Environmental responsibility offers double green benefits
We’ve long recognized the value of minimizing our environmental footprint. It’s not only good for the world in which we operate, it’s a strong contributor to our long-term financial success.
Over 30 years ago, we initiated energy conservation measures. In 1990, we formally established our Global Environmental Commitment and forged a groundbreaking alliance with the Environmental Defense Fund. During the 1990s alone, we eliminated 300 million pounds of product packaging by redesigning and reducing materials.
Since then, we’ve continued to seek ways to improve our environmental performance. Efficiency and innovation are natural byproducts of thinking “green.” After all, when we conserve energy, produce less waste, and minimize resources used by our suppliers, we use less and spend less.
Given our decentralized structure, and the variability of environmental issues across regions, there is no “one size fits all” approach. We see this as a benefit, because we have a virtual laboratory of environmental initiatives across our marketplace that we can learn from, share and scale when it makes sense. Given the breadth and scope of our business operations, we also need to understand what is most important from a global standpoint. At the restaurant level, we are focused in three areas:
Energy conservation– Find further ways to increase energy efficiency in our restaurants in order to save money and reduce our environmental impacts
Sustainable packaging and waste management – Continue exploring ways to reduce the environmental impacts of our consumer packaging and waste in our restaurant operations
Green building design – Enhance our strict building standards to incorporate further opportunities for environmental efficiencies and innovation in the design and construction of our restaurants
On all of these priorities, we continue to engage with experts and NGOs like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, the U.S. Green Building Council and similar organizations around the world to get their best thinking on how we can improve our environmental performance.
