“Road to Greenbuild” makes a stop at McDonald’s Headquarters

McDonald’s hosted Chicago-based sustainability professionals for an engaging conversation ahead of the Greenbuild Expo

From November 14-16, Chicago will serve as the host city for one of the largest built environment sustainability conferences, the Greenbuild Expo, an event presented by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and dedicated to sustainability, particularly in the built environment. This year’s Greenbuild includes an ‘Honorary Host Committee’ comprised of Chicago-area business leaders who are lending their name to welcome an international audience of sustainability leaders to the event.

McDonald’s President & CEO, Steve Easterbrook, is on the host committee and as an extension of the committee, McDonald’s hosted an event at the Chicago-based headquarters with representatives from the host committee companies. The “Road to Greenbuild: How Chicago-based Leaders in Sustainability are Making a Global Impact,” event was co-hosted with Illinois Green Alliance and included a panel with the honorary host committee representatives discussing how their companies are advancing sustainability and are leveraging their global footprints. Jenny McColloch, Senior Director, Global Sustainability Strategy & Scale for Good, represented McDonald’s on the panel.

The panel was kicked off by the City of Chicago’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Sandra Henry and moderated by USGBC LEED fellow, Jenny Carney, Vice President Sustainability, Energy & Climate Change at WSP as well as fellow panelists Patrick Boyle, Director of Corporate Sustainability, Sloan Valve Company; William Brady III, Director, Corporate Environmental Strategy, Exelon; Albert Zucco, Vice President of Sustainable Supply Chain, USG.

Panelists engaged in an informative conversation about sustainability leadership as a business priority. The conversation also touched on what these leaders saw as their company’s greatest environmental impact, challenges and opportunities – from their own, direct impacts to those of suppliers, franchisees, customers and other stakeholders. Jenny spoke about our commitment to building a better McDonald’s, including how we are using our Scale for Good to help address climate change for current and future generations. An interactive dialogue continued as Jenny discussed how this year, McDonald’s became the first restaurant company in the world to address global climate change by setting a Science Based Target to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to the panel, attendees experienced a tour of MHQ, highlighting sustainability features, as well as a small reception. It was a fantastic afternoon with the Illinois Green Alliance and be sure to check back here for an update on Greenbuild in just a few short weeks!