Responsible Sourcing

We’re using our scale and influence to help positively impact our planet, animals and the people in our supply chain especially for our priority ingredients where we can have the greatest impact: beef, soy for chicken feed, fiber, palm oil, fish and coffee.

The road between a great McDonald’s menu item and a delighted customer is long and complex. Our global supply chain spans countries, continents and industries. We approach responsible sourcing holistically, understanding that our work impacts the livelihoods of people, the health of our shared planet and the well-being of animals. We believe we must respect them all.

Recent Progress

100% of the palm oil we sourced in 2021 was certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

100% of soy sourced in 2021 for the feed of chicken used in McDonald’s products supported deforestation-free supply chains globally.

98.7% of our ground and whole bean coffee was sustainably sourced in 2021.

Find out what we’re doing to protect ecosystems in our supply chain on the Nature, Forests & Water page. See Our Performance and Footnotes below for additional detail on these metrics and thresholds for achievement.

Why Responsible Sourcing Matters

We’re committed to creating transparent and trusted supply chains because it is key to meeting our brand value of doing the right thing and to our long-term ability to provide quality food to our customers.

For McDonald’s, we approach responsible sourcing holistically, considering our impact on the planet, the livelihoods of the people who produce our food, the communities in which they live and the well-being of the animals we rely on.

Our aim is to deliver responsible sourcing programs that drive lasting, meaningful outcomes on critical issues for people, animals, the environment and our business. With this in mind, we focus on the following Priority Impact Areas: promoting the health and welfare of animals; respecting human rights; addressing climate change; reducing food and packaging waste; protecting water resources; conserving forests; and farmer livelihoods.

Our Strategy

Using Our Global Scale Where We Can Have the Largest Impact

We believe that with global scale can come global impact. We are proud to have substantially achieved all of our 2020 responsible sourcing on each of our priority products – beef, soy for chicken feed, coffee, palm oil, fish and fiber. See our 2020‒2021 Purpose and Impact Summary to learn more about this milestone. With goals on animal health & welfare, climate and forests spanning through 2050, we plan to build on this success.

Building on Our Progress

Looking ahead, there is always the opportunity to achieve more. We believe that regenerative agriculture – the process of restoring and rebuilding ecosystems – can provide crucial solutions to help tackle climate, biodiversity and environmental challenges. It is an essential way to actively mitigate negative climate impacts while also amplifying and creating new environmental benefits. Regenerative agriculture can:

Build healthier and more productive soil that better sequesters carbon and is more drought and flood resilient.
Decrease the use of chemical inputs.
Improve water aeration and retention, and foster cleaner/safer runoff.
Enhance wildlife habitats and increase the biodiversity of flora and fauna.

Focus on Beef

As one of the world’s largest buyers of beef,¹ we have the opportunity to help drive positive change across global food systems, in partnership with many farmers, ranchers and producers. We continue to use our influence as a global business to help galvanize action and collaboration between suppliers, producers and others.

McDonald’s policies, standards and specifications for raw materials and finished products outline our expectations of our beef suppliers. These include strict requirements for food safety and animal health and welfare, as well as employee workplace accountability. Suppliers are audited annually by third parties and must be compliant to retain their ability to supply McDonald’s.

More Than a Decade of Collaborative Action

We’ve worked alongside a diverse, global network of suppliers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and scientists for over a decade. Through these efforts, we’ve collaborated with farmers and ranchers to support long-term livelihoods and resiliency, as well as embed beef farming methods that protect and maintain native landscapes, improve biodiversity and sequester carbon in soils.

As of the end of 2021, our top 10 beef sourcing markets represent over 80% of our global beef supply chain. Working with farmers, suppliers, industry groups, academia, civil society and the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB), we have helped establish multi-stakeholder roundtable groups in each of these markets, including: the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil, as well as the European Roundtable for Beef Sustainability (ERBS) involving Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland and the U.K.

We co-founded the GRSB in 2011. This brought together key players across the beef value chain to accelerate and continuously improve sustainability. Our leadership in the GRSB helped establish principles and criteria for sustainable beef farming, as well as key principles and criteria for natural resource management, respecting people and communities, animal welfare, food safety and quality, waste reduction and economic viability.

Reducing Emissions in Our Beef Supply Chain

Beef is one of the top three contributors to the overall carbon footprint of our supply chain. We’re prioritizing development of our Beef Climate Roadmap with input from our suppliers, NGOs, academics and other experts. Read more about our climate commitment on our Climate Action page.

Focus on Chicken

Enhancing Chicken Welfare

Our global commitments are to source chickens raised with improved welfare outcomes and, where possible, replacing antibiotics with long-term solutions to prevent diseases and protect animal welfare. Read more about our approach to responsibly sourced chicken on our Animal Health & Welfare page.

Supporting Sustainable Soy for Chicken Feed

One of the primary environmental impacts of raising chickens comes from the use of soy in their feed. In 2021, we continued to meet our previous goal to have 100% of the soy sourced for feed of chicken used in McDonald’s products support deforestation-free supply chains globally.²

We’ve been on a journey to enhance our chicken sourcing requirements – from launching our Eight Bold Moves for Broiler Welfare to supporting sustainable soy production designed to take pressure off tropical forests in the longer term. We know there’s more to do and we’re committed to improving the resiliency and the sustainability of our chicken supply chain.

Read more about our approach to responsibly sourced chicken on our Animal Health & Welfare page.

Focus on Coffee

We want customers to walk into any McDonald’s restaurant globally and enjoy an affordable, quality cup of coffee that is sustainably sourced,³ benefits farming communities and supports a deforestation-free supply chain.

In 2021, we sourced 98.7% of our ground and whole bean coffee from sustainable and certified suppliers.

We purchase coffee that is certified to international sustainability standards through organizations such as Rainforest Alliance, UTZ, Fairtrade International and Fair Trade USA. We also source from suppliers approved by the McCafé Sustainability Improvement Platform (McCafé SIP), which was established by McDonald’s in partnership with Conservation International and our coffee roasters. To meet our deforestation-free commitment, coffee sourced in high-risk countries for deforestation must be Rainforest Alliance certified.

How McCafé SIP Works

We established our McCafé SIP in partnership with Conservation International and our coffee suppliers and farmers. Through the platform, we engage and guide our coffee supply chain, and invest in coffee growers, their communities and long-term sustainable practices. McCafé SIP is currently active in five countries across South and Central America and reached over 6,000 farms in 2020.

McCafé SIP fosters:

Transparency: Allowing us to understand who grows our coffee and identifying all farms and farmers participating in a SIP-approved program.
Producer collaboration: By determining the specific needs of farming communities and collaborating with them and local partners to provide relevant training and tools.
Measured performance: Tracking progress against globally recognized minimum requirements and continuous improvement indicators for sustainable coffee production.
Consumer confidence: Our Advisory Council provides input on the strategic direction of McCafé SIP, with members including Conservation International, the Rainforest Alliance, the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA), the Sustainable Food Lab, Fair Trade USA and Solidaridad. The Council introduced a set of minimum requirements focused on social and environmental impacts – including human rights, health and safety, and deforestation – that all farms must meet. In partnership with COSA, we also expanded performance metrics that measure progress toward social, environmental and economic standards. Analyzing these metrics, our roasters can better target investments that support income diversification, food security and the resilience of farming communities.

Focus on Palm Oil

We believe that palm oil can and must be sustainable. We are committed to responsibly sourcing palm oil and increasing its traceability within our System.

In 2011, we joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and remain committed as members to reporting our progress each year through the RSPO’s Annual Communication of Progress (ACOP).

Palm oil is a valuable global commodity and supports the livelihoods of millions of farmer-families and their communities. When not responsibly managed, it can contribute to deforestation, biodiversity loss and community displacement. For this reason, palm oil produced for McDonald’s⁴ must be certified by the RSPO, which sets out strict criteria to minimize negative impacts to the environment and to communities in palm oil producing regions.

In 2021, 100% of our palm oil globally was certified by the RSPO.

Focus on Fish

McDonald’s is among the largest purchasers of white fish⁵ in the world, and has played an important role in improving the sustainability of the global whitefish sector by implementing independently verified criteria for healthy fish stocks, impact on ecosystems, fisheries’ management and other key actions. We support global efforts to restore depleted fish stocks and conserve marine environments.

Our goal is that all the wild-caught fish sourced for use in McDonald’s products comes from verified sustainable sources.

We continue to work with partners and independent experts, such as the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), to identify ways to improve the health of marine ecosystems and promote respect for human rights for the people working across our fish supply chain.

In 2021, 96.3% of wild-caught fish sourced for use in McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish® products came from verified sustainable fisheries. See Our Performance section for more information.

Focus on Fiber

Fiber is the main material used for our product packaging. To conserve forests and accelerate climate action, we must ensure we source fiber from recycled or certified sources and support deforestation-free supply chains.

We set a goal to source all primary fiber-based packaging for McDonald’s restaurants from recycled or certified sources, and support deforestation-free supply chains by the end of 2020.⁶ In 2021, we continued to achieve 97.6% of guest packaging fiber being sourced from recycled or certified sources, and 97.1% of fiber-based primary guest packaging sourced supporting deforestation-free supply chains.

This target supports our larger goal of ensuring that, by the end of 2025, all of McDonald’s guest packaging will come from renewable, recycled or certified sources.

McDonald’s requires that our primary fiber supply is obtained from Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®) certified or FSC controlled wood sources, with full chain of custody certification when the country of fiber origin includes Argentina, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Russia⁷ or Vietnam.

By switching to more sustainable packaging materials, we’re actively addressing deforestation risk, conserving forests and ensuring valuable resources are reused by creating new markets for recycled materials.

Goal 12

Responsible consumption and production

(specifically target 12.2).

Our Performance

Following the substantial achievement of our 2020 Responsible Sourcing Goals, we continue to work with our suppliers on what is outlined in those commitments, evaluating ongoing progress. Below is our 2021 data on efforts:

In 2021, 96.3% of the fish sourced for McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish^® came from sustainably managed wild-caught fisheries, assessed and verified annually against the McDonald’s Sustainability Fisheries Standard by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.
100% of the palm oil used in McDonald’s restaurants and as an ingredient in McDonald’s products supported the production of sustainable palm oil in 2021.
100% of soy sourced for the feed of chicken used in McDonald’s products supported deforestation-free supply chains globally in 2021.
98.7% of our ground and whole bean coffee was sustainably sourced in 2021.
97.6% of our primary fiber-based guest packaging was sourced from recycled or certified sources in 2021. In 2021, the primary fiber-based packaging scope was expanded to include wood stirrers and cutlery as well as paper straws and lids, contributing to a slight decrease in our percentage compliance.

See Animal Health & Welfare, Climate Action and Nature, Forests & Water pages for progress on other goals related to how we source our raw materials.

Learn about our 2020 responsible sourcing achievements in our video:

Our Actions

Recognizing Flagship Farmers

We are committed to helping farmers leverage the power of peer influence to elevate, inspire and share beef sustainability best practices with one another. Our Flagship Farmers Program helps to recognize producers who are leading the industry with pioneering sustainability practices.

We’re proud to have identified and recognized Flagship Farmers across our beef sourcing regions.⁸ Through the program, we encourage peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing that showcases farmers leading sustainability efforts and encourages wider adoption of these practices.

The program offers an online resource for producers worldwide that celebrates innovative solutions around issues such as soil health, sustainable grazing techniques, animal welfare, biodiversity, ecosystem protection and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Watch the video to meet some of our Flagship beef farmers and see the work they do.

Latest Insights From Regenerative Farming

The positive environmental impacts of regenerative agricultural practices, such as improving biodiversity and capturing carbon, are demonstrable. We’re working on a number of activities in this area, including those detailed below.

Launching a regenerative agriculture program in France: In early 2022, McDonald’s France introduced a new regenerative agriculture program. The aim is to transform working practices, and to plant 230,000 trees and 150 km of hedges on French farms by 2030. Working with partner specialists, including the Earthworm Foundation and French organizations Agroof and Icosysteme, the project will measure the full impact of these changes in farming practices, particularly in terms of biodiversity and carbon reduction and capture. The pilot project involves 60 farms, co-operatives and suppliers, and will last at least three years, with insights to be replicated on other farms in the future.
Becoming a founding member of AgMission^TM: With industry peers, we founded the global collaboration to reduce GHG emissions in agriculture.
Improving grazing techniques in the U.S.: We have committed to matching up to $4.5 million for a research project with The ASU Foundation for A New American University. The research is analyzing the impact of adaptive multi-paddock grazing practices, which mimic the natural grazing patterns of wild ruminants, compared to continuously grazing across 10 ranches in the southeastern U.S. This is helping us to identify what benefits the technique can have on the environment and farming communities, including its ability to sequester more carbon in the land.
Regenerative grazing in the U.K.: In Oxford, we’re working with FAI Farms on moving toward a regenerative grazing system. Focusing on activity in the soil below the ground, cattle are a vital part of the ecosystem on the farm, contributing to soil biology with the trampling of grass and addition of dung to feed microbes to create more and better soil. Our most recent project in February 2021 aimed to better understand the benefits of farming regeneratively using adaptive multi-paddock grazing for beef cattle. The impact of this research has been recognized by Compassion in World Farming, who have awarded us with their 2021 Sustainable Food and Farming Award.
Investing in soil and biodiversity in Nebraska, the U.S.: In collaboration with Cargill, The Nature Conservancy and Target, we’re supporting regenerative agricultural practices that help mitigate climate change and improve the resiliency of land while achieving other important environmental benefits for habitats and local water quality. This five-year project is expected to impact 100,000 acres of land dedicated to corn production, through a joint $8.5 million investment, and has the potential to sequester 150,000 metric tons of carbon – equivalent to removing over 32,000 cars from the road in one year.
Supporting the ranching community in the Northern Great Plains, the U.S.: McDonald’s is proud to be partnering with Cargill, the Walmart Foundation and World Wildlife Fund in a five-year project to support ranchers implementing regenerative grazing practices. McDonald’s plans to invest a total of $1.6 million over the course of the project. To date, in partnership with the Ranch Systems and Viability Planning (RSVP) network, we have rolled out the new grazing practices across 534, 243 acres of the Northern Great Plains. The RSVP network provides ranchers with technical expertise, training and tools, including peer-to-peer learning, to implement regenerative cattle grazing. By improving these practices, we can enhance soil health and its ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere, ultimately reducing emissions, improving biodiversity and mitigating climate change. These practices can also help ranches be more resilient and economically viable for the long term. By providing training and building rancher networks to support ongoing implementation and improvements, the project is expected to reach over 1 million acres.

Developing Programs to Measure and Scale Sustainability

In addition to our regenerative grazing programs, we are partnering with farmers, ranchers and other experts to develop new approaches to beef production and help scale them up – from an online environmental footprint calculator used by farmers in France to an animal welfare and sustainability program that has reached 3,600 farms in Germany. These efforts were a key part of our 2020 goals to accelerate industry progress and share knowledge and tools in our top beef sourcing countries.

Improving industry standards in Poland: For over 15 years, McDonald’s Poland and beef producer OSI Food Solutions have collaborated to ensure Polish beef is safe, traceable and farmed to good standards of animal welfare. To strengthen this effort, we work with the Polish Beef Sustainability Platform and the European Roundtable for Beef Sustainability (ERBS). Together, we help the Polish beef industry address the ERBS targets through a new sustainability platform called Cultivate.
Incentivizing sustainability in Germany: At McDonald’s Germany, we’ve helped to develop the BEST Beef program. Since 2010, this has engaged the entire supply chain, including 3,600 farms, to take important steps toward more sustainable beef production. The program continues to evolve, including a revised focus on improving animal health through preventative care that reduces the need for antibiotics, expanding the life span of cows, reducing CO₂ emissions and ensuring animal-friendly husbandry practices – for example, by promoting modern loose housing and pasture grazing.
An industry first for Canada: In July 2018, McDonald’s Canada became the first company in the country to serve Canadian beef from certified sustainable farms and ranches, by sourcing at least 30% of the beef for its Angus burgers from certified sustainable sources, according to the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) standards. In September 2020, McDonald’s Canada continued its beef sustainability journey with Quarter Pounder® patties. At least 30% of the beef used in McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers is from certified sustainable sources, according to CRSB standards.The CRSB consists of a diverse group of stakeholders, including NGOs like the World Wildlife Fund U.S. and Nature Conservancy Canada. This achievement was made possible through the completion of McDonald’s Canada’s beef sustainability pilot project and paved the way for the development of robust sustainability standards by the CRSB that aligned with the Principles and Criteria for beef sustainability established by the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef in 2016. The CRSB’s third-party-audited assurance system is a locally relevant, outcomes-based initiative that recognizes sustainable practices in all parts of the supply chain, including ranchers, feedlot operators and packers. As a result, McDonald’s Canada has been able to purchase a portion of its beef for its Quarter Pounder burgers from a fully verified sustainable supply chain.
Restoring Canadian grasslands: We are also partnering with Ducks Unlimited Canada and Cargill to conserve Canadian grasslands, with the goal of returning 125,000 acres of cropland to grass and pasture by 2025.
Reducing GHG emissions in France: We helped to establish project CAP’2ER, an environmental footprint calculator that evaluates the environmental impacts within beef farming, helping to identify where farmers can work to reduce their GHG emissions. To date, more than 20,000 assessments have been carried out, and we have verified that 129,000 hectares of land is being managed to support biodiversity by French beef farmers who we source from.
Beef sustainability in Ireland: The Irish Food Board, Bord Bia, developed its Origin Green program, with the goal of sustainable food production on a national scale. As a fellow board member of the ERBS, McDonald’s works in partnership with Bord Bia, including sourcing all our Irish beef from members of the Origin Green program. The Bord Bia Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme is a key part of the Origin Green program, covering 34,000 farms and recognized by the ERBS.

Footnotes

¹ Beef. Scope: Includes all beef raw material used in beef patties sourced for McDonald’s products from beef patty manufacturers that supply McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Germany, Ireland, France, New Zealand, Canada, the U.K. or Poland. Includes all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees in these countries, which collectively represent over 80% of our global beef volumes, as of the end of 2021. The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) aims to define the principles of and criteria for beef sustainability globally. The five core principles are focused on the following: managing natural resources responsibly; respecting people and communities; caring for the welfare of animals; ensuring the safety and quality of beef; and driving efficiency and innovation to reduce waste and improve economic viability. These principles allow for national and regional interpretation, given the significant variation in production systems, legal frameworks, sociopolitical factors and climates that exist across the globe. Exclusions: Beef used as secondary ingredients in McDonald’s products, for example, as flavoring in a sauce.

² Soy (for chicken feed). Scope: Includes all soybean volume used in the feed of chicken sourced for McDonald’s products by all chicken suppliers to the McDonald’s System and all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees that sell chicken. Europe refers to Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Herzegovina, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and Ukraine. Given the complexity of soy supply chains, we consider that, unless demonstrated, all of McDonald’s sources of soy for chicken feed fall into high-deforestation priority regions, with the exception of chicken sourced in North America, where soy used in chicken feed is locally produced and considered low risk. Exclusions: Soy used as an ingredient in McDonald’s products sold in restaurants, for example, soy oil.

³ Coffee. Scope: Includes all ground and whole bean coffee, including decaffeinated coffee, used in espresso-based drinks and coffee brewed at McDonald’s restaurants, and all ground and whole bean coffee in McDonald’s branded retail products. Includes all suppliers of coffee to the McDonald’s System. Market scope includes all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees that sell coffee, and retail outlets selling McDonald’s branded coffee products. Sustainably sourced refers to coffee, sourced by suppliers to the McDonald’s System, which complies with the requirements set out by one of the following third-party certification schemes as being either: Rainforest Alliance Certified (www.ra.org); UTZ Certified (www.utz.org); Fair Trade USA Certified (www.fairtradecertified.org); Fair Trade International Certified (www.fairtrade.net), or sourced from an approved McCafé Sustainability Improvement Platform (SIP) program. McDonald’s requires all coffee sourced from Honduras, Indonesia and Vietnam to be Rainforest Alliance Certified. Exclusions: Coffee extracts and ingredients used in products such as frappés and coffee in baked goods; coffee in cold brew drinks if they are brewed off-site; coffee extract in ready-to-drink retail products; and other locally sourced products containing coffee.

⁴ Palm oil. Scope: Includes all palm oil (including crude palm oil, palm kernel oil, derivatives and fractions) sourced for McDonald’s restaurants for use as restaurant cooking oil, and all palm oil sourced by McDonald’s suppliers and used directly as an ingredient in a McDonald’s product and listed on the product’s ingredient statement. Includes all suppliers of products containing palm oil in the McDonald’s System and all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees that use palm oil. All palm oil volumes are required to be covered by Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification or credits. All RSPO supply chain models applicable to RSPO are applicable to McDonald’s: RSPO Identity Preserved (IP), RSPO Segregated (SG), RSPO Mass Balance (MB) and Book and Claim (BC), although McDonald’s is committed to increasing traceability by specifying physical certification for the palm oil used in the McDonald’s System in the greatest volumes (IP, SG or MB). Exclusions: Palm oil, palm kernel oil or their derivative used as secondary ingredients in McDonald’s products. This is when palm oil is used as an ingredient within an ingredient, for example, as an emulsifier.

⁵ Fish: Fish refers to any type of fish species used as an ingredient in a McDonald’s product and listed on the product’s ingredient statement. Wild-Caught Fish refers to fish that come from seas, rivers and other natural bodies of water. Filet-O-Fish refers to the McDonald’s menu item containing wild-caught fish. Verified sustainable sources refers to wild-caught fish, sourced by suppliers to the McDonald’s System, from Fisheries that are annually verified as compliant to the McDonald’s Sustainable Fisheries Standard by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnerships. MSC Certification is optional to McDonald’s markets. Fisheries may also be independently certified as meeting the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing where a certificate of conformity to an MSC Standard has been granted. Source: www.msc.org. McDonald’s may display the MSC certification logo in some of its markets, where fisheries and restaurants are certified against the MSC Chain of Custody traceability standard. Scope: Includes all wild-caught fish sourced for Filet-O-Fish portions served in McDonald’s restaurants. Filet-O-Fish represents over 98% of the total fish volumes used in the McDonald’s System (by weight). Includes all suppliers of wild-caught fish for Filet-O-Fish to the McDonald’s System and all McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by the Company and its Franchisees that sell fish. Exclusions: Products that are not Filet-O-Fish containing wild-caught or farmed fish. We estimate that these products represent less than 2% of the total fish sourced by McDonald’s by weight and may include products such as tuna, prawns, shrimp, salmon and calamari; other breaded products; and locally sourced products. The Company has set an expectation that these products are sustainably sourced, although they are not included in this global performance measure given the local, and often promotional, nature of these items.

⁶ Fiber. Scope: Primary fiber-based packaging refers to products that are used to package guest food on premises at McDonald’s restaurants. This type of packaging includes containers, cups, wraps, bags for food, beverages, napkins, folding cartons, clamshells, wraps, food service bags, napkins, salad bowls, Happy Meal cartons, drink carriers and cup carriers. In 2021, the primary fiber-based packaging scope was expanded to include wood stirrers and cutlery as well as paper straws and lids. For our 2025 packaging commitment and for our 2030 deforestation-free supply chains commitment, the scope of fiber also includes Happy Meal fiber-based toy packaging. Certified sources refer to suppliers of primary fiber-based packaging to the McDonald’s System that comply with the forest management and chain-of-custody certification requirements set out by one of the following third-party schemes: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC); Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC^TM) or PEFC endorsed national systems including, for example, Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®), CSA Group (Canada) and Cerflor (Brazil). McDonald’s requires all wood fiber sourced from Argentina, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Russia and Vietnam to be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified or from an FSC-controlled wood source with full chain-of-custody certification. Recycled sources refer to material that has been reprocessed from recovered (reclaimed) material by means of a manufacturing process and made into a final product or into a component for incorporation into a product. Recycled material applies to plastics and fiber. Fiber-based packaging made from 100% recycled sources must be third-party verified, unless certified under a chain-of-custody forest management standard. Source: ISO 14021:2016. Renewable sources refer to material that is composed of biomass from a living source and that can be continually replenished. Renewable applies to plastics only, not fiber. Source: ISO 14021:2016, for plastic, ASTM 6866 or ISO 16620-2. Third-party verification means that an independent accredited organization has reviewed the manufacturing process of a product and has determined that the final product complies with standards for the attributed claim. Credible third parties include professional auditing and certification bodies. Exclusions: Primary fiber-based packaging in food packaged off-site McDonald’s Restaurants; tray liners and limited locally sourced items.

⁷ Russia is included for the purposes of performance reporting to the end of December 2021.

⁸ Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S., Brazil, the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany and Poland.

⁹ 2020 Responsible Sourcing Goals Progress Key: 100% was defined as ‘Achieved’; 95% to 99.9% was defined as “Substantially Achieved”; 94.9% and below was defined as ‘Not Yet Achieved’.