McDonald’s has enhanced its status as an increasingly bona fide member
of the CSR community by being accepted as a member of the Coalition for
Environmentally Responsible Economies, the US-based body of pressure
groups, socially responsible investors and companies that campaigns on
responsible business practice.
Most of the 65 corporate members of Ceres – among them Ben &
Jerry’s, Interface, The Body Shop, and Timberland – have
well-established CSR credentials and the fast-food giant’s admission to
membership would have been unlikely even a few years ago. The most
influential members in the Ceres network tend to be green pressure
groups and SRI investors.
Ceres said it had approved the application on the basis of the
company’s ‘commitment to continuous enhancement of its social and
environmental performance’. The coalition had gone through an
‘extensive process’ before admitting McDonald’s, including meetings
with senior management, ‘in-depth engagement with stakeholders’,
scrutiny of data on the company’s performance and a presentation to the
Ceres board. It added that some companies ‘have not even got to the
beginning of that process’.
McDonald’s has set up various programmes over the past four years in an
effort to reduce its social and environmental impacts. Since issuing
its first CSR report in 2002, the company has begun to implement new
policies on fisheries protection, rainforest clearance and animal
welfare. It now has a code of conduct for suppliers that covers health
and safety, wage levels and staff work schedules, and this year has
made more than 1500 external assessments to check compliance.
Criticisms of the nutritional content of McDonald’s meals have led it
to introduce more salad and fruit options and to phase out ‘super-size’
meals. The company is to put nutritional data such as fat and sodium
content on packaging at 20,000 of its 30,000 stores worldwide by the
end of 2006.
Giles Gibbons, founding partner of the UK-based Good Business
consultancy, which worked with McDonald’s on its European CSR report,
said he had seen improvements at first hand and believed the company
was now taking greater account of its responsibilities, in particular
with regard to the environment, where the company’s performance was
much improved. ‘In other areas … it is definitely committed. No one
could say the company hasn’t gone about reducing its social impact in a
very proactive way over the past two years’, he said.
However, Ceres’ decision has not been well received in all quarters.
The UK-based New Economics Foundation think-tank, a Ceres member, said:
‘We are surprised at the news and are seeking clarification as to the
basis of the decision. It will lead us to seriously reconsider our
membership.’
John Elkington, chairman of the Sustainability Consultancy, said: ‘I
can see why the New Economics Foundation is agitated: I have seen the
company’s underbelly. But I think it may be on the road to some form of
recovery.’
