PROJECT MCSUSTAINABLE How to Mainstream Sustainable Diets Through McDonald’s Group: Ivory Kealani Pan McClintock, Daniel Salter, Cianna Carrillo Walker Tutor: Kepa Solaun Table of Contents Section 1: Background and Introduction 1 1.1 Current Situation and problem analysis (DS) .........................1 1.1a The impact of our global diet on the environment .........................1 1.1b Our global diet and socio-economic food security impacts (CW) ........4 1.2 Project Parameters (IM) ..................................................5 1.2a Scope ..................................................................................5 1.2b Objective (DS) .......................................................................6 1.3 Justification (DS) ...........................................................7 1.3a Why a sustainable diet? ...........................................................7 1.3b Why McDonalds? ....................................................................7 Section 2: What is a sustainable diet 7 2.1 A Sustainable Diet ..........................................................8 2.1a Environmental differences (DS) .................................................8 2.1b Socio-Economic and food security differences (CW) ........................9 2.1c Cultural differences (IM) ..........................................................9 2.2 Universal Evaluation? (DS) ..............................................13 2.3 The Multi-Dimensional Sustainable Diet Index (CW) ..............13 2.3a Index Criteria 1: Protective and Respective of Biodiversity and Eco- system (DS) ................................................................................15 2.3b Index Criteria 2: Culturally Relevant (IM) ...................................15 2.3c Index Criteria 3: Access and Availability (CW) .............................15 2.3d Index Criteria 4: Healthy (CW, DS) ............................................15 Section 3: What is McDonalds ? 16 3.1a What is the McDonalds model? (DS) ...........................................16 3.1b Strategic Approach (CW) ........................................................17 3.1c Current position and strategy: The Road to Sustainability (CW) ......17 3.1d McDonald’s - SWOT analysis (IM) ..............................................18 3.1e McDonalds- PESTEL analysis ...................................................22 3.2 What does McDonald’s represent in terms of environmental im- pacts? (DS) ......................................................................25 3.2a Environmental Impact from McDonald’s Perspective .....................25 3.2b Environmental Impact from a Life Cycle Analysis Perspective (DS) ...26 3.3 What does McDonald’s represent in terms of nutrition, access, and food security impacts? (CW) ...........................................29 3.3a Nutrition ............................................................................29 3.3b Relation to global food security: Availability and Access? ..............30 3.4 Cultural Impacts: Influential or Adaptable? (IM) ...................31 3.4a Marketing Culture ................................................................32 3.4b Standardization and Flexibility!.................................................................33 3.4c Consumer value!.........................................................................................35 Section 4: Concept Compatibility, McDonalds and Sustainable Diets? 36 4.1 Evaluation of McDonalds against the MD-SDI .......................36 4.1a Evaluation against Index Criteria 1 : Protective and Respective of Biodiversity and Ecosystems (PRBE) (DS) ..........................................36 4.1b Evaluation against Index Criteria 2 : Culturally Relevant (IM)!...............38 4.1c Evaluation against Index Criteria 3: Access and Availability (CW)!.......41 4.2d Evaluation against Index Criteria 4 : Healthy (DS/CW)!..........................42 4.2e Final Performance of the McDonald’s on the MD-SDI ......................45 4.2 Why Compatible? (Strengths for Sustainable Food Future) ......46 4.2a Reason 1 - The Ability to Adapt for Access and Availability (CW) .....46 4.2b Reason 2 - The Ability to Influence Systemic Change (DS)!...................46 4.2c Reason 3 - The Ability to Sell Sustainability (IM)!....................................47 4.4 Making the Business Case for McDonald’s (DS) .....................49 Section 5 - Recommendations 50 5.1 Recommendation 1 - Find the Electric Car of Fast-Food (DS) ...50 5.1a Why ..................................................................................50 5.1b How!.............................................................................................................51 5.2 Recommendation 2 - Nutrition at the forefront (CW) ............54 5.2a Why ..................................................................................54 5.2b How ..................................................................................54 5.3 Recommendation 3 - McLocal (IM) ....................................56 5.3a Why ..................................................................................56 5.3b How ..................................................................................57 5.4 Conclusion - We say, “YES!” to McSustainable (IM) ...............59 5.5 Recommendations for further developing the MD-SDI (DS) ......59 Bibliography 62 Section 1: Background and Introduction 1.1 Current Situation and problem analysis (DS) Whatever consumption patterns were sustainable on a planet of 6 billion people, will no longer be sus- tainable on a planet of 9 billion. Arguably one of the biggest issues currently facing humanity, is how to sustainably feed 9 billion people in 2050 without destroying the planet. But why is our current global diet and food system unsustainable? And what exactly does a sustainable diet look like? For example, the UN FAO has reported that raising animals for food contributes more to climate change than all transportation combined1. Due to its impact on climate, land, and water resources, the urgent need to manage the consumption of meat in our diet has been widely cited2. Despite this urgent need, global meat consumption is predicted to keep growing in the coming decades3. Undoubtedly, we need innova- tive strategies to address the predicted trends of environmental depletion resulting from our global diet. Not only does a future food system need to address environmental sustainability but it will also need to sustain human health. Currently, the global food system is suffering from the ‘double burden’ of nutri- tion, with 2 billion people ’undernourished’ and 1.5 billion ‘over-nourished’4. Sustainable diets will therefore require both security of supply and accessibility to quality, nutritious products that are good for our health. In many developed countries, the food system is increasingly being dominated by cheap, processed food. Similarly, this trend is also now being witnessed in several of the developing countri- es5. There is a great need to address these socio-economic trends and instead promote the develop- ment of more sustainable diets and food systems. 1.1a The impact of our global diet on the environment One of the main forces behind many of the 21st century's environmental challenges is the impact of our global food and agriculture system. Population growth and increased patterns of consumption have transformed food production around the world into highly industrialized, large-scale operations. As a result of these operations, food systems are having an extensive range of negative environmental im- pacts on our land, water, and atmospheric resources. Therefore, in order to set the context for the later parts of the report, the following will discuss some of the main impacts our global diet is having on the environment. In addition, given the purpose of this report, the below will also highlight some key impacts specific to livestock production and the consumption of animal-sourced foods. Our global diet and land impact The main impact of our global diet stems from the clearing of natural habitats for agriculture purposes. Around 50% of the world's habitable land has already been cleared in order to produce food. Overall, farmland now covers 38% of the world's land area6. The challenge, however, is that fertile land is being exhausted and we are continuing to clear natural habitats in order to meet rising consumption pat- terns. Recent examples include the conversion of rainforest in Indonesia to palm oil plantations, and large areas of the Amazon rainforest for soybean production and cattle grazing. In addition, because of unsustainable food production, 12 million hectares of land are being lost each year to desertification7. Livestock production is specifically the biggest anthropogenic user of land and the expansion of live- stock production is a key factor of deforestation either for grazing pastures or to grow feed for live- stock8. 1 Our global diet and water waste Another critical impact of our global diet is water waste in our food system. Agriculture uses approxi- mately 70% of our planet's available freshwater9 – when we compare this figure to other sectors such as Industry use (23%),and Household use (8%) we can see that the future of our planet's freshwater re- sources will be won or lost as a result of how we produce our food and our consumption habits. Cur- rently, it is estimated that 15–35% of water used by agriculture is unsustainable10. In other words, this means that