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McDonald's marks sustainable partnership milestone

November 15, 2010

McDonald's Corp. has spent the past 20 years working with the Environmental Defense Fund to come up with environmentally friendly innovations.

McDonald's was the first Fortune 500 company to work with an environmental group toward achieving sustainable solutions. The partnership began in November 1990 when McDonald's began phasing out its polystyrene clamshell food packaging to reduce solid waste.

In the first decade of working together, the initiative eliminated more than 300 million pounds of packaging, recycled 1 million tons of boxes, and reduced waste by 30 percent.

Also, in the past 20 years, the collaboration between McDonald's and EDF has yielded 40 other environmentally conscious programs, including:

• An average of 99 percent of all McDonald's animal handling suppliers have passed their animal welfare audits throughout the last three years. Every animal handling facility in the McDonald's supply chain is required to be audited annually.
• More than 98 percent of McDonald's whitefish originates from fisheries with favorable sustainability ratings. It was one of the first quick-service chains to take the lead on sustainable seafood messaging.
• McDonald's developed its Supplier Environmental Scorecard with Conservation International to measure and reduce water, energy, air and waste impacts in its supply chain.

"We are celebrating two decades of sustainable progress with EDF," said Bob Langert, McDonald's vice president, corporate social responsibility. "We believe this positive relationship created not only an environmental benefit, but a model for us on how we've addressed substantive issues going forward."

McDonald's is now focusing on efforts to improve sustainability in beef production. The company recently sponsored the World Wildlife Fund Global Conference on Sustainable Beef, which featured 300 of the top global stakeholders in the beef industry discussing ways to align the beef industry with the sustainability of beef production.