McDonald’s Makes its Own Biodiesel: McGreenwashing or the McFuture?
Image credit Scotch Print DeustchlandMcDonald's, United Kingdom announced last week that it will begin producing biodiesel from its own used vegetable oil, to power its fleet of 150 freight trucks. While the idea of McDonald's being green is in some respects preposterous, the move is, at the very least, noteworthy.
Clearly, McDonald's is nowhere near being a “sustainable” business, and the idea of it being so is impossible. Some say all things sustainable are also inherently local and Mickey D's is as far from local as one can get, super-transnational. Their end products are all highly processed, their animals are raised in unspeakable conditions, and the nutritional value of their “food” is negligent.
This is just the beginning of a long list of what is wrong with McDonald's and it's too easy to come up with more. But is McDonald's all bad? Is Ronald's influence great enough to make smart business moves, like producing fuel from industry waste, common practice? It might be.
The future of corporations lies with the individuals who run them. As our collective awareness about environmental degradation from industry intensifies, we can expect more business people to make responsible decisions on behalf of corporations.
Of course it is important not to be satisfied with simple answers. As good as making biofuel from waste oil might sound, it doesn't address the fundamental underlying issue, such as, whether trucking fast food cross country is a sustainable way of nourishing ourselves. Whether this scale of production can be healthy for people, animals, or the environment, regardless of how the shipping fuel is made, is questionable.
The benefit of McDonald's move is that it creates an opening for green issues and technology to address the audience that still patronizes McDonald's and drives SUV's. If we want radical ideas to really be mainstream we have to enter the discussion at a level where we will be heard. Ronald McDonald can do that.
Tags: alternative fuels, Big Business, Biodiesel, Food Production, greenwashing, McDonald's
- Uncategorized
July 10th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Thanks for posting this interesting article. I remember being six years old and writing to McDonald's something to effect that they should plant a tree in their own parking lot: the youthful equivalent of a "stuff it in your pipe and smoke it" sort of comment. True, this may not have been a very effective or articulate way of expressing my concern over their environmental impact, but I'm glad to see that–at least in a sense–they are taking steps to become a more environmentally responsible business. Personally, I believe that just one step forward, no matter how small, is absolutely necessary and should be encouraged. After all, without that first step, there can be no second. I may not ever eat at McDonald's, but I might just consider buying biofuel from them if they start selling it. Although it would be difficult for McDonald's as it currently exists to fully integrate a sustainable business framework, there is the chance that the nature of the company will be so changed several decades down the road that when we see the big yellow "M" we don't think burgers, but biofuel. Watch this uplifting, well done video from Free Range Studios for an illustration: http://www.climatecounts.org/whatis.html
July 11th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
One thing that you did not mention (although I never did score well on reading comprehension so maybe I missed it) is that McD’s is going to truck that food across the country whether they use biodiesel or not.
I agree with Gavin that this is just one step. Good on McD’s for finding something they felt they could do to help the environment and taking that first step. That’s what we all should be doing.
ps. I hope this doesn’t post 6 times, my computer and I are in a fight, apparently.