Sustainability Challenges and Solutions for McDonald's Corporation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's sustainability challenges, focusing on its environmental impact, particularly in relation to global warming and packaging waste. It explores how the company can address these issues by adopting the triple-bottom-line framework, which considers environmental, economic, and social aspects. The report also highlights the importance of quality management principles in ensuring superior service and product delivery. It discusses specific environmental issues, such as greenhouse gas emissions from beef production and deforestation, and suggests strategies like sustainable sourcing and waste reduction. Furthermore, the report details the key concepts associated with triple-bottom-line and quality management, including economic, social, and environmental variables, and how McDonald's can improve its performance. The report concludes that McDonald's must improve sustainability by addressing environmental issues and adopting triple-bottom-line and quality management principles to ensure long-term profitability.

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPLY CHAIIN MANAGEMENT
Information technology in supply chain management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
McDonald’s Environmental issues........................................................................................2
Key concepts associated with triple-bottom-line and quality management principles that
help in successful operation of the organization and an increased performance:..................4
The quality service includes:..............................................................................................7
The quality control includes:..............................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:
McDonald’s is a fast food organization of America. Richard and Maurice McDonald
founded it in the year 1940 as a small-scale restaurant. Years later, they have successfully
become the world’s largest food services organization. Like every other company, McDonald
faces various challenges in its sustainability development. Proof of corporate sustainability is
there, that balances environmental, social and economical aspect of an organization,
necessary for the company. The companies are bothering about their environmental
challenges they face that are affecting the environment and in turn affecting the company
negatively (Fredendall and Hill 2016). Customers are showing their preference in green
products. They are ready to pay additional price, which will develop the revenue of the
organization. While dealing with the sustainability challenges, organizations find ways to
minimize the waste and the cost.
Discussion
McDonald’s Environmental issues:
Though McDonald is the world largest fast food chains, environmentalists criticize it
with various issues. It is very essential for McDonald to identify the main barriers to a
sustainable development. McDonald has various impacts on global warming and packaging
wastes.
The major problem of McDonald impact on the environment is global warming which
results from the emission of greenhouse gas from the cows. Raising beef cattle and grains
results in damaging the rainforest. Methane emission from the cattle is the main cause for
global warming that acts as a challenge in sustainability development of the company

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(Stadtler 2015). McDonald being the top most fast food companies is the highest beef buyer
utilizing 350000 cattle annually. Farting of cows the entire day produces a significant amount
of green house gas. For Example: In UK, 4% of the emissions of carbon is emitted by the
livestock. McDonald is helping more in deforestation. McDonald usually collects the meat
required for the burgers from private farms. The environmentalists criticize these farms as
they used the lush green rainforests for rearing the cattle. For agricultural reasons, trees are
cut down for the purpose of agricultural use in order to produce grain for the poultry and the
livestock. McDonald feeds chickens with soybeans that are grown in the rainforest of
Amazon because that becomes cheaper for them. Thus, McDonald is responsible for emission
of greenhouse gases and also in damaging forest which adds up to global warming. Global
warming is an essential issue for most of the businesses as it has negative effects on
economies (Singh and Teng 2016). McDonald should look into this matter, as global
warming influences transportation as well as supply of food, which are the key sections of
fast food industry. Global warming affects the seafood production and in turn agriculture.
The rising temperature of water damages the ecosystem of the coral reef, that is home to
various aquatic species. Production of crop can also decline, because of global warming.
Shelter loss is threatening the lives of the fish of the coral reef. For example: In various parts
of Africa, the growing period of the crops is reducing because of the dryer and warmer
weather. Farmers are forced to abandon their lands that are too dry and too warm and are in
turn investing in new areas. These results in the productivity reduction and decrease in
revenue generation. Moreover, the transportation also face tremendous challenges as the fuel
price goes up because of climate related policies. Carbon dioxide contributes to global
warming which results from burning oil. Thus, government is imposing taxes to fossil fuel,
which is increasing their price. Crop production is declining and increase in the price of bio
fuels. It not only affects the economy but also has social impacts which restricts the

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sustainability development of the organization. People are likely to get affected by drought,
flood and other natural calamities leading to the increased number of refugees. This, mass
immigrants can trigger conflicts between the countries and among the indigenous residents
(Stevens and Johnson 2016). McDonald’s should also handle the environmental issues arising
from packaging wastes. Huge amount of waste is produced in serving a meal to its customers.
For example: A box for the fries, a wrapper for the burgers, A mug for serving drinks with a
straw and a lid, a container for personal use and also napkins. McDonald uses many
unnecessary packaging materials, which litters on the streets and buried in various landfills.
Portability and convenience are the key reasons for the packaging wastes of this industry. The
amount of packaging wastes is continuously increasing, as people are demanding for quick
and easily made food items. According to a survey, the wrappers and the cups littering on the
streets of England is because of McDonalds. McDonald should take actions for reducing its
wastes as waste generation is causing serious pollution of the environment and that can be
fatal for humans. 50 million tons of packaging waste is produced each year. In order to burn
these, a harmful chemical will be generated which will affect the lives of the human. Land
filling, is also polluting the lands and also killing the underwater species that live there.
Wastes flow into the ocean, which is highly dangerous for the marine life.
Key concepts associated with triple-bottom-line and quality management
principles that help in successful operation of the organization and an increased
performance:
Sustainability is often mentioned as the goals of an organizations, governments and
non-profit organizations yet helps in measuring the degree to which an organization is being
sustainable or pursuing the sustainable growth. The triple bottom line is a combination of
environmental aspects, economic prosperity and social responsibility. A framework to
measure sustainability and performance of an organization is called the triple bottom line,

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which helps in measuring the returns, profits, investments and value of shareholder in an non-
traditional way. Many organizations have adopted the TBL framework of sustainability in
order to evaluate the performance, which has also helped the governments, federal, and the
local levels to earn revenue. McDonald if adopts the triple-bottom-line framework can
improve the performance of the employees and in turn the revenue generation. In the industry
of food, there are various challenges that came up in regard to corporate responsibility. These
include the utilization of genetically modified species foods, welfare practices of animals, use
of growth hormones and antibiotics in livestock, fair trade and sustainable agricultural
aspects, concerns related to health and human rights. By focusing on the investment results,
with respect to performance along with the dimensions of people, profit and planet- triple
bottom line can be an essential tool for supporting sustainability goals of McDonald. TBL
and its value of sustainability have become very essential for every business as it helps in
accumulating evidence of greater long-term profitability. For example: Reducing the waste
produced from packaging that can help in reducing the cost for McDonald organization. The
following variables for the TBL scorecard include:
 Economic aspect: The amount of the tax paid by the company can easily be measured
through TBL
 Social: Average hours of training the employees, from welfare to career retention and
charitable contributions is easily calculated by TBL.
 Environmental: The safety incident rates, restricted workday rate, sales dollars per
kilowatt hours, green house gas emissions, water consumption, amount of waste to
landfill and use of post customer and recycling of industrial materials are noted with
the help of this tool.
McDonald attempts to become a responsible corporation by promoting methods of
sustainable farming. McDonald has joined Nestle and Unilever in order to shift to totally

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sustainable sourced palm oil because destroying the palm trees plantation system produces
greenhouse gases and the amount of materials these companies use directly affects the
reputation of the company negatively. By totally shifting to sustainable practices, the bad
affect on the climate can be eliminated to some extent. Palm oil is not the only product that
McDonald has thought of obtaining using the various methods of sustainability. In Europe,
McDonald has launched a flagship farm initiative for highlighting the sustainability practices
that is being used by the farm that provides raw materials to McDonald. Examples of such
include water, energy used for animal welfare and soil. This program can help to highlight
the effective sustainability practices in agricultural areas for showing other suppliers and
farmers of what can be planned and executed. McDonald also funds and support the Ronald
McDonald House that shows the effort the company is putting on corporate responsibility.
Ronald McDonald House provides indirect financial support and housing support for
individuals and families whose children are suffering from life-threatening diseases and are
under high medical treatment. The group was funded by the company McDonald itself, along
with a number of suppliers. McDonald on the other hand has grown negative publicity over
the years. Regional, state and local governments are adopting the TBL tool increasingly for
monitoring performances. McDonald can use this framework of sustainability assessment to
make a more sustainable society. McDonald on the other hand, can adopt the quality
management for assuring superior delivery service to the customers. Thus, monitoring is
important to note the interaction of the team with the end customers. A quality management
system can help McDonald in establishing policies and methods for quality analysis. Not
adhering to these methods and policies will increase the risk of the company and
effectiveness of the quality analysis. McDonald should focus mainly on the productivity
measurements, escalation process, policies of the organization, career development, reporting
standards and workflow. McDonald wants to be the favorite place for its customers.

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McDonald aligns strategy called as ‘The Plan to Win’ in order to provide quality service to
the customers. The organization follows the concepts of People, Products, Place, Promotion
and Place. It has a quality management team for inspecting the food items and its quality and
to control this process for an effective business. Quality control and quality service are highly
scrutinized by the management team.
The quality service includes:
 The quality of the bun, meat, vegetables and other ingredients used for making the
meal is maintained in order to put up with the quality standards.
 The quality management group is responsible for the check-in, checkout, dress code
and cleanliness of its employees. Overall teamwork also helps in increasing the
benefits of the organization.
 The management team also takes care of the tidiness, arrangements, ambience and
service of its restaurants globally. Their main aim is to provide a quick and friendly
service to all its customers.
The quality control includes:
The management team dealing with the quality of the products and services of the
company assures the fulfillment of the basic criteria that is being set for the McDonald’s
operations. They collect feedback from all the customers in order to grow their business.
McDonald has friendly relationship with the scientific community for providing safe and best
food for the customers. The company does not compromise on the quality control and quality
of food and thus is able to maintain a sustainability development globally.

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Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that McDonald represents an organization that is a strong
player in the supply chain management. As an international company, McDonald understands
the importance of quality food for an effective sustainability development along with a good
amount of profit. They also take measurable steps for promoting and affecting the corporate
responsibility in both their actions and their respective supplier organizations. However, the
company needs to improve on certain drawbacks like packaging waste, emission of green
houses gases, deforestation and other issues. The brand image of the company is getting
affected for its bad affects in the environment. In order to gather meat for production of its
various products, the organization has caused major deforestation and enhanced the
greenhouse gas content in the air. The unnecessary non-renewable packaging material of the
company has increased its bad affects on the environment. The organization is well aware of
its activities and with the use of the TBL tool and the quality management team, the
organization is trying to eliminate the negative effects and successfully attain sustainable
development.

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References:
Fredendall, L.D. and Hill, E., 2016. Basics of supply chain management. CRC Press.
Singh, A. and Teng, J.T., 2016. Enhancing supply chain outcomes through Information
Technology and Trust. Computers in human behavior, 54, pp.290-300.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management
and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Stevens, G.C. and Johnson, M., 2016. Integrating the supply chain… 25 years
on. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 46(1), pp.19-42.