Climate Positive

Image of rolling hills in the countryside.

We aim to reach net zero emissions by 2040 across our entire business and value chain to help tackle climate change.

Working towards net zero

Our ambition is to achieve net zero emissions in the UK and Ireland from farms to restaurants, by 2040. This means making changes across our whole business and value chain – from the key ingredients we source for our menu, to how we build and operate our restaurants to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Our first milestone will be to reach net zero emissions in our own restaurants and offices by 2030. We’ll achieve this by reducing our emissions through how we build and power our restaurants, as well as how we reduce and recycle our waste.

Globally, the McDonald’s Corporation’s net zero targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). In the UK and Ireland we have established our 2018 baseline against our market targets and are starting to plan the roadmap that will guide our progress towards it. We have also formed a Net Zero Advisory Council with seven suppliers to work together on our biggest priorities, and created a blueprint for the construction of net zero standard restaurants.

Our commitment and goals

In 2021, as part of our Plan for Change, we set out our ambition for net zero emissions in the UK and Ireland.

2030 goal graphic with McDonald's restaurant icon.

By 2030 achieve net zero emissions for all our restaurants and offices

By 2040 achieve net zero emissions for our entire business and value chain

Investing in the future of farming

From giving the next generation of farmers a helping hand to researching soil health, our Farm Forward programme is investing in the future.

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Investing in beef sustainability

Find out how we are investing in research and sharing the findings with farmers as we work together to improve the sustainability of the beef we source, including reducing carbon emissions.

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Our blueprint for net zero restaurants

We opened our first restaurant built to the UKGBC net zero emissions standard in 2021 in Market Drayton. Since then, we’ve been rolling out our restaurant blueprint to our other new builds.

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Taking action on packaging and waste

We’re working on innovative packaging solutions, ensuring it’s made from sustainable materials and can be re-used, recycled or composted. See the changes we’ve already made and what else we’ll be unwrapping soon.

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Working in partnership

Collaboration and innovation are key to tackling system-wide emissions and scaling up innovative solutions such as regenerative agriculture practices, more sustainable packaging and low carbon buildings and waste systems.

We have continued to pilot innovative decarbonisation practices on farms and establish regenerative projects in our priority supply chains – including beef, potatoes and dairy – in partnership with our suppliers. This includes working with a group of beef farmers to share best practice on regenerative grazing, working with McCain through our Sustainable Fries Fund and with Arla through our Organic Dairy Network.

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Our progress so far

As McDonald's UK&I mature our data collection scope and accuracy, we will evolve our action plans to reduce emissions in the most impactful areas across our value chain. Due to our business growth, total emissions have continued to rise since our 2018 baseline, however we have decreased the intensity of our emissions by 26% in terms of tonnes of CO₂e emissions per tonne of product from 3.57 to 2.64 from 2018 to 2022.

Although less than 5% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our restaurants and offices in the UK and Ireland, we continue to make changes to our operations to reduce carbon as we work towards our Plan for Change commitment for net zero emissions in our restaurants and offices by 2030.

McDonald's UK have achieved a 16% reduction in emissions from energy in our restaurants and offices since 2018 and are phasing out the use of gas, trialling on-site renewables, and introducing more efficient air conditioning units. We already buy 100% renewable electricity for all sites that we own and operate.

Reporting on our progress

We are working with the global McDonald’s system to ensure our plans in the UK and Ireland (UK&I) are aligned with the global net zero emission reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2023.

These targets aim to help keep global temperature rises below 1.5°C, based on pre-industrial levels, and are based on the latest SBTi guidelines.

Find out more about the global McDonald's Climate Action targets.

While these are global targets, our supporting activity in the UK&I will enable us to significantly reduce our carbon footprint by 2030 as well as help us work towards our earlier UK&I net zero emissions target by 2040.

We report our UK energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) requirements in our annual Directors’ Report. In 2024, we will also publish our first disclosures against the UK Climate-related Financial Disclosures (CFD) regulations, within the same Report. This will outline the ways in which we are responding to climate change risk across governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets in the UK&I.

We continue to improve the quality of the data we gather from our supplier partners and business to better understand our priorities and help us focus on the right interventions together. We will continue to report progress on an annual basis.