Impact Strategy & Governance
Our Commitment to Addressing Environmental & Social Issues
We are taking action on the issues that are most important to our business, and that will help create long-term sustainable value.
Our stakeholders expect us to proactively manage the issues most relevant to our business, in line with the Company’s purpose to feed and foster communities.
We also believe effectively managing our environmental and social impact through robust governance structures, strategies, goals and performance indicators is part of operating our business responsibly. By doing so, we aim to maximize shared value, ensure trust in our brand and build long-term resiliency.
On this page you'll find information about our approach to this topic and links to related topics. For our progress and performance relating to our Impact Strategy and governance, see the Goal Performance & Reporting page where you'll find our latest Purpose & Impact Report.
Our Impact Strategy
Our Impact Strategy is centered around the four Impact Areas of Our Planet; Food Quality & Sourcing; Jobs, Inclusion & Empowerment; and Community Connection. Within these Impact Areas, we have established strategies, policies and performance indicators to manage our performance across priority issues.
Our commitments were designed in partnership with, and based on feedback from, external organizations trusted in the sustainability space, and intended to help drive industrywide change and make a difference at scale. We hold ourselves accountable through internal governance and stakeholder engagement and by reporting our progress annually – as detailed in our latest Purpose & Impact Report and summarized on our Goal Performance & Reporting page.
We’ve been integrating environmental and social considerations into our business for decades. Over this time, our ambitions have expanded from a collection of targeted strategies to today’s holistic Impact Strategy. Read about the full timeline of our Impact Journey so far below.
Our Planet
Food Quality & Sourcing
- Food Safety
- Nutrition & Marketing Practices
- Responsible Sourcing
- Animal Health & Welfare
- Responsible Antibiotic Use
Jobs, Inclusion & Empowerment
Community Connection
How We Identify Impact Areas
We take steps to identify the environmental and social issues where we believe our business has the greatest impact and that are of the highest importance to our stakeholders. Working across the business, our Global Impact function gathers insights to determine where to focus our efforts, evolve our strategy and enhance our reporting.
This includes engaging regularly with both internal and external stakeholders to discuss key issues and transparency expectations. We engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including NGOs, customers, investors, Franchisees, suppliers and other external experts who provide insights and perspectives that shape our strategies, research, goals, policies and performance indicators.
We also monitor emerging laws and regulations concerning environmental and social impact topics and reporting while engaging with policymakers to inform them of our environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus areas and progress. In addition, our enterprise-wide risk management (ERM) framework is designed to identify, assess and prioritize strategic, financial and reputational risks that could have a sustained impact on our Company.
The ERM framework leverages internal risk committees with cross-functional leadership, including sustainability and social impact leaders and team members. These committees meet regularly to evaluate and prioritize risks in the context of our business strategy, with further escalation to our CEO, Board and/or Board Committees, as appropriate.
Our Governance Approach
We believe a robust governance structure is critical to effectively managing our strategies, goals and performance indicators tied to environmental and social issues. In 2024, our Impact Reporting & ESG Governance team supported cross-functional leaders in providing relevant updates to the following governance oversight bodies.
Our Board of Directors
As part of our commitment to strong corporate governance, our Board oversees our business in an honest, fair, diligent and ethical manner. Among other responsibilities, our Board actively oversees our strategic direction, objectives, ERM framework and a wide range of ESG topics that are relevant to our business. Five standing Board Committees support our Board’s oversight role:
- Audit & Finance
- Compensation
- Governance
- Corporate Responsibility
- Executive
Our Corporate Responsibility Committee reviews and monitors the development and implementation of the Company’s sustainability goals and metrics, metrics and progress reporting, as well as monitoring brand trust, government relations, Company culture, human capital and human rights management. The Corporate Responsibility Committee regularly reports to the Board on its activities and management of ESG-related matters.
The Board believes it is crucial that our Directors reflect a wide range of varied backgrounds, viewpoints, perspectives and experiences to support the diverse demands of our global business. We are proud that more than half of our Board comprises directors who are women or racially/ethnically diverse. Additionally, 10 of our 11 Directors are noted as having specific sustainability or corporate responsibility skills. Read more about Board of Director skillsets in our latest Proxy Statement, which can be found under SEC Filings.
Senior Leadership Team
McDonald’s Senior Leadership team (SLT) is responsible for overseeing strategies that strengthen and protect our consumer-facing brand and support long-term value creation through the management of ESG-related risks and opportunities. Among other responsibilities, the SLT actively oversees and directs the integration of ESG strategies across all functional and market business strategies.
Global Sustainability & Social Impact Team
Led by the Chief Sustainability & Social Impact Officer, the Global Sustainability & Social Impact team provides leadership, coordination and support for many environmental and social impact policies, programs and reporting, requiring close partnership across global cross-functional teams such as Global Supply Chain, Global People and Global Customer Experience, as well as country-level impact and sustainability staff who support localized execution relevant to our markets.
Partnering With Franchisees & Suppliers
Our independent Franchisees are an integral part of our business, which is why we engage with them regularly through Franchisee-led groups, such as the National Franchisee Leaders Association in the U.S. Led by elected Franchisees, these groups connect directly with leaders of our Company on a regular basis to advocate for our Franchisees.
In the U.S., the National Franchisee Leaders Association often engages through teams focused on fundamentals such as franchising, economics, marketing, supply chain, people and technology. It also engages through diversity networks.
Additionally, we host our Worldwide Convention every two years to bring together Franchisees, suppliers, crew members and Corporate Staff to learn from one another, celebrate collective successes and plan for the future of the McDonald’s brand.
We also work closely with our suppliers, farmers, ranchers and producers to inform, shape and partner on our strategies, working toward more sustainable agriculture practices. We leverage their insights, expertise and partnerships to drive effective action across the supply chain.
