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Climate Corps Projects

McDonald's – Courtney Lefevre – 2023

Goals

McDonald’s is the global leading foodservice retailer, with more than 40,000 locations in over 100 countries helping feed millions of customers every day. Knowing that reducing emissions and adapting to climate change is critical to the success of the business, they engaged Courtney Lefevre to support efforts related to reporting and reducing emissions in restaurant operations across the world. 

Solutions

Courtney’s work fell into three categories:

  • Emissions Disclosure: Through coordination with internal subject matter experts and external partners, Courtney analyzed and prepared the disclosure of McDonald’s 2022 carbon footprint to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), documenting areas for scoring improvements in future reporting cycles.
  • Emissions Reduction Strategy: Knowing that reducing emissions from energy is a critical lever to achieving McDonald’s climate targets, Courtney supported work to continuously review and refine McDonald’s Renewable Energy strategy to implement global and local solutions as a part of McDonald’s larger strategy to reduce energy emissions.
  • Organizational Alignment: Courtney proposed strategies to educate and engage key stakeholders in the business to McDonald’s Food & Planet leadership. The strategies included a climate boot camp and proposed governance structure with recommended next steps for implementation. 

Potential Impact

Courtney’s recommendations have the potential to strengthen coordination across the business, which could lead to improved data collection, quality, and reporting. Additionally, a strong globally-led energy strategy can significantly reduce restaurant emissions and enable McDonald’s to further progress toward net zero emissions globally by 2050. 

At a glance
Industry: Food Services
Project types:
  • Clean and Renewable Energy
  • Engagement and Behavior Change
  • Goals/Targets
Year: 2023
Location: Chicago, IL
About the fellow
Courtney Lefevre
Northwestern University

Who We Work With

EDF has collaborated with over 40% of Fortune 100 companies to align sustainability goals with bottom line gains