McDonald’s Tests Green Restaurants

McDonald’s Corp. (Oak Brook, Ill.) is using 10 prototype green restaurants as “learning laboratories,” says McDonald’s vp, corporate social responsibility Bob Langert. 

One green restaurant in Chicago consumes 25 percent less energy than similar locations. A location in Cary, N.C., incorporates LED lighting and low-flow toilets, uses eco-friendly materials such as counters made of recycled glass and concrete, and provides electric car charging stations. The location hopes to achieve LEED gold certification from the USGBC.

In May, McDonald’s began an effort to show consumers its “greener” side with a new institutional marketing effort, “Global Best of Green.” Langert told DailyFinance that energy savings and waste reduction are central to McDonald’s corporate social responsibility strategy.