McDonald's Improving CSR

McDonald’s Improving CSR
One corporation for Corporate Social Responsibility that has
really caught my attention is McDonald’s. McDonald’s is estimated to serve 50
million people worldwide every day. I guess you could say their bit of a target
for CSR. McDonald’s is making great progress towards becoming socially responsible
by reducing their waste with their use of water, salt, and energy. Not to
mention McDonald’s works with a number of outside organizations including academic
ones as well as other advisors to every year to develop their CSR strategy for
that year. This is a good example or at
least attempt to become corporately responsible. McDonald’s use to have a bad reputation
about the way they treated the animals, and the meat that is used in the Nuggets
for some time. But since the mid 1990’s
McDonalds has been working on their treatment on animals, and even developed an
animal welfare auditing program with the animals they use for their products. Not
only has McDonalds improved the quality of their burgers and chicken, they are also
offering healthier products like their salads which are becoming a good seller.
Besides McDonald’s is a fast food restaurant chain, if someone sat at home and
ate burgers every day that person is still going to gain weight, whether or not
he bought his burgers from McDonalds or not. At least McDonald’s does offer
some healthier options like a salad.
McDonald’s also believes in improving their environmental impact,
by creating what they called an “Environmental Scorecard”. The score card keeps
track of things like air emissions, energy use and what type of energy they are
using, and using recycling programs. McDonald’s has reduced their environmental
impact to what they believe to be 20%.
This kind of commitment to the environment and their willingness to
continue to carry on that commitment shows that McDonalds does care what impact
they are taking on the environment.
One also can’t forget about Ronald McDonald house Charities when
discussing CSR. The Ronald McDonald House charities provide community grants, Scholarships,
and their core programs like housing, family oriented activities, and their
Care-mobiles, to help families with transportation. Through this program
McDonald’s helps families with illness or in need every day, and for being a
burger joint I think they are making major progress in terms on CSR. They sometimes
are slammed for advertising to children with the happy meal, and etc. but at
least McDonalds is giving back to those children through scholarships,
community grants, and Ronald McDonald House. Maybe you don’t like their burgers,
but I do believe that McDonald’s is becoming more socially responsible every
year and will continue to do so in the future.
By Kyle Saunders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_bgP3ASUM4&feature=endscreen&NR=1