{"id":9903,"date":"2016-11-03T23:02:15","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T03:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/get-it-together-ronald-a-look-at-mcdonalds-response-to-climate-change\/"},"modified":"2016-11-03T23:02:40","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T03:02:40","slug":"get-it-together-ronald-mcdonalds-response-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/get-it-together-ronald-mcdonalds-response-to-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Get it Together, Ronald: McDonald\u2019s Response to Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Business as usual should be the gold standard for McDonald\u2019s, the world\u2019s largest restaurant chain. But the rapidly changing climate may strike directly at the heart of \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d for the fast food giant.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s operates 36,538 outlets across 119 countries, serving 68 million customers. Dining at McDonald\u2019s should evoke a very familiar experience globally: a typical meal consists of a hamburger, french fries, and a soda. Behind that experience, though, reveals the end product of one of the most prolific supply chains in the world \u2013 one that carries an enormous impact on the climate.<\/p>\n

For McDonald\u2019s to continue to be a mainstay in consumers\u2019 lives, it must be able to adapt its business practices.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"mcdonalds-storefront\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So how is McDonald\u2019s affected by climate change?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To supply a world\u2019s worth of food at a cheap cost, McDonald\u2019s has understandably tried to control its costs as strictly as possible. Unfortunately, however, this can often have unintended but still serious ecological impacts: for instance, McDonald\u2019s was found in 1986 to have been sourcing beef from cows raised on deforested land in the Amazon1<\/sup>. As time went on and the public became keenly aware of the impact of the devastation of one of the world\u2019s great rainforests, McDonald\u2019s had to change its supply chain dramatically to bring more sustainable products to its perceptive customers. Those same customers with concerns about the impact that McDonald\u2019s has to the environment have also started to vote with their dollars: beef consumption has continued its steady decline in pounds of beef per person consumed per year. Much of that is fueled by further understanding of the methane emissions caused by cattle farming2<\/sup>. McDonald\u2019s must then also change its core offering to please a more ecologically conscious consumer base3,4<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

In addition to pressure from public perception, climate change has the potential to affect the offerings that McDonald\u2019s counts on to create a thriving business. The extreme and unpredictable weather patterns that have emerged because of climate change have started to affect crops needed to make McDonald\u2019s products. For instance, avocados in California have started to increase in price because of surprisingly low yields following years of drought5<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

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So what\u2019s McDonald\u2019s doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, quite a bit, actually:<\/p>\n