Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

McDonald’s Commits to Removing Deforestation From Its Supply Chain

This week, McDonald’s announced a commitment to remove deforestation from its supply chain. The global fast food company’s commitment includes its entire supply chain. However, certain priority products will be focused on, including beef, fiber-based packaging, coffee, palm oil and poultry. The company will start to develop sourcing targets this year.

McDonald’s is the first global fast food chain to commit to removing deforestation from its supply chain. The commitment, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), goes “well beyond” commitments by other companies to eliminate deforestation from palm oil supply chains. Going above and beyond its competitors, McDonald’s has committed to eliminating deforestation from all of its supply chain and not just palm oil.

The company’s commitment to deforestation outlines what it expects from its suppliers. At the top of the list is no deforestation of primary forests or areas of high conservation value (HCV). Other expectations include:

No development of High Carbon Stock forest areas

No development on peatlands and utilizing best management practices for existing commodity production on peatlands

Respecting human rights

Respecting 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

Resolving land rights disputes through a balanced and transparent dispute resolution process

Verifying origin of raw material production

Supporting smallholders, farmers, plantation owners and suppliers to comply with this commitment

A work in progress

Lael Goodman, analyst with UCS’s Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative, said in a statement that McDonald’s commitment to eliminating deforestation is “still a work in progress.” In order for the fast food chain to “force real change,” it needs to “demonstrate real action in the form of strong individual commodity commitments and on the ground follow through,” Goodman said.

As McDonald’s fleshes out its commitment to eliminate deforestation from its palm oil supply specifically, it will need to address some concerns about palm oil. One of those concerns is increasing the traceability of palm oil to sustainable lands, as UCS pointed out. Most palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, and both countries have massive deforestation as a result of the palm oil industry.

McDonald’s scored 24.4 out of 100 points on UCS’s recently released 2015 Palm Oil Scorecard, up from 3.3 in 2014. In 2014, UCS launched its campaign to stop palm oil-driven deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia. The release of its 2014 scorecard marked the beginning of the campaign. Both the public launch of the campaign and private negotiations focused on companies that scored low, which included McDonald’s. The organization then launched a petition, generating thousands of emails to each of the target companies, and bought Facebook ads. Despite all that UCS did, the fast food industry seemed not to pay attention. However, UCS launched a second petition that focused on the fast food industry, and called on its supporters to urge McDonald’s to improve.

The result of all of UCS’s hard work is the no-deforestation commitment by McDonald’s. It’s a commitment that the organization calls a “game changer” in a blog post. If the fast food chain lives up to its commitments, other fast food chains might follow.

Image credit: World Bank Photo Collection

Gina-Marie Cheeseman Gina-Marie is a freelance writer and journalist armed with a degree in journalism, and a passion for social justice, including the environment and sustainability. She writes for various websites, and has made the 75+ Environmentalists to Follow list by Mashable.com. FOLLOW GINA-MARIE CHEESEMAN @GMCHEESEMAN

April 21, 2015

McDonald’s Pledges to Eliminate Deforestation from Supply Chain

Pledge Has Much Potential, but Still Work in Progress

WASHINGTON (April 21, 2015)—McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain, pledges to eliminate deforestation from its global supply chains, making it the first global fast food chain to do so. The announcement goes well beyond the deforestation-free palm oil commitments other fast food companies have made. By aiming to eradicate deforestation from all commodities, McDonald’s is initially focusing on the sourcing of deforestation-free beef, fiber-based packaging, coffee, poultry and palm oil. McDonald’s pledge is great news for tropical forests, and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) looks forward to working with the company to adopt strong individual commodity commitments.

“The sheer scale of McDonald’s commitment includes significant potential for change, pushing the industry to implement new environmental standards across the board and ultimately reducing climate emissions,” said Lael Goodman, analyst with UCS’s Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative. “However, the commitment is still a work in progress. To force real change, McDonald’s must demonstrate real action in the form of strong individual commodity commitments and on the ground follow through.”

Today’s pledge indicates that the company will source deforestation-free commodities, but until McDonald’s releases the details of the individual commodity commitments, the effectiveness of its pledge cannot be determined.

As the burger giant begins to write the deforestation-free palm oil commitment, it is essential that it address several key concerns about palm oil, including increasing the traceability of palm oils to sustainable lands. To remove deforestation from its supply chain, McDonald’s must also put earlier time-bound goals on all stages of the pledge, from those for individual commodity commitments to the company’s overall global supply chains.

“Today’s announcement is a promise of future action – and that’s a great first step. The Golden Arches have the potential to be a symbol of environmental sustainability by reducing deforestation. The key to achieving that promise are detailed plans on how it will eliminate deforestation from the supply chain,” said Goodman.

UCS recently released its 2015 Palm Oil Scorecard and McDonald’s scored 24.4 out of 100 points, an increase of 3.3 point over their 2014 score.

“McDonald’s announcement has the potential to create a ‘new normal,’ where fast food brands sourcing forest-produced commodities demand deforestation-free products,” said Goodman. “While the details of this commitment have yet to be seen, the company is sending a powerful signal that it wants to reduce its environmental footprint.”