McDonald's Management for Social and Environmental Causes... Reducing Plastic Use and Open Hiring

Our Earth: Plans to Gradually Reduce Plastic Use by 2025 in Four Areas?Ingredient Quality and Supply, Community Connection, Jobs and Employee Development
Introducing Straw-Free Lids

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] On the 5th, McDonald's Korea introduced its new slogan, "Small but Big Changes for a Better World," and announced McDonald's new action plans and efforts to contribute to local communities and the environment.

Considering the COVID-19 situation, McDonald's presented its key focus areas for contributing to local communities and the environment through an online video message, a safe non-face-to-face communication method. The main areas introduced were ▲ Our Planet ▲ Quality and Supply of Ingredients ▲ Community Connection ▲ Jobs, Inclusion, and Employee Development. McDonald's stated that it will pursue sustainable growth for a better world by implementing action plans in each area.

"Expanding Environmentally Friendly Store Operations Including Reducing Plastic Use"

McDonald's plans to expand environmentally friendly store operations through efforts such as reducing plastic use, using eco-friendly packaging materials, and replacing 100% of delivery bikes with eco-friendly bikes.

By 2025, McDonald's aims to reduce plastic use and switch all packaging materials to those made from renewable, recycled, or certified raw materials, and fully replace inks used in packaging with natural inks. Accordingly, McDonald's will introduce lids that allow drinks to be consumed without plastic straws and actively encourage customers to refrain from using straws to participate in environmentally friendly initiatives.

So far, McDonald's has been committed to climate change response and resource circulation activities for our planet. It has replaced about 50 types of paper packaging materials in use with eco-friendly materials certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and recycles approximately 3,500 tons of waste cooking oil annually into eco-friendly biodiesel raw materials.

Additionally, McDonald's plans to replace 100% of the bikes used for 'McDelivery' with zero-emission eco-friendly electric bikes by 2021. Currently, 77% of this replacement has been completed, resulting in an annual reduction of 937 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, the installation of solar panels and eco-friendly LED lighting in stores achieves the equivalent effect of planting 220,000 trees.

Meanwhile, on August 18th, McDonald's opened the environmentally friendly flagship store "Goyang Samsong DT" in Goyang City, applying various eco-friendly efforts introduced so far. The store features solar panels and LED lighting, 100% eco-friendly electric bikes, eco-friendly digital menu boards without paper menus, ceilings made of natural materials that regulate humidity, standby power outlets, and plans to install electric vehicle charging facilities in 2021. McDonald's plans to further expand the establishment of eco-friendly store environments going forward.

"Enhancing Menu Taste and Quality with Sustainable and High-Quality Ingredients"

McDonald's plans to provide customers with tastier and higher-quality menus by using fresh and sustainable ingredients and expanding the supply of domestically produced ingredients. As part of this, within the year, McDonald's will be the first in the QSR industry to introduce 100% premium sunflower oil, which has lower saturated fat and trans fat content compared to other plant-based oils, in all stores to protect the environment and offer customers healthy and balanced meals.

McDonald's has promoted co-growth with local farmers and partner companies and regional economic development by using fresh and high-quality ingredients produced domestically, such as eggs, tomatoes, and lettuce. In particular, McDonald's has consistently introduced menus using domestic raw materials; as of 2019, the annual purchase volume of eggs among major domestic raw materials reached approximately 1,552 tons (over 25 million eggs), and tomatoes reached about 1,700 tons. In beverage menus, McDonald's has expanded the supply of domestic ingredients by launching the Hallabong Chiller, made primarily from Jeju's Hallabong citrus, and the Pear Chiller, made primarily from domestic Naju pears. Since last year, McDonald's has been using healthy chicken raised without antibiotics listed on the World Health Organization (WHO) 'Critically Important Antimicrobials' list, and since 2018, it has used only 100% eco-friendly coffee beans certified by the Rainforest Alliance.

"Strengthening Activities to Protect Families and Local Communities"

McDonald's plans to strengthen various activities that protect families and local communities. In September last year, McDonald's established Korea's first Ronald McDonald House (RMHC) on the campus of Pusan National University Hospital in Yangsan, Gyeongnam, allowing children with severe illnesses and their families to stay near the hospital and receive treatment comfortably. McDonald's is the largest sponsor of the foundation responsible for building and operating the house and has continuously supported it by donating a portion of Happy Meal sales proceeds.

Additionally, since 2006, McDonald's has operated the "Ronald McDonald Children's Soccer School," providing free soccer programs for children in partnership with professional football clubs FC Seoul and Busan IPark, with 350,000 participants as of the end of 2019.

Since 2013, McDonald's has been running the "Burger of Happiness Campaign," which provides warm and hearty meals to neighbors in need and those dedicated to social development in local communities. Now in its eighth year, this campaign has provided over 250,000 Burgers of Happiness to date.

"Growing Together with Employees through Investment in People Including Open Recruitment"

Believing that "people are the most important asset," McDonald's plans to continuously invest in people by promoting open recruitment without discrimination based on gender, age, or education, and creating a work environment where employees can grow continuously.

Currently, McDonald's creates about 15,000 jobs, one of the largest in the global foodservice industry, across its headquarters and over 400 stores nationwide. After announcing a large-scale plan to hire 600 full-time employees earlier this year, McDonald's has completed hiring 400 full-time employees so far, contributing to stable job creation despite the prolonged COVID-19 situation.

Promoting open recruitment, McDonald's established the Shift Manager position to convert non-regular employees to full-time positions, and as of the end of September, 90.2% of direct store managers were hired as internal growth talents. Moreover, McDonald's has hired 1,169 housewife crew members over the past two years, employs 178 people with disabilities?mainly those with severe disabilities?and 39 crew members with severe disabilities have worked for over 10 years. McDonald's is expanding youth employment through open recruitment and new positions and plans to continuously increase the hiring of hourly employees (crew) and riders.

CEO Anthony Martinez stated, "McDonald's is not just a company that sells hamburgers. As a good neighbor in local communities, McDonald's is continuously making efforts to solve various difficulties and problems our society faces, hoping to improve people's lives. Through the small but significant changes we have practiced in various fields so far, we will contribute to creating a better society."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.