McDonald's – Koji Kitazume – 2010

Video

See McDonald’s discuss its success with the EDF Climate Corps program.

Goals

Koji Kitazume was hired to spend his summer as an EDF Climate Corps fellow at McDonald’s Corporation in Chicago. The leading global foodservice retailer serves on average 60 million customers a day through more than 32,000 local restaurants in nearly 120 countries.

Solutions

Kitazume, an MBA/Master of Environmental Management joint degree student at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Nicholas School of the Environment, worked with the McDonald’s worldwide energy director to develop a tool that quantifies financial and environmental impact of the company’s energy efficiency efforts and investments for prioritization. In addition, while participating in a restaurant training program, Kitazume identified potential energy saving opportunities in McDonald’s restaurant buildings, while running customer orders, toasting muffins and cooking burgers.

Potential Impact

Using the very tool that he developed, Kitazume calculated that the company could cut approximately 2,993,000 kWh of electricity usage and avoid 1,799 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually if it were to install occupancy sensors for lighting control in non-dining and non-kitchen areas in 775 company-owned restaurants in the U.S.
Approximately 20 percent of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are company-owned and 80 percent franchised.