McDonald’s Corporation Case Analysis

McDonald’s has made great strides in the sustainability of its supply chain over the past few decades. From a moratorium on soya coming from farms where Amazon rain forests have been destroyed, to developing sustainable fishery guidelines to manage fish quality and quantity, McDonald’s has taken great efforts to “do the right thing” [1]. This commitment to environmental sustainability has impacted how they source from suppliers and manage supply chain management initiatives.
With all that McDonald’s has done, there is still room for improvement. Engagement in sustainability efforts with suppliers has generally resulted from a call for change from activists who were negatively impacting brand …show more content…

This can range from governmental legislation efforts being put in place to influence the sourcing of materials, to how farms and ranches impact the environment.

With these considerations, it is more beneficial for McDonald’s to pursue a more proactive approach to anticipate and manage emerging sustainability issues. McDonald’s has good, collaborative relationships with its suppliers and carries enough influence to be able to work with them to use agricultural raw materials that originate from sustainably managed sources. McDonald’s can lead efforts to build a scientific foundation for a certification system that drives product sustainability innovation. This will identify areas of concern in advance and allow McDonald’s to mitigate these risks with NGOs and interest groups in a proactive manner.
In this way, McDonald’s can accomplish two main results: it can move from compliance with legislation into the realm of public acceptance, reducing the risks of negative public opinion and increasing profitability, and it can also influence legislation and to reduce the gap between law and public acceptance. Figure 2, below, illustrates this concept. Figure 2 [2]
While McDonald’s has continued making strides towards achieving its vision of a greener supply chain, its financial information shows that revenues and net income have consistently risen. From 2001 to 2005 alone, net income rose by nearly 40%. This indicates, that when