McDonald’s has made a global commitment to eliminate deforestation across its entire supply chain, including its fibre-based packaging. The commitment will affect 3,100 of its global direct suppliers as well as its more complex network of indirect suppliers.
McDonald's is not the only food company to tackle what is, in practice, an inordinately complex task. Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme and Yum Brands have made similar commitments, as have many smaller companies. But McDonald’s has cred.
David McLaughlin, vice president of agriculture at World Wildlife Fund (that advised McDonald’s in its commitment) noted, “McDonald’s brings size and scale to the debate of sustainable sourcing. Their reach is large, they are global, they work closely with the suppliers and so this outreach can only help."
In its eight-point commitment, McDonald’s promises:
- No deforestation of primary forests or areas of high conservation value,
- No development of high carbon stock forest areas
- No development on peatlands, regardless of depth, and the utilisation of best management practices for existing commodity production on peatlands
- Respect human rights
- Respect the right of all affected communities to give or withhold their free, prior and informed consent for plantation developments on land they own legally, communally or by custom
- Resolve land rights disputes through a balanced and transparent dispute resolution process
- Verify origin of raw material production
- Support smallholders, farmers, plantation owners and suppliers to comply with this commitment.
A second document details the commitment fully.
McDonald’s sustainable sourcing statement outlines how it will work with suppliers to ensure that the beef, poultry, coffee, palm oil and fibre-based packaging it uses do not contribute to deforestation. It stated that it would respect human rights and verify where the raw materials used to make its products come from and will suspend or eliminate purchases from suppliers who do not meet its requirements. McDonald’s will also evaluate its progress in annual reports.
“We intend to achieve this commitment for our priority products (beef, fibre-based packaging, coffee, palm oil and poultry) before 2030 given their link to deforestation and in the spirit of the New York Declaration on Forests,” the company said in its statement.
According to McDonald’s director of sustainability, Michele Banik-Rake, the sustainable sourcing policy was driven by McDonald’s key suppliers. “The question that was coming back to us was, ‘As suppliers, we have stronger commitments than you do as a company, so why don’t you make the same commitment?’ I couldn’t argue with that logic, right?”
McDonald’s is also being seen to renew its commitment to the spirit of the Soya Moratorium in 2006 that is due to expire, in which McDonald’s and other corporations refused to buy poultry fed on soy linked to the deforestation of Brazilian rainforests.
