innovative carbon footprint measurement “toolkit” sets the stage for identifying future carbon reduction opportunities.

Packaging
Better Napkins and Bags Offer Better Environmental Performance
McDonald’s Canada’s switch to unbleached napkins and bags leads to positive environmental, customer and cost savings impacts.

Anti-Littering
Leading the Way Toward Cleaner Streets in Australia
Through a focus on litter reduction for more than 20 years, McDonald’s Australia works to establish a leadership position by engaging its restaurant employees, staff and customers to control the impacts of litter around restaurants in Australia.

Recycling & Waste Reduction
Waste Management with McRecycle®
McDonald’s Austria achieves an overall 95 percent recycling rate in its restaurants with the McRecycle® program.

Logistics
Biodiesel and Reverse Logistics in the UAE
McDonald’s entire fleet of supply trucks in the UAE currently run on 100 percent biodiesel made from vegetable oil recycled from McDonald’s restaurants.

Communications
McDonald’s Spain Adds Environmental Training for All
For McDonald’s restaurant employees in Spain, environmental training is a core element of orientation and training.

Greening the Restaurants
Greening Our Restaurants with LEED® Volume
McDonald’s USA plans to build 25 additional LEED-certified restaurants by 2015 through its participation in the LEED Volume Program.

New Restaurant Earns First LEED® Gold Certification in Argentina
The first green restaurant in Pilar, Argentina, built by Arcos Dorados, McDonald’s development licensee in Latin America, becomes the first new building in the country to receive LEED Gold for New Construction certification.

Greening the Workplace
160,000 Crew Members Participate in Power Saving Campaign
McDonald’s Japan helps nearly 5,500 of its crew members achieve a 15 percent reduction in their power usage from July through September 2011.