By Kathleen Bannan, Senior Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, McDonald's

Well, as they say, it all depends on your vantage point, but from where I sit, we're pretty darn serious. And when I say "sustainability," I'm not just talking about the environment. We define sustainability in the broadest sense, including our attention to, and performance on, a wide spectrum of social, economic and environmental issues of importance to all of our stakeholders - employees, suppliers, owner/operators, shareholders, consumers, NGOs and more.

Social and environmental considerations are built into all aspects of our business, focusing on six key priority areas:

• Governance and ethics
• Sustainable supply chain
• Nutrition and well-being
• Environmental responsibility
• Employment experience
• Community

Now, actually achieving sustainability is a bit of an elusive plateau. There is always more you can do as a company; new issues forever surfacing over the horizon; and it's not like you will ever be able to say, "Okay, that's it we're a sustainable company. We're done."

It's a journey; it's a mindset; most of all, it's just a way of doing business.

I was interested to see a recent study and related article, "Serious about Sustainability in 2010" , published in i4cp's TrendWatchers series. The main thrust of the research findings and commentary is that increasingly, business professionals in general feel that sustainability will be of significant importance to their organizations in the future.

70% of respondents to the i4cp forecast study (conducted in December 2009) indicated that sustainability would be of high or very high importance to their organizations in 2010. Of course, it's one thing to say - or think - that sustainability is important.

At McDonald's, we're focused on continuous improvement and making progress over the long haul. It's not just about what we do in 2010. Our business was built on a distinct set of core values and the basic premise of doing the right thing.

Over the last two decades, social and environmental considerations have slowly but surely become more integrated into our core business strategies. What's more, we measure our success, not just on financial metrics, but on social and environmental key performance indicators.

So, yes, I do believe McDonald's is serious about sustainability. I also know there's a lot more we can do to move forward along the road to sustainability. But we are committed (and serious) to moving in the right direction.

- Kathleen