McDonald’s Environmental Issues

McDonalds surroundal IssuesIntroductionThere is evidence of corporate sustainability, which is a balance of economic, social, and environment as a necessity for business (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002). Additionally, companies caring close to(predicate) their environmental discover will non just now benefit the environment only when also the company itself. Consumers show preferences for green products and argon willing to turn out a premium price thus improve taxs (Peattie, 2001). While transaction with environmental adverts, corporates may find ways to impose their costs and go d receive on. report card could be earned at the same time (Bansal and Roth, 2000).As unmatched of the worlds largest fast food chains, McDonalds is criticized by environmentalists with many problems. It is vital for McDonalds to identify its key issues and set aside solutions. In this essay, McDonalds impact on globular heating system and publicity blow out as well as it responses will be d iscussed. Then, recommendations are drawn.McDonalds environmental issuesThe of import issue of McDonalds electronegative impact on the environment is global warming resulting from rubbishho wasting disease gas emissions from awe as well as electronegative the rainforest for raising beef cows and grains. For one thing, methane emitted from cattle is a major contributor of global warming. McDonalds, as one of the worlds largest buyer of beef, is employ 350000 cattle a year. With so many cows farting all day, they could stupefy a considerable amount of greenho work gas. In the UK for example, 4% of the cytosine emissions are the gas emitted by origin (Day, 2010). For another, McDonalds is do the deforestation in the rain forest. McDonalds ofttimes buys sum totals for its burgers from privatized resurrects. These privatized farms, however, are being blamed for not environmentally because the farmland they use to rear the cattle utilize to be a lush rainforest (Ecologist, 2010). In addition, trees in the rainforest are cut down for clownish to grow grain for the give outstock and fowl (Chew, 2001). jibe to Greenpeace, McDonalds devote the chickens with the soybeans grown in the amazon rainforest because those soybeans are cheaper (Astor, 2006). Therefore, McDonalds is not only responsible for babys room gas emissions but destroying forests, which could care to computer address global warming.Global warming is an important issue for business as it could entertain negative impact on economies. McDonalds should care about this because global warming would influence food issue out and transportation, which are devil master(prenominal) sectors for fast food industry. Regarding food, global warming may involve performance of seafood and agricultural. The rising water temperature has damage the coral let down ecosystems, which are homes to many marine species. Loss of shelters is threatening the survival of coral reef fish. Crop production may also decline. For instance, in parts of Africa, development season for crops is shortening due(p) to the warmer and dryer weather (Grossman, 2013). Farmers may have to abandon their land that are too warm or too dry and invest in sunrise(prenominal) areas. This causes problems of decreasing revenue as well as food productivity. Furthermore, transportations may face an extend in fuel cost because of climate-related policies. Since hundred dioxide emitted from burning oil raises generally to global warming, governments are imposing taxes to fossil fuel and result in the price to rise (Grossman, 2013). Prices of biofuels are increasing as well due to the decline of crop production. For the society, global warming not only brings about economic impacts but social problems. People would have a greater chance of suffering from drought, floods, and other climate-related disasters (Stern, N., 2008). Thus, may lead to an increasing out add together of environmental refugees. The the great unwashed migrant is likely to trigger conflict with autochthonal resident and even conflicts between countries (Hartmann, 2010).Packaging ware is another environmental problem McDonalds should tackle with. Considering how much negate is composed when getting a meal from McDonalds a wrapper for burger, a box for fries, a cup for drinks with a lid and a straw, napkins, and a bag for case-by-case use. McDonalds use tons of supererogatory packing everyday, which end up swarming on the street and buried in landfills. Convenience and portability are the main reason for the incase shove along for fast food industry. As concourse now in busy modern lifestyle prefer unaffixed and quick food, the amount of waste that fast food industry created hence increased (Aarnio and Hamalainen, 2008). According to a survey in England, 29% of the litter on streets is the wrappers and cups from McDonalds (Gray, 2009).McDonalds should take action to focus its encase waste since wast e generation could cause serious environmental contamination and put human health at rick. Within Europe, 50 one thousand thousand tons of packaging wastes are produce every year. To burn these bulky amounts of waste may release some harmful chemicals into the air, which is harmful to sights health. Landfilling, likewise, could lead to land pollution and kill underground animals that live there. Wastes may also flow to the ocean and become marine debris, harming marine life (Golub, 1996). Additionally, waste generation represents humans inefficient use of natural resources (Scortar, 2013).3. McDonalds responsesMcDonalds is alert of these issues and has announced several environmental initiatives to prove that it is trying to solve its environmental impacts.Concerning global warming, McDonalds get ahead efforts to reducing its impact on deforestation and nose candy emission. Firstly McDonalds promise not to buy soya grown in virago rainforest (Greenpeace, 2006). Deforestation fo r soya honey oilwealth and cattle ranching in Amazon is one major driver for global warming. Studies have shown the kinship between soya production and deforestation rate in Amazon (Nepstad, Stickler and Almeida, 2006). McDonalds border on to breach utilize soya from Amazon could reduce rainforest destruction and divine service mitigate global warming.To reduce light speed footprint, McDonalds improves carbon efficiency by using skill-efficient equipment and low-energy lights in its restaurants (McDonalds, 2013). According to Stern (2008), the mitigation in energy use is important as it has equal effect as agriculture and deforestation in bring greenhouse gas emission. Moreover, McDonalds had team up with E-CO2 project, a consultancy and energy auditing company, to measure cattles methane emission of its farms. E-CO2 project not only provide carbon assessment tool but also help farms to reduce emissions by using new technology on the farm (Day, 2010). Livestock account for 14.5% of human-caused global greenhouse gas emission. Hence it is tiny to cut emission from caudex production. McDonalds solution to this issue, which is changing farming techniques can be considered appropriate. According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the adoption of go techniques can cut as much as 30% of global warming gases (FAO, 2013). In 2014, the fast-food chain took another step to reduce carbon emission, announcing it would start purchase verified sustainable beef. Nevertheless, McDonalds is criticized for not give definition for sustainable and not providing what percentage will its meat come from those sources (Picchi, 2014). A more specific standard should be jell up on selecting its meat suppliers.To deal with packaging waste issue, McDonalds redesigned its packaging with sustainable materials and to be recyclable. In 2011, McDonalds claimed that 82% of its packaging are made from renewable materials (Farmer, 2011). In the US restaurants, McDonalds flo w using polystyrene famed coffee cup and replace it with subject-based cups (Environment News Service, 2013). This approach could have positive effect on the marine environment. Foamed polystyrene is frequently used for fast food packaging. This foamed plastic, however, is non-sustainable and is not widely reprocessd. After littered, they may tardily travel through gutters and end up in the ocean. It is the most common components of marine debris. When the polystyrene breaks down into small indigestible pellets, marine animals or birds may mistake them as food and eat them, which would lead to their death (Owens, Zhang, and Mihelcic, 2011). Although paper cups still have its own problems such as energy waste and the chemicals uses during the production, it is a recyclable recourse and will not exist in the environment for such long time as polystyrene does.Besides redesigning packaging, recycle programs are introduced. For example, 11 McDonalds restaurants in the UK are recycling waste to turn them into electricity instead of sending them to landfills (Eccleston, 2008). Working with the Environmental falsifying Fund help McDonalds find ways to reuse and recycle packaging (Farmer, 2011). However, to reduce waste may be the may be a ruin solution than simply recycling. Despite that recycling reduces landfill use and conserves natural recourses, the process of recycling could generate other negative effects on the environment. Wastes needed to be sorted, collected and processed and this consumes a lot of energy. During the recycling, harmful chemicals may also release into the air (Berkin, Carrigan and Szmigin, 2007). recycle may help ease the pollution of waste but mass consumption of unnecessary packaging is the key problem to packaging waste issue. McDonalds should focus more on reducing the amount of waste it produce.4. RecommendationsTo make sure that it purchases meat from a sustainable resource, McDonalds could create a code of steer on how it select ing suppliers. The rules could be not buy beef that are raised on deforested land or induce its suppliers to agree that they would improve and apply new manners of raising cattle and poultry which could be beneficial in reducing carbon emissions. Take IKEA for example, it set up an IKEA Way of Purchasing Home Furnishing Products (IWAY) which lists many requirements for its suppliers environmental style such as purchasing wood from forests that are managed in a sustainable way. Choosing suppliers following the IWAY enables IKEA to successfully obtain a sustainable supply chain (IKEA, 2011). By making a code of conduct, McDonalds could have a clear standard on the requirements its suppliers should meet. Being stricter on choosing suppliers that contribute less to greenhouse gases and deforestation would help McDonalds lowering its impact on global warming.McDonalds should also invest in explore and adjudge its supplier to adopt other practices that are useful in cutting emission from livestock and forage since the suppliers have limited financial resource in developing new techniques. Apart from using new technology, carbon sequestration in rangeland, change in cattles diet and agroforestry could have long-term benefits in reducing agriculture and livestocks contribution to global warming. First of all, carbon sequestration in rangeland has great potential in mitigation of the impact of livestock production. This method can be done by planting deep-rooted pasture such as Brachiaria. It is estimated that Brachiaria can capture and store 29.5 t/ha more carbon than other pasture (Thornton and Herrero, 2009). Preventing overgrazing and adding nutrients from manure or fertilizer can also have positive effect on carbon storage (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2011). Diet improvement may further help to mitigate cows methane emission. Reducing methane could be beneficial to the environment because methane is 23 times as powerful as CO2 at causing global warming (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2011). For instance, Beauchemin and McGinn (2005) suggest that a corn-based diet would descend cattles greenhouse gas emission. In addition, adaptation of agroforestry could provide positive to the environment. The increasing of trees enables greater carbon sequestration. Agroforestry can also produce more digestible and nutritive crop and forage for cattle, which decrease methane production digestion (Thornton and Herrero, 2009). If McDonalds could assist its suppliers in implementing new methods such as carbon sequestration, changing cows diet and turning into agroforestry system, it is likely to reduce carbon emissions more efficiently.In order to reduce packaging waste, using utile containers and giving incentive to customer to provide their own cups may be two options for McDonalds. McDonalds can replace some of its packaging such as salad containers and coffee cups with recyclable ones because recycling packaging including glass and paper ar e proved to be less environmental than reusable packaging (Van Dam, 1996). KFC has started using eco-friendly container in its US restaurants since 2010 and plans to replace paper boxes with reusable plastic plates (Environmental Leader, 2010). McDonalds could also offer discounts to encourage customers to provide their own beverage bottle or coffee cups. For instance, consumers buying coffee in Starbucks will have a ten-cent discount if they bring their own cup. Moreover, Aydinliyim and Pangburn (2012) shew that such campaign could help companies to increase profit. With the introduction of reusable containers and promotion, McDonalds is possible to earn more while reducing waste at the same time.5. ConclusionMcDonalds has been criticized for having bad influences on the environment. To provide meat for its food, McDonalds indirectly causing deforestation in rainforest and greenhouse gas emission. In addition, McDonalds use too much unnecessary packaging and many of them are non-r ecyclable and non-renewable. Thus, it can be concluded that the main environmental issues for McDonalds are global warming and packaging waste generation. McDonalds itself is aware of these issues and has made several strategies to solve the problem. By stop purchasing soybean in Amazon, improving carbon efficiency and using new farming techniques, McDonalds could successfully reduce its impact on global warming. However, McDonalds still cannot guarantee that its meat all come from sustainable recourse. With regard to packaging waste, McDonalds redesign packaging with sustainable materials and start recycling programs while neglecting the importance of reducing waste generation. To better tackle with these issues, it is recommended that McDonalds draw up a code of conduct for its supplier selection to work with farms and ranches that is not harming the forest. Furthermore, McDonalds should monitor and support supplier to reduce impacts on carbon and methane emission. Practices inclu ding carbon sequestration, changing cattles diet and agroforestry may be useful. It is also important for McDonalds to use reusable container and promote customers to bring their own containers by fling them discount to reduce packaging consumption. By doing so, McDonalds could lower its negative effects on global warming and packaging waste.