McDonald’s Sustainability Actions

Keeping Australia tidy

Like you, we don’t like litter. To try to stop litter before it happens we support organisations like Clean up Australia (CUA). McDonald’s is a founding partner and have partnered with CUA for the past 30 years since its inception in 1989. McDonald’s has donated more than $5 million towards both sponsorship and clean up kits since the inception of Clean up Australia Day and this year we had more than 11,000 volunteers from our restaurants and offices participate in the day.

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Managing Food Waste

McDonald’s first became a partner of Foodbank Australia in 2011. Since then, we have donated over 550,000kgs of edible goods from our distribution centres across Australia. In 2018 alone, we contributed over 100,000kgs of food, which equates to around 235,600 meals for Australians in need. In 2019, we began trialling the conversion of our used coffee grounds into compost, which is being applied by one of our lettuce farmers.

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Being smarter with deliveries

We’re trying to drive fewer kilometres and deliver to our restaurants in the most efficient way possible. We’re consolidating deliveries and implementing trials to use the trucks that deliver our food for reverse logistics initiatives, such as recycling. By better utilising these trucks, our overall impact is reduced. All of our Distribution Centres have been converted to be more energy efficient, with new builds also containing large scale solar installations.

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Rethinking our packaging

We realise that little changes to our packaging can make a big difference– in recent years we have removed the plastic lid from the McFlurry, reduced the weight of our Sundae Cups and reduced the amount of fibre used in our coffee cup design significantly. All these small changes have reduced the amount of plastic used and waste being sent to landfill.

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Using less energy

All new McDonald’s restaurants are fully equipped with LED lights, from the kitchen to the car park, which uses 50% less energy than fluorescent lights. Our new restaurants are built to use less power – from energy management systems that control our lights, heating and air conditioning, to energy-efficient kitchen equipment and motion sensitive lighting.

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Supporting beef sustainability

We believe well-managed beef production plays an important role in thriving food systems for people, animals and the planet. To this end, we approach beef sustainability holistically and consider our impact on the planet, the livelihoods of the people who produce our food, the communities in which they live and the well-being of the animals we rely on. We have committed a million dollars towards research projects to support continuous improvement in Australian sustainable beef production, including a partnership with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), which will see us jointly developing a pilot program to enable McDonald’s and other supply chains the ability to verify responsible sourcing of beef. We are also engaging with local farmers and industry, as well as selecting and showcasing McDonald’s Flagship Farmers, to help develop and share best practice. Further, we’re partnering with industry to trial and discover new practices.

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Sustainable coffee

Every cup of coffee at Macca's® and McCafé® is solely made with beans from Rainforest Alliance™ farms. The Rainforest Alliance is an independent, non-profit environmental organisation that promotes improved standards for sustainable forestry, farming and tourism. Working with farmers in Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica, the Rainforest Alliance makes sure the coffee beans are grown in a sustainable way, protecting the ecosystem. Conditions are also improved for workers and their families, helping to ensure a future for the rainforest, for coffee farmers and for their children.

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Sustainable Tea

Our range of Zoetic Teas are Fairtrade certified. Fairtrade is an independent, non-profit organisation that exists to end poverty through trade by addressing social, economic and environmental concerns. Fairtrade ensures that farmers and workers are paid fairly and that they can invest in important community development projects to create a brighter future for their families and communities.

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Animal welfare

We're working with our suppliers to ensure the humane treatment of animals. All our beef, poultry and pork suppliers' processing plants are regularly checked by independent auditors like Ausmeat and by trained Macca's personnel.

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