Measuring Prototype Progress
in U.S. Restaurant Design
John Rockwell
Sustainability Manager
McDonald’s USA
Opportunity McDonald’s USA has made improvements to
its prototype restaurant building for the U.S., but it needed a
comprehensive approach to measure energy and water use
reductions within the designs to effectively evaluate progress.®
Solution McDonald’s USA created an internal aspirational goal for
the U.S. Restaurant Development Department. This goal pertains to
the standards for new-construction restaurants. Setting this goal
created a way to measure the design against a target to help drive
positive change. The goal is for McDonald’s USA’s new prototype
buildings and equipment to be designed to reduce energy use
and water consumption, as compared to its prototype buildings
and equipment of 2005.* McDonald’s USA also seeks to reduce
construction material waste. Using the 2005 baseline, it was able to
measure efficiency of its prototypes through 2012.
Results The results to date indicate a 13 percent reduction/
avoidance of energy use and about an 8 percent reduction/avoidance
of overall water use. McDonald’s USA will continue to measure
progress moving forward to inform prototype enhancements.
* Actual restaurant performance varies by location and is affected
by building size and features, sales volume, operating hours, climate
and other factors.