Greening
Our
Restaurants
With more than 35,000 restaurants,
McDonald’s has a unique opportunity to
implement practical and positive environmental
solutions to operations, packaging, equipment
and construction practices by leveraging
relationships with suppliers and franchisees.
A number of McDonald’s markets and regions
have developed resources and tools to help
drive continuous improvement and to shift our
collective thinking away from “doing less bad,”
to “doing more good” – from improving energy
efficiency in the restaurants to reducing waste
and water usage. While we have set global
aspirational goals, we recognize that
environmental topics, such as energy and
water scarcity, are local issues and require
local approaches.
Franchisee Ric Richards Leads the Way
to Two LEED® Gold McDonald’s Restaurants
Ric Richards
Franchisee
Cary, North Carolina
John Rockwell
Sustainability Manager
McDonald’s USA
Opportunity Franchisee Ric Richards and McDonald’s USA
leveraged the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Volume Program
and the learnings from building Richards’ first LEED®-certified
restaurant to incorporate changes and updates toward certification
of his second restaurant in an efficient and economic manner.
Solution In July 2009, Richards opened his first LEED Gold®certified
McDonald’s restaurant in Cary, North Carolina. The restaurant
featured an enclosed hydronic boiler system, multiple tubular
skylights and LED lighting systems. In the years that followed,
McDonald’s joined the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Volume
Program. In 2012, Richards decided to rebuild a second restaurant
in Cary under the LEED® Volume Program. This restaurant, which
opened in November 2013, is currently awaiting LEED® certification.
Results By installing 100 percent LED lighting in the two
restaurants, Richards has seen a substantial reduction in energy
use in both restaurants. One of Richards’ restaurants is estimated to
save approximately 253,063 kWh per year over a baseline restaurant.
Overall costs to rebuild Richards’ second restaurant increased due to
his desire to use additional elements, such as a solar array, electric
car charging station, 100 percent recycled brick and energy-efficient
hand dryers. The solar array is tied into the electric power grid and is
estimated to produce approximately 49,056 kWh per year. Richards
reports that the restaurant uses power directly from the solar array
most of the time.
“As a proud McDonald’s owner/operator, I feel
strongly that taking advantage of the LEED®
Volume Program to build a green, environmentallyfriendly
restaurant is definitely worth the effort.
I am proud to complete my 2nd LEED®-certified
McDonald’s restaurant in Cary, a claim no other
operator or city in North America can make! The
bottom line is that you can build a LEED®-certified
restaurant without it being (too) cost prohibitive.”
- Ric Richards
Greening Our Restaurants • 41
42 • Greening Our Restaurants
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,