News

Dunkin' Brands, McDonald's enlist in Climate Corps

January 25, 2011

Dunkin' Brands and McDonald's have enrolled in the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate Corps program for 2011.

According to GreenBiz.com, they join other heavyweights such as Facebook, JPMorgan Chase & Co., AT&T, Microsoft and more.

The 4-year-old campaign sends MBA candidates to firms to help them identify energy-saving opportunities and devise plans to achieve reductions.

In 2010, 51 Climate Corps fellows visited 47 Fortune 1000 companies and discovered energy-efficiency solutions amounting to $350 million in net operating savings throughout project lifetimes.

Since the program's inception, according to the EDF, Climate Corps fellows have identified potential savings of:

• $439 million in net operational costs over project lifetimes;
• 958 million kilowatt hours of energy use per year, roughly the amount needed to power 85,000 homes;
• 557,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, which would be equivalent to taking more than 86,000 SUVs off the road.

The full roster of 2011 Climate Corps firms currently includes: adidas, AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, CA Technologies, Carnival, CSX, Diversey, Dow Jones (News Corporation), Dunkin' Brands, Eaton, Facebook, Firmenich, Gaylord Entertainment, Genzyme, HCA Healthcare, Humana, Ingersoll Rand, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kettle Cuisine, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, RBS/Citizens Bank, REI, Shorenstein, SunGard, VivaKi (Publicis Groupe), Washington Gas, Yahoo! and Quality Technology Services.